The Overlord Saga
Vol I. Past, Present, Future
Chapter 13: Assault on the Fortress
The Twin had come to realize that being an overlord was not a very easy task at all. She held the scythe with a firm hand as she looked across the table, every eye of every titled underling not leaving her. She hadn’t bothered to wear the disguise that the Overlord had given her- she wasn’t going to lie to the Overlord’s own council and pretend to be the true Overlord. She knew they were probably all uncomfortable with taking orders from a stranger. But she also knew that they had no choice and would have to follow her no matter what.
“The Insurgents are regrouping for a counterattack,” the Theurgist began. “This time, they will deploy the cannons, the ballista, the machine guns- everything. Our last two strikes have been devastating to their forces.”
“Along with this, my scouts had indicated that a few archers have been positioned on the timberline. They’ve been dousing their arrows with gas and oil. I’d say they play to burn this place to the ground,” the Ninja-Lord folded her hands in her lap pleasantly, though, her words were very dark.
“We have enough fighters to beat their regular soldiers, but I think we might have some problems if they start launching cannonballs into our walls,” the Evocator said thoughtfully, “Actually, I can guarantee that we’ll have problems. The Overlord never let them use cannons. She always had them ‘mysteriously decommissioned’.”
“So we have a goal,” the Twin nodded, “Ninja-Lord, I leave the cannons to you. The Theurgist and the Evocator will lead the main army. Master of Tazers will be in charge of taking down the archers. The Animal Tamer and the Captain Zombie Headhunter will take the wall defenses.”
“Wall defenses?” the Animal Tamer complained.
“Oooh... I can taze them...” the Master of Tazers began excitedly.
“Uhm... Sorry to be a bother, but there’s this guy at the door and he says he has our... bazooka order?” the Scribe popped his head into the Overlord’s office. “Just thought I’d tell you.”
“Wait... Repeat that?” the Twin frowned, standing up and staring across the room at where the Scribe was holding his silver laptop under one arm.
“We have an order or bazookas,” the Scribe explained.
“Bazookas?” the Twin asked.
“Bazookas!?” the Animal Tamer exclaimed.
“Mm... Bazookas,” the Ninja-Lord murmured.
“Wait... Legit bazookas?” the Captain Zombie Headhunter asked.
“... Did they say that they were ours?” the Twin asked.
“That’s what they said,” the Scribe shrugged.
“... Bring ‘em in!” the Twin declared. “Wall forces, you’re getting bazookas. Aim for the tougher enemies. Don’t kill the Insurgent Leader, he’s the Overlord’s!” She lifted the scythe, “I will go with the Evocator and the Theurgist to the battlefield. We will fight, we will win, or we sure as hell will get our asses kicked by the Overlord, got it?”
“That’s so motivational,” the Captain Zombie Headhunter commented.
“Let’s go! FOR THE OVERLORD!” the Animal Tamer called, picking up Nard as she did so. “... I want my bazooka!” She began rushing off, the Captain Zombie Headhunter following eagerly.
“What do you want me to do?” Little Ifill whispered to her sister, sitting awkwardly among the council members.
“Aw, heck, take a bazooka,” the Twin smirked, “You’re my sister. It’s in your blood to kick ass.” As Little Ifill scurried away to go get a bazooka, the Twin looked at the Ninja-Lord, who remained silently in the room. The others were all filing out to go fulfill their orders. She motioned for the Twin to follow her as the last person shut the door, and began to the cabinet.
“There is a lot of secret stuff here. The Overlord gave me the password in case something were to happen,” the Ninja-Lord opened the cabinet, which revealed a large vault on the inside. As the Twin opened her mouth, the Ninja-Lord insisted, “No, this isn’t the Vault of Souls. This is something different.”
“What’s in it?” the Twin asked as the Ninja-Lord punched in a few numbers on the keypad. It clicked open and the Ninja-Lord pulled back the handle on the door. She fished for a cloak and a few weapons. Pulling out an old, rustic looking katana and a pair of nunchuku, the Ninja-Lord smiled to herself. “The Overlord’s?”
“She’s allowing me to use them,” the Ninja-Lord explained, “I’ve been wanting to fight with her blade for some time. I heard it had some sacred power about it. She calls it Kagi. Means fire.”
