A Theory on Godhood: An Overlord Story

Chapter 50: Branded Sarifices

Fringes of Arkney Village

Tsuareninya watched the guards walk along the borders of the wall, making their rounds in the early afternoon of that day. Their gait was lax, with no sense of urgency or duty whatsoever. The village which they guarded did not face any sort of adversary in recent history.

The village she had chosen as her newest target was closer to the larger cities of Re-Estize, an auxiliary residential area where the peasants harvest crops for their nobility. However, in the case of this village, the people were growing a specific type of crop to harvest.

Under normal circumstances, this place would be a high-risk target, being so close to a city like E-Liberia, but our recent victories over the last two months have... emboldened me.

As per usual, she wondered if she was not being slightly overzealous in her string of conquests. What balanced this worry was the constant reassurance from His Highness that she was carrying out His will as planned. Having the weapon masters and surviving elders also helped to advise her on matters of military importance.

Over the last two months, she and her contingent of death lords carried out a series of conquests on vital targets that she discovered while reading over the late Destrus's notes in his office. Before his death, he had made a list of necessary areas he wished to attack to possibly cripple the operations of the corrupt nobility of Re-Estize.

His only limitation, at the time, was that he lacked proper manpower and feared retaliation. The distance from the fortress and forest also posed a risk, but Tsuare deemed that with her current forces, the risks were currently worth it.

Attacking so many places in quick succession, relatively speaking, also helped to charge the artifact that the Weeping King granted her. It was called the Orb of Death, which her lord granted her as a gift. It was a rough, black thing, which whispered insidiously in her ear awful premonitions that she dared not repeat.

As it was, no one in the Knights was experienced enough to wield it properly. From what the surviving mages said about it, it needed to be "charged" with negative energy to make full use of its potential. Wherever her lord had gotten it, that orb radiated evil. If it were up to her, she would have smashed it and been done with it, but her lord demanded that she learn how to use it.

So she carried it on her person during battle, allowing the orb to feed on the death left in the death lords' wake. With their tactics, there was no shortage of energy for it to gorge on. A primary problem was that she was starting to run out of convenient targets.

She had conquered most of the villages as close to the forest, converting them to worship of the Weeping King. Some were willing participants, open to negotiation, and willing to listen to reason. The reputation of Destrus Desmodus proved a valuable asset, even outside of his home village. Like Gazef Stronoff, he was seen as a hero of the people.

"Miss Tsuare, ma'am, how are we to go about with this village? Shall we go in for a full-frontal assault, or are we going to try and negotiate first as you did for the other villages?"

She looked over her shoulder, seeing one of the men she brought along with her for today's raid. He was a willing volunteer from one of the peacefully converted villages, who wanted to escape his humble home and make a name for himself as a warrior. He was one of many other younger men and even women who joined her.

They were well armored and armed with a standard sword and shield, though a few were wielding maces and hammers. Their training with the weapon masters and their choice of armaments seemed to be influencing the fledgling warriors.

Currently, they were taking cover behind a collection of large hills, which would serve as the staging ground of their assault. All of them were either lying down or sitting, out of sight of the village but giving them just enough vantage to crawl over the crest and spy.