The Overlord Saga
Vol I. Past, Present, Future
Chapter 20: The Insurgent Leader’s Resolve
The Insurgent Leader stood at the Fortress gates, leaning on Muramasa and staring at the daunting task before him. ‘This is suicide’, he thought, pulling the sword out of the ground and holding it up so that the tip pointed at the heavens. “Uberlord! Come and face me!” He slammed the blade against the doors, as if expecting them to open from the impact. Nothing. The Insurgent Leader tried once more, but, again, nothing.
“You’re trying to do this by yourself?” the Ninja-Lord asked, watching him from where she stood a few yards behind him. The Insurgent Leader startled and whipped around, sword at the ready. The Ninja-Lord didn’t flinch but merely waved awkwardly.
“You...?” the Insurgent Leader asked, “You aren’t caught?”
“Nard saved me,” the Ninja-Lord replied. The Insurgent Leader glanced down to see the Overlord’s brown and white companion, who didn’t even come up to the Ninja-Lord’s knee. “He said that the prisoners are located in the Dungeon. I know how to get there. Your forces should be there, too. The Uberlord has them all captured.”
“He... said that?” the Insurgent Leader looked down at the quirky papillon, feeling slightly offended as the dog stuck his tongue out at him. “Then we must go and get them. But how do we get in? The gates are shut.”
“That never stops a true ninja,” the Ninja-Lord replied, bringing out some hook-shot device, “We’ll scale the walls. You’ll find the Insurgents and the other troops. I’ll go after the Soul Jar.”
“But he can control you, can’t he?” the Insurgent Leader asked, “He’ll control you and you won’t be able to get even close to the Soul Jar.”
“I have Nard,” the Ninja-Lord said confidently. Nard looked up at the Insurgent Leader, still stoic with his tongue sticking out.
“Whatever you say... Just... Be careful,” the Insurgent Leader sighed and watched as the Ninja-Lord tossed the hooked rope onto a gargoyle sticking out of the wall top. She began running, clasping the rope in both hands, and leapt at the wall. Pulling herself up, she literally began walking up the wall and pulled herself over the top. The Insurgent Leader follow suit, pulling himself up onto the Fortress wall and then unsnagging the gargoyle. He tossed the hook shot at the Ninja-Lord and drew his sword.
“How will Nard get up here?” the Insurgent Leader asked, then jumped as he realized the dog was next to the Ninja-Lord. He looked back at the ground, then at the dog, puzzled, but not bothering to ask how he had done it.
“We’ll split up from here. The Dungeon can be accessed by taking the first left in the entrance hall. There’s signs leading you there. They’re bright and flashing and neon. Courtesy of the Soul-Keeper,” the Ninja-Lord nodded and leapt over the side, plummeting into the courtyard and landing in the shadows. The Insurgent Leader watched her sneak through the gardens with Nard, toward the front door of the castle.
The Insurgent Leader leapt over the wall as well, landing lightly on his feet in a crouching position. ‘Is this still suicide? I sure as heck hope not’, he thought. He made his way quietly toward the front door and opened it, glancing shiftily about. The Insurgent Leader hadn’t been inside the Fortress in years- decades, even. He turned and began down the first left corridor he found, keeping his breath light and shallow. The last thing he wanted was to run into the Uberlord.
---
The Twin was sitting between Underling Tinkerbell and Insurgent Canada, rather disgruntled as she glared out between the bars. “And where have you been all this time?” the Twin snapped at Tinkerbell, “I heard you died.”
“Uhm, I’ve been here for awhile. Thanks for looking for me,” Tinkerbell snapped, “I could’ve warned you that this was going to happen. Did you listen? Noooo.”
“Stupid freshmen,” the Twin muttered but perked up as the doors opened, “What’s that?” She craned her neck to see, shoving Canada rudely. Canada shook his head and muttered something about ‘stupid Overlord supporters’.
“Twin?” the Insurgent Leader frowned as he looked around the Dungeon, “My troops!” He gasped, looking at the hundreds of cells occupied by Insurgents. ‘But no Theurgist, no Evocator, no Animal Tamer... The Uberlord must have split the Underlings up.’ He frowned, rubbing his chin, ‘But I see the lower ranked Underlings...’ “Where are the Underling Generals?”
“The Uberlord has them all. He has them working for him!” the Twin warned, “The rest of them are down here until he figures out what to do with them. We need to save the others, though! Get us out!”
“How?” the Insurgent Leader frowned, then saw a big red button on the wall.