“It was her first weapon,” the Twin explained, “Lots of sentimental value, I guess... Never seen it do anything, though.”
“We’ll see,” the Ninja-Lord smirked and handed the Twin the cloak, “The disguise. There’s more in here, but it’s not for us.”
“Who’s it for, then?” the Twin asked.
Smiling mysteriously, the Ninja-Lord replied, “The Grasshopper.” With that, she put the Overlord’s katana into her sheath and closed the vault, then the cabinet.
“The Grasshopper?”
“The Overlord’s apprentice. She’s not here. She’s never been here.”
“Who...?”
“You’ll see.”
The Twin put a hand on her hip and held the cloak delicately in front of her. “I wonder if I can pull off acting like the Overlord. Shouldn’t be too hard really. Throw in a random cuss word, use bizarre vocabulary, bash Obama, and presto.” She giggled, then looked at her weapons displayed on the Overlord’s table. There was a lithe, slender blade laying discarded on the flat surface, looking as though it were similarly crafted to a shaska- a small hilt and a thin blade. Next to that was a bow, wooden with some dragon symbol spiraling around the middle. A quiver full of steel arrows rested in a chair next to it, dormant and sagging over slightly.
“That’s the spirit,” the Ninja-Lord opened the door, “I’ll gather my ninjas and we’ll take out the canons. On your signal.”
“Meet me on the wall top in five, then,” the Twin nodded, “We’re gonna have fun with this.” She watched as the Ninja-Lord quickly left the room, shutting the door behind her. The Twin glanced at the cloak in her hand, smirking to herself. “I am the Overlord!” She yelled, then burst out laughing, “Fear me!” Still cackling madly, the Twin began to change into her new attire.
---
On the wall top, the Animal Tamer had a bazooka, which was enough to strike the hearts of many a brave warrior. The Captain (I mean, geez, it’s too hard writing out his full title every time, so he’s getting abbreviated for the sake of the author) was showing the others how to use a bazooka properly, though, the Animal Tamer had half of a mind to ask him how he knew so much about weapons. She figured it went along with the ‘killing the zombies’ thing.
“Now, I’m not an expert on killing Insurgents, but I’d say that they’re not too far from zombies. I mean, they’re brainless, right? A hit to the brain and they’re gone. Dead. Out like a light,” the Captain explained, “Lieutenant!” He whistled and some underling in the zombie headhunting faction came jogging over (for clarity’s sake, we’ll just call him Jeff or the Lieutenant), carrying an abundance of missiles. As Lieutenant Jeff set the missiles down, the Captain began setting up a missile launcher on the wall.
“So, there’s like... Little Insurgents running at our fortress,” the Animal Tamer pointed out, “Just so you know. I don’t know if the Twin is ready yet.”
“Don’t you mean ‘the Overlord’?” the Lieutenant coughed.
“Right,” the Animal Tamer aimed the bazooka at a cluster of Insurgents that were attempting to sneak between the timberline and the Fortress. “Can I shoot it?” Before the Captain could respond, the Animal Tamer fired a blast at the group, watching as they exploded in bloody, violent horror. The Animal Tamer’s jaw dropped... And she squealed. She squealed in giddy delight, the bodies flying all across the field, littering the ground and staining it a deep shade of crimson.
“Oh, nice!” the Lieutenant called.
“You weren’t supposed to fire yet!” the Overlord yelled. Or, well, the Animal Tamer thought it was the Overlord, but a sharp reminder in the back of her mind made her realize otherwise. Somewhere, her leader was fighting the impostor in the frigid, icy wasteland of Antarctica. Somewhere, her REAL leader could be dying... And in the company of the Soul-Keeper nonetheless. The Animal Tamer couldn’t think of anything worse.
“Oops,” the Animal Tamer shrugged.
“Oh well. They aren’t going to be negotiating anyways,” the Ninja-Lord appeared by the Captain and then said, “Aim for the easternmost canons. I’ll take the ones on the west.” With a nod, she leapt over the side of the wall, a group of ninjas following silently.
“I never know where they’re gonna come from,” the Captain held up his hands, then picked up a bazooka. “Twin, go ahead and go. The Evocator and the Theurgist are waiting for you.”
The Twin nodded, scythe in hand. She had her sword sheathed by her side and her bow resting on her back, but felt, surprisingly enough, not weighted down at all. She watched from above as the Ninja-Lord began making her way toward the canons on the west side. “I’ll see you later,” the Twin nodded and promptly leapt over the side of the wall, plummeting downward. She landed on an unfortunate Insurgent, her heel driving into his skull. As the bazookas hit the first few canons, the Twin heard massive explosions and the terrified screams of Insurgents.
“When did they get bazookas?” one cried out. “We can’t do this!”
The Twin took her blade out and quickly ended his fear, picking him up and tossing his body onto an incoming soldier. She spun around, blade flashing in the light and catching a reckless Insurgent in the jaw, then running him through the middle. “This is way too easy,” the Twin remarked.
“Over here!” the Theurgist called from where he had incinerated a platoon of archers. “Overlord, we found most of the archers. Taking them out now!”
“Great! Keep your spirits up, underlings! Tonight, the battle is ours!” the Twin called cheerily, sheathing her sword and pulling out her bow and arrow. She fired a few shots at where some engineers were setting up a ballista, watching the arrows sink into the victims. With a laugh, she ran up to the giant ballista grabbing a still smoldering torch from a dead archer. Lighting the massive weapon ablaze, the Twin laughed, “Ohhhhh, I’ve missed this!”
“Missed this?” the Insurgent Leader questioned as he approached the Twin from behind, Muramasa in his hand. The Twin spun around, replacing the bow with the scythe and grinning from ear-to-ear.
“Of course. Can’t sit still when I know you’re out there lurking in the shadows, Insurgent Leader,” the Twin grinned, “Come on, try to fight me.”
“Your time of terror is at an end!” the Insurgent Leader’s voice was almost drowned out completely by a bazooka hitting another canon. The Twin heard the sound of the wall taking a heavy hit from another canon and cringed visibly. The Insurgent Leader lunged at the Twin, his blade glinting in the sunlight as he swung it over his head. The Twin moved out of the way and hooked the Insurgent Leader with her blade. She spun him around, knocking him off his feet, then used the blunt end of the scythe to hit him into the air. As the Twin leapt up to hit the Insurgent Leader, the Insurgent Leader twisted his body around and blocked the blows. Frustrated, the Twin landed on the ground and kicked the Insurgent Leader in the stomach.
As she began to walk toward the now defenseless Insurgent Leader, a blonde blur struck her from behind. Insurgent Austin “Blondie” was, through one miracle or another, alive and had a blade in his hand. The Twin turned and swiped Blondie on the forearm then knocked him back. “No. You don’t do that. I’m the Overlord, bitch!” the Twin yelled.
“Mine,” the Ninja-Lord appeared behind Blondie, the Overlord’s katana in hand. She ran Blondie through with her katana, then lifted him up, a fiery rage in her eyes. “You’re my punching bag,” She said calmly, then released the poor Insurgent, letting him fall to the ground, seemingly dead. She kicked him in the face, then turned to look at where the Insurgent Leader had fled.
“Damn it, he’s gone,” the Twin sighed, “I’ll find him.”
---
“Sir!” Insurgent Little Canada was back with two pieces of paper in hand, “Sir... Sir, what happened to you?” He watched the Insurgent Leader as he scrambled away from the battlefield, looking rather put out and bloodied.
“Doesn’t matter,” the Insurgent Leader shook his head, “Canada, what do you want?”
“I was just analyzing the letters sent to us by the Overlord. I noticed something, sir... Something bizarre about them,” Canada explained in exasperation. Another shot from a bazooka sent him flying forward, but he caught himself on the ground. Pushing himself up to his feet, he added, “I think there’s something bigger happening here than we realize.”
“What do you mean?” the Insurgent Leader helped Canada to his feet.
“See these letters?” Canada held up the letter sent to the Insurgent Leader, listing the threats of smashing his rebellion, and then, the letter sent to the Insurgent Leader that had accompanied the pricey Taco Bell order. “What can you tell me about them that doesn’t quite add up?”
The Insurgent Leader took the letters in his hands, his eyes studying the words carefully. As if in a flash of brilliance, he looked up, his mouth slightly agape in shock, “The handwriting. It doesn’t match.”
“One of these is from the Overlord. One of these is not,” Canada said knowingly, “The question is... Who would send this to you?” He held up the first letter, “And why?”
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