Disclaimer: I own nothing and all that you read here is for recreational purposes.

AN: Hello, everyone! This is an attempt at a SI/CYOA-style story that has been hanging around my head for the last little while. It is uses the Overlord CYOA that I found on the internet and takes place within the world of Overlord 2. Keep in mind that this is a Crossover, so you can expect elements of other things such as games and films to be pulled into this at some point. Enjoy!

You know, I enjoy the simple things in life. Just living my life and enjoying things like reading, music, maybe a good film from time to time, but I enjoyed that kind of thing. Add in the fact that I was going through University for a Beng Degree in Engineering, and I really didn't need all that much more to complicate my life.

Unfortunately, something, or someone, did get that particular Memo, or actively ignored it because of something that came through my E-mail when I wasn't paying attention and was waiting for my Exam results from the previous year of Uni. It was nothing really special, a CYOA from the look of it with a focus on being an Overlord rather than a planet, starship captain, Supersoldier, Parahuman from Worm, or whatever else existed out there. Seeing it, along with the message of Email asking for what I would do and replying to it, I figured it was some kind of survey that was just being sent out at random kind of like what Apple does from time to time to advertise things to past and present customers. I didn't think much of it as I filled it in.

For Housing, I figured that I'd go for an Undercity located in a massive underground cavern, that would give me the advantage in defences and making it more difficult to attack, while giving me a fair amount of resources to work with in terms of metals and precious gems. Add in the fact that the people that lived in it were perfectly capable of living underground with better Night Vision and an inability to get lost within the Labyrinth-like system of tunnels meant that it was all the better. Domain was rather easy to decide as I went for the option of being hidden away on an Island in the middle of the sea, this meant that I wouldn't have to worry about being attacked overland and that, so long as the surrounding sea was under my control, no one would be able to attack me.

Moving along, I looked at the Advisors that I had and figured that the Priestess would be the best option if I combined that with another Perk. Looked at the perks and noticed that many of them stated they could be learned at a later time, smiled at that as I focused down a few of them that you could either start with or get through dangerous deals. One thing that I did find odd, however, was that the number of shards was different and the options for becoming Immortal were not present, I knew that there should have only been 5 Shards at the base of it to allow for 5 powers, instead, I had 9 right from the start, something that I was all too happy with as I picked 9 Perks with them before moving on. The Perks I chose were simple ones, The Cult gave me a cult following that were absolutely loyal to me and would ensure that the 2000 people in the Domain followed me as well, even going so far as worshiping me in whatever fantasy this was. Telepathy, Alchemy, Form Changing and Shadow Bending were all as the name implied and pretty self explanatory so I picked them out with ease before picking Study, giving me a much greater Learning curve, and The Mind, increasing my perception of things, making me better at problem solving and faster rate of processing things through my mind. My last 2 perks were Demonic Magic and Natural Leader, both being rather self explanatory and being rather simple abilities as I moved on, passing the Followers section for the moment before looking at the Complications.

For Complications, I decided to only have a few, but to make them rather high up in terms of how dangerous they might be, as such, the first thing that I got was the T3 Dragon Pair, giving me an additional 4 gold Coins and another Shard, something that I intended to save for another option in the Followers section rather than on another perk. Another Complication was the T3 Hold Fast, this basically had the Kingdom I had being blockaded and all diplomatic ties being cut, however, it did have the nice benefit of giving me a total of 24 coins as well giving me a rather fair amount to start with as I added the T1 Monsters for another Coin. With all those Complications, I had an additional 29 Coins and another Shard on top of however much I had for my Followers.

Moving back to the Followers section, I saw that I only had the standard 10 Coins, not that it mattered since I had a total of 39 to work with. Still, with the way I had set things up, I decided that I wanted to create something that was pretty stand-alone, not really reliant on other kingdoms, hence I chose what I did. The first Followers I grabbed were a 3 Cooks to train others to prepare food for the kingdom and improve the standard of living, 4 Master Workers, 4 Blacksmiths and 2 more Beast Masters, these things were mainly for use in getting the infrastructure sorted out so that I could build on that. Next, I got 2 Captains of the Guard, a Knights, 3 Rangers and a Unit of Hunters, mostly for local defence and the like before moving on to other things like outside of the Kingdom as I thought about it. A Merchant, a Ship Captain, a Diplomat and 2 Spymasters would take care of foreign affairs rather easily while I then used the remaining 14 Coins for other things.

A Dryad for the Island since I had my kingdom underground, it would help with crops and would certainly help with attacks since they could be aided by Hunters. I got at least 3 Witches since I wanted the aid of magic while I got at least 3 Cultists with Geokinesis each and a Cultist group. Lastly, I got 2 Black Knight, 2 Pirate Captains, a Bandit Leader and 2 Bandit gangs. All of which seemed like the correct choices since I wasn't really going to be playing nice with other kingdoms and I had gone with the heavy dark view of things. However, one thing I noticed was the lack of options at the bottom of the page for things like Necromancy constructs and Demon summons, not that I minded, but it was curious.

Finally, I created my Pet Dragon with the single remaining Shard that I had, something that I was looking forwards to since I loved fantasy so much. For the Dragon, I decided to go with a Giant one rather than the other sizes, seeing it as the only one that was really any good as the Drake , Dragonne and Dragonborn seemed a bit on the small side to really inspire the dread in an enemy. Moving on, I looked at the options for types and picked the Black Dragon option, since it went so well with the fact that the kingdom was underground and hidden in darkness, the fact that it could spit a potent acid would also let it tunnel through the rock caverns quickly if needed. Finally, the perks of the Dragon, I went with Intelligent and Cunning, Human Form, Magic, and Dragon Riding, the added bonus of this being that I got a bond with the Dragon, allowing this character to talk with the dragon instantly through a mental connection.

With those choices made, I sent the thing back, having spent about 30 minutes just doing that before replying with it. However, the moment that I clicked the reply button, my world shifted and warped as I watched it moving before being replaced with nothing but black.

That was when the fun started.

XXX

"Are you alright, Mr Lord?" A voice came from my left as I blinked myself back to reality, suddenly aware that the world had shifted and that I was not in my bedroom any more. Instead, I was standing at the head of a table with a few dozen people gathered around it, all of them wearing things ranging from Medieval chain-mail and plate armor in either dull silver or black, Leather armor with quivers on their back or simply clothing that made them look like nobles of some kind, some of the women were wearing dresses and the like, but it was nothing of note as I noticed that a few of the people around me had skin that was as black as coal while others looked paler than a ghost. Glancing to my left to the voice, I looked and saw a woman wearing a red clock that was hanging open with her chest being covered by a cloth wrap, holding her rather generous bust in place while she wore a simple pair of red cloth, trousers. Her hood was down and I could see her face, her skin being pale while her eyes were a shining white like everyone else, reminding me of Riddick from the movies named after him, with her brown hair held back in a ponytail that reached her waist. I remained silent for a second before nodding as my mind flashed, information coming to the forefront of it all as I became aware of who everyone at the table was, along with who I apparently was.

I mentally cursed as I recalled the CYOA sheet. I almost groaned as I realised that I had been ROB'd and dropped into the Kingdom that I had created, not necessarily a bad thing, but it helped that I apparently had all the perks that I wanted along with the memories of who I now was. My new name, apparently, was Corvus Dredd, the Lord of Darklight, the name of the city hidden within the massive rock caverns that had permeated the island that I was now on for centuries. It was an isolated place and one that hadn't really interacted with the rest of the world for a long time, but it was one that was bountiful with resources in the form of metals, gems and stone, Magic was a needed commodity here and was used regularly to help make life easier.

I, myself, stood rather tall, at least 6 foot 7 of solid muscle, wide shoulders and thick muscles hidden under a suit of armor and a thick leather cloak that hung from my shoulders. I knew what I looked like now as surely as if I had just looked in the mirror as I knew that I had a face covered in hardlines, a strong jaw and slightly recessed eyes with the same shining silver look as everyone else. My thick, black hair was cut short in a Crew Cut, with the sole exception to that being a reasonably long ponytail that was done in a braid at the back of my head that went down just passed my shoulders. Still, I knew that my appearance was not just different, but it was my knowledge as I found myself feeling the information flowing into me as I became aware of what I was capable of, all of which was very interesting and were things that I would need to practise since, while my new life seemed to have gained a fair bit of experience in using these gifts, I still had ways to improve. Though, I will admit that the addition that Alchemy here worked like a cross between Classical Alchemy and that of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood was a rather nice bonus.

"Yes, I'm fine, Heran." I stated simply to the Priestess, her name coming back to me just as easily as the life of 25 years that both was and was not my own. "Just a bit tired right now. Spent a bit too much time last night in my Workshop, should have probably turned it in by Midnight, something to keep in mind for later." I stated simply, getting a small smile from her and a snort from the others gathered around the table that I was looking at. On the table, I noted a map of what I knew was the Island.

The Island itself was rather large, in the same of a Crescent with the tips being at least 20 km apart while a half present came from the Eastern side of it, this being the bottom of the Crescent since the top was dominated by jungles, marshes and a few swamps with the occasional hill and a single mountain which held most of the entrances to Darklight within it. The bottom of the Island to the East was covered in rocks, a few trees and the occasional shrub, however it was dominated by at least 2 active volcanos that constantly pumped out Lava and the biggest of which being on the Half Crescent that came out the bottom. The inside of the Crescent was mostly beaches with some cliffs towards either tip, while the outside was completely covered by Cliffs that rose high over the crashing waves and were nearly impossible to climb. On the map, I noