The Overlord Saga
Vol I. Past, Present, Future
Chapter 12: Mount Overlord
“So this is Mount Overlord,” the Soul-Keeper whistled, looking up at the looming volcano. He poked the slope leading up to the volcano with his staff, then whistled again, adding, “Looks like it’ll be a long climb.”
The Overlord looked over the volcano disdainfully, arms folded and hip out to one side in the classic pissed-off woman stance. “This is pathetic,” she announced. Another glance at the volcano and the Overlord felt her stomach churn. ‘This is an incredibly ordinary sleeping volcano,’ she thought sourly, ‘No spitting fire, swirling lava, or anything to grant it a ‘Mount Overlord’. It’s an insult.’ She looked at the Soul-Keeper, and added, “This is an insulting blow. I can’t believe they named this hunk of bullcrap Mount Overlord. It’s not deserving of its title.”
“It’s bigger than the other peaks around this place,” the Advisor pointed out.
“Just shut up and accept it. The impostor probably did it to tick you off,” Jamie suggested.
“I suppose... Damn impostor. Making me freeze my ass out here,” the Overlord scowled and began up the mountain, using the end of her scythe to steady herself. The Soul-Keeper moved closer to Sexist, who was still at the back of the group.
“What’s her deal?” Sexist whispered to the Soul-Keeper.
“You see, it’s the end of the month...” the Soul-Keeper began, “And that’s a particularly grim week for the underlings...”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that it’s a special time."
“And?”
“It’s one of those monthly wonders...”
“And?”
“Do I have to spell it out for you?”
“... What?”
“She’s on her period!”
“OH!”
The Overlord looked back at the two, green eyes narrowed, “What are you two gossiping about back there?” She demanded. For a second, Sexist sworn he saw one of her veins in her neck pulse angrily and her left eye twitch. He innocently shrank back, away from the angered Overlord.
“N-nothing,” the Soul-Keeper and Sexist said simultaneously.
“Good!” the Overlord said, quite cheery sounding. Sexist and the Soul-Keeper exchanged looks and continued up the volcano.
It took a few hours and a stop for lunch before the travelers reached the top of the volcano. Twice the Overlord had to grab onto the Advisor to keep her from falling down to her death. The Overlord was naturally light on her feet, as expected from someone of ninja skills. Jamie took up complaining about the cold, constantly grabbing onto the Overlord’s cape whenever she began to fall. Though the Overlord would protest, Jamie would point out that her life was more important than a cape- to which, the Overlord disagreed.
As they pulled themselves onto a slope near the mouth of a large cave, it became increasingly apparent to the Overlord how deserted Antarctica was. She couldn’t see a thing for miles- just rolling hills of snow. “There’s nothing here,” the Soul-Keeper panted from where he was laying on his back, his legs positioned awkwardly out to the side.
“This impostor sucks. I want a better one,” the Overlord proclaimed loudly, slamming her scythe into a mound of snow. “This is a disgrace to my NAME. MY NAME!”
“Whatever you say, Overlord...” Jamie adjusted her sunglasses, then frowned, “Hm, looks like there’s stairs up ahead. Where do you think it leads?”
“Where it always leads...” the Soul-Keeper said mysteriously with a dramatic wave of his hand. “Up, up, up the stairs, through an archway, a tunnel, something big and flashy-” A distant ‘that’s what she said’ could be heard, but the Soul-Keeper continued despite this, “And into the lair of the impostor! He’ll have minions and dragons, goblins and zombies!”
“Zombies? Oh hell, I forgot that damn new captain,” the Overlord facepalmed.
“LANGUAGE!” the Advisor shrieked.
“There’s not even anyone here. It looks abandoned. Waaaay tooooo goooo, Jamie,” the Overlord scowled.
Sexist stood up from where he had been sitting next to the Soul-Keeper. He took a small, uncertain step toward the stairs leading into the mouth of the volcano. “These stairs are pretty convenient for it being abandoned,” Sexist said with a smug glance at the Overlord.
“Your point?” the Overlord shot back.
“There’s something here,” Sexist replied.