“That doesn’t look good,” Tinkerbell remarked, “I say, don’t touch-”
The Insurgent Leader pressed the button and all of the cell doors opened. The Twin ran out immediately, beckoning the others with a hand, “Underlings! Follow me. I know where the weapons are!”
“How come in every movie or story, someone always knows where the weapons are?” Tinkerbell asked.
“Plot progression?” Canada shrugged.
“Whoa, wait...” the Insurgent Leader held out a hand and stopped the Twin, “Where’s the Overlord?” The Twin stopped, eyes widening. She bit her lip and looked at the Underling army, shaking her head.
“Underling Russia, Underling Prussia, go to the pantry. The Uberlord stored our weapons there. You’re in charge until we get the Overlord’s Counsel back,” the Twin shook her head and pulled the Insurgent Leader off to the side, “We don’t know where the Overlord is.”
“What?” the Insurgent Leader demanded.
“She hasn’t been here for days. I’ve been acting as the Overlord for the past few days. Meaning... Yeah, you’ve been fighting me,” the Twin explained quietly, “There was an impostor... We thought she’d be back by now after dealing with it, but something must’ve come up.”
“The Uberlord! He did this on purpose!” the Insurgent Leader yelled.
“He must’ve leaked the information to Jamie because he knew she’d have told the Overlord about the impostor. But there might’ve been a trap,” the Twin’s eyes widened in realization, “The letters were from him because he wanted you two to kill each other... or at least distract you.”
“Clever,” the Insurgent Leader remarked bitterly.
“Ummm...” an Underling tugged on the Twin’s sleeve. “Where’s my master?”
The Twin looked at the Animal Tamer’s Pet (no one was quite sure why the Animal Tamer called an Underling her pet, but no one questioned it), then sighed, “We don’t know. But just go with Russia and Prussia and they’ll figure it out, mmkay?” She patted the Animal Tamer’s Pet on the head before turning to look at the Insurgent Leader, “Where’s the Ninja-Lord?”
“Getting the Soul Jar. With Nard,” the Insurgent Leader lowered his head. ‘I hope she’s not in trouble... I should’ve gone with her!’ The Twin put a hand on his shoulder, looking him directly in the eye.
“We’re going to find the Overlord. We’re not going to let him get away with this, I promise,” the Twin said firmly, “Okay?” The Insurgent Leader nodded his head vigorously, and the Twin ran up the stairs toward the main floor. The Insurgent Leader followed her, Muramasa hanging on his back.
“What if I don’t wanna leave my home!?” the Soul-Keeper’s Apprentice wailed as Little Ifill dragged her up the stairs, sighing heavily. The Soul-Keeper’s Apprentice hung her head and yelled, “I’LL GET THAT UBERLORD FOR PUTTING THOSE SMELLY INSURGENTS IN MY HOME!”
“You do that, Apprentice...” Little Ifill remarked.
---
The Ninja-Lord climbed the stairs to the Overlord’s office, katana in hand. She opened the door to the office and crept inside, her heart racing. Nard followed her inside, his tail wagging as he ran over to where his bed was. He sat down in it and began to groom himself. The Ninja-Lord’s gaze moved from him to the fire place. She bent down and moved one of the logs that wasn’t burning to reveal a switch, and promptly pressed it. A portion of the wall to the left of the fire place moved- a doorway into some secret room.
“Clever,” a voice boomed from behind the Ninja-Lord. She spun around, katana pointed at the Uberlord.
“That’ll be the last time you escape from me, Ninja-Lord,” the Uberlord pointed his shotgun at the Ninja-Lord, the Soul Jar in his other hand. “You belong to me.” Nard growled angrily, his ears pressed back and his eyes wide as he glared up at the Uberlord, “Your leader’s little mutt might’ve saved you last time... But I will not be bested by a five-pound rat and some ninja-wanna-be!”
The Uberlord snapped his fingers and the Theurgist, the Evocator, and the Captain appeared. The Ninja-Lord drew a step back, her eyes wide as she realized that he had summoned them to dispose of her. The Evocator looked at the Ninja-Lord regretfully, wincing as she lifted a hand, a bright crimson symbol appearing on the ground. The Captain held up an assault rifle, pointing it at the Ninja-Lord and wincing as if to apologize.
“Flame spirit, invoke!” the Theurgist yelled, but didn’t meet the Ninja-Lord’s eye. He gazed at his feet, gritting his teeth as the fiery spirit shot from the Evocator’s hands.
Nard rushed forward, his ears flailing about with each pace. He leapt high into the air, dodging the flame spirit. The Ninja-Lord did a backflip and watched as the fiery swirl hit the wall. Nard’s jaws snagged the piece of twine that wrapped around the real Soul Jar, pulling it away from the Uberlord. The Ninja-Lord threw three shuriken, watching as one pinned the Uberlord’s sleeve against the wall.
“You’re free!” the Ninja-Lord yelled as Nard hit the ground on all four paws, “He doesn’t own you any more!”
“About time!” the Theurgist yelled, directing the flame spirit to strike the Uberlord. As it did, the Uberlord counterattacked with a jet of umbra magic, watching as it wrapped itself around the Evocator. The Theurgist grabbed the Evocator and pulled her away from the dark tendrils, watching as it disintegrated into the ground.
“You’re screwed,” the Captain fired at the Uberlord as the tyrant lord pulled out the ninja star and tossed it back at the Ninja-Lord. The Uberlord held up his hand and the room began darkening.
“Time to go, now!” the Theurgist yelled, ushering everyone down the stairs.
The Ninja-Lord departed from the office immediately, Nard running ahead of her with the Soul Jar in his mouth. The Evocator shot a bolt of lightning at the Uberlord, who stood at the top of the stairs. The Theurgist had the flame spirit knock the Uberlord backwards, smirking in satisfaction as the Uberlord’s spell was cancelled.
As the Ninja-Lord made it to the second floor, she sprinted toward the stairs leading to the main floor, trembling as she looked back to see if the Uberlord was pursuing them. Strangely enough, he seemed to have given up, which made the Ninja-Lord all the more worried.
“Ninja-Lord!” the Twin yelled at the bottom of the stairs, “Hurry! There’s something going on! The Ninja-Lord leapt the entire staircase, landing at the bottom and racing down the main corridor with the Twin by her side.
As the two reached the partially agape door, the Ninja-Lord turned her eyes to the swirling black clouds. She felt the Twin grab her arm in horror, watching as something came through the center of the churning clouds- something large and indistinguishable. The Ninja-Lord’s eyes narrowed as she caught sight of the serpentine body, long and resembling that of a viper’s, but with large bird’s feet and wings.
“The Zilant,” the Twin muttered, “I remember it from the first Epic Battle. We need to go, now!” She raced toward the front gates, bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. As the Zilant flapped its large black wings and swooped down to claw at the Twin, she fired an arrow, striking it in the foot. It flapped away, wobbly but overall unharmed. The Ninja-Lord rushed through the gates, spying Underling Russia, who was leading the Underling army away from the Fortress.
“Hey! Way to totally leave me!” the Animal Tamer yelled as she chased after the group, staff in hand. “What is that big snake thing anyways!? HEY! ANSWER MY QUESTION!”
“No time to!” the Captain yelled and fired at the Zilant as it circled around to strike again. “That thing is the Uberlord’s! That’s all that matters!”
“Well, gee, I think I knew that already!” the Animal Tamer yelled back.
“Guys, there’s no time to argue!” the Evocator yelled, “We have a giant flying chicken snake about to eat us!”
“It’s actually quite humorous if you think about it...” the Theurgist muttered, the flame spirit he was controlling landing a few feet behind them. It materialized into a massive lion, rearing up and striking the Zilant as it tried to attack the group. As the Zilant struck it, the flame spirit vanished.
“Sorry, couldn’t hold it up much longer!” the Evocator said apologetically.
“THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!” Tinkerbell could be heard a few yards ahead.
“OH SHUT UP!” the Ninja-Lord yelled back.
She skidded to a stop, a good half mile from the Fortress. The Insurgent Leader had halted their escape, staring at something on the horizon. He held up a hand, Muramasa limp in the other hand, and asked, “Twin... Are you seeing this?” The Twin pushed her way through to the front of the army, staring at the group of five people standing on the horizon, the sun at their backs.
“Sexist? Soul-Keeper? Jamie? The Advisor? ... OVERLORD!” the Twin yelled, eyes wide as she recognized the group. The Overlord stood, glaring at the castle with resolve in her eyes, scythe in hand. Sexist folded his arms, shaking his head at the Zilant as it circled the uppermost towers of the Fortress. The Soul-Keeper was distractedly looking at a butterfly. The Advisor sighed but offered a weak smile at the Animal Tamer.
Jamie laughed, pointing at the army of Insurgents and Underlings, “You should really see the looks on all of your faces right about now.”
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