The Overlord sighed and began up the stairs, pushing past Underling Sexist moodily. As she did so, she began issuing orders, “Advisor, machine gun at the ready. Blow the sucker’s brains out if he tries anything cheap. I’d rather not involve myself in a poorly initiated ambush.”
“Got it,” the Advisor put in a few rounds in her machine gun. Sexist inched away from her, very much aware of how bloody this battle could get. The Soul-Keeper drew his staff out, holding it in both hands. The Overlord had her scythe out in her right hand, her left hand out to make sure no one stepped in front of her. She climbed the stairs first, looking frantically up approximately three yards where there was the opening of a cave.
As they reached the top of the stairs, the Overlord stopped to look down at the dizzying ground. She grabbed onto the side of the cave mouth with her hand, then forced herself to look away. ‘Oh God, we’re so far up...’ she thought, stomach churning. The Overlord stepped inside of the cave, pushed a little roughly by the Advisor, who wanted to go back to the fortress as quickly as possible. She slid a hand along the wall of the cave, feeling the crags and bumps and praying that she wouldn’t accidentally touch a spider or some other nasty creature that lived in the cave. A few yards later and there was an opening, leading into the heart of the dormant volcano.
The Overlord stepped onto a ledge inside of the mountain, glancing down and whistling at a convenient, ominous looking swirling pit of lava. “Just like in the movies,” She commented dryly, then stepped aside to let the others onto the ledge with her.
“That’s great... Can we go now?” the Advisor asked.
“Ooh...” the Soul-Keeper leaned precariously over the edge of the ledge and stared at the lava hundreds of feet below. The Overlord pulled him back immediately and she shook her head sternly at him. He responded with a sigh, then gestured with his staff around the rim of the volcano, “There’s a giant walkway... All around the pit of lava.”
The Overlord glanced to her left and right, for the first time noticing how there was approximately a four-foot wide walkway that went around the entire interior. “That’s great. Well, it still looks like no one’s here.” She gave a pointed glare to Sexist, who frowned and inched away from the edge as best as he could. The Overlord sighed and turned to go, “Wasted an entire day of vacation on this.”
“This almost looks like a place where a boss fight could be. Like... in a video game!” the Soul-Keeper exclaimed.
The Overlord began to ignore him, but the sound of something arising from the lava made her cringe visibly. Turning around slowly, she saw the levitating thing, her eyes stretching wide and her jaw dropping. The thing floated with four odd tentacles, its body resembling that of a man dressed in all black. His sunglasses reflected off the light from the lava pit swirling beneath him.
“When he starts speaking... Split. One group left, one group right,” the Overlord warned.
“DOCTOR OCTAGONAPUS!” the floating man screamed, mouth opening wider. As he did this, the Overlord ran right with the Advisor and Jamie. The Soul-Keeper and Sexist went left, running as the levitating man continued his attack. “BLAAARGHHHH!”
A huge beam of pure energy came shooting out of the levitating man’s mouth, consuming a large portion of the ledge. The Soul-Keeper leapt nimbly out of the way, shooting a bolt of lightning at the enemy.
“Was that-” the Advisor gasped.
“The shoop da whoop,” the Overlord replied, watching as a huge chunk of the ledge was disintegrated. “The most epic laser attack ever invented. Pure energy. Instant death. A viral hit on Youtube. He screams his own name before he attacks.” She looked at the Advisor and at Jamie, then shrugged, “I guess we found our boss battle.”
“Are you joking? There’s no way we’ll win!” Jamie exclaimed.
“Since when did you care about the odds?” the Overlord replied.
“Ehhhh, you’re right,” Jamie shrugged.
“Kill him!” the Overlord exclaimed, “Kill Dr. Octagonapus!”
Dr. Octagonapus flailed his tentacles and began circling the fiery arena, glaring at his opponents from behind his sunglasses. The Overlord shot a flare at Dr. Octagonapus, then ducked as the Advisor began firing at him with her machine gun. Jamie pulled out a throwing dagger seemingly from nowhere (you know... where she usually keeps her throwing knives) and tossed one at the levitating octopus......man... thing. It hit with such an epic force that he hit the wall. Sexist pounced on him immediately (by immediately, I mean, after the initial shock of an insane octopus man thing landing in front of you), beating his tentacles with his flails. The Soul-Keeper began foolishly hitting the octopus man thing with his staff, screaming all the while.
While screaming in agony, Dr. Octagonapus smacked the Soul-Keeper in the face with one of his tentacles, causing the Soul-Keeper to lose his balance. As he fell, his hand shot out to grab the ledge and prevent himself from plummeting into the lava. Dangling with his feet swinging back and forth, he watched with wide eyes as his staff almost fell over the edge. “Sexist! SEXIST, HELP!” He screamed.
Sexist hit Dr. Octagonapus in the chest with his flail, then kicked him over the edge. He bent down to grab the Soul-Keeper, but hesitated, seeing his moment of freedom. In the back of his mind, he thought of how he could let the Soul-Keeper fall as he ran down the mountainside... Down... Into the arctic wasteland where he would probably die, but wouldn’t he die a free man? He thought about this, and the idea of freezing to death as a free person... and ultimately chose to pull the Soul-Keeper up. To this day, the Overlord is not sure why Sexist did this, though, she did later assume it was due to Sexist’s kind nature and overwhelming sense of duty.... Psh, yeah right.
As the now wounded and angered Dr. Octagonapus rose once more, the Advisor began firing again. Jamie took another throwing knife and hit him in the chest. “Shouldn’t he be dead already?!” the Soul-Keeper yelled from across the arena.
“DOCTOR OCTAGONAPUS! BLAAARG!” the levitating octopus man thing began.
Everyone began moving instantaneously as the beam exploded from his mouth. The Overlord gathered up her energy and launched herself from the ledge, aiming to barrel into Dr. Octagonapus. She slammed into him from behind, using her scythe to cut a tentacle off. She bounced off of him, pushing him onto the path and landing a few feet away. The Soul-Keeper summoned a lightning bolt from the gray clouds and struck the octopus man thing straight in the head.
“Finish him!” the Overlord yelled.
The Advisor began firing more bullets into Dr. Octagonapus, which was quickly followed by Jamie bringing out a cutlass. The Overlord grabbed Jamie by the middle and promptly launched her at the flailing octopus man, much to the shorter pirate’s displeasure. Jamie landed on him, impaling him with the cutlass as they began free falling toward the lava.
“Oh, didn’t think of that,” the Overlord commented and looked at the Soul-Keeper, “Get them back! Quick! Warp them!”
The Soul-Keeper held up his staff, then tapped it lightly against the ground. Jamie and Dr. Octagonapus landed on the ground a few feet away from the Overlord, Jamie seeming to be victorious over the tentacled man beast thing. “You almost got me killed!” Jamie protested loudly, pulling her cutlass out of the body. She stomped over to the Overlord, clearly displeased.
“My bad,” the Overlord shrugged.
Dr. Octagonapus slowly opened an eye, one of his still remaining tentacles twitching. He reached out with a hand to grab Jamie by the leg. Sexist saw this and held up a flail quietly, sneaking up behind Dr. Octagonapus.
“ALL HAIL... THE ULTIMATE LEADER!” Dr. Octagonapus screamed right as Sexist slammed the flail into his head.
“What?” the Overlord felt her breath caught in her throat, grabbing Jamie and pulling her away as Sexist lifted the flail, looking rather confused as he glanced up at the Overlord. “What... What did he just say?”
“... Guy was freaking crazy,” Sexist commented dryly, then helped the Soul-Keeper kick the corpse into the lava pit.
“All hail... the ultimate leader...” the Overlord sat down suddenly, her eyes wide as she stared at where the body fell over the edge. The Advisor glanced at Jamie, feeling nervous. The Overlord was never stunned, never shocked, but above all, the Overlord was never scared. And, for that moment, the Advisor saw the fear in the Overlord’s eyes- the fear of something horrible to come.
“Overlord...?” the Advisor prompted, but received no response.
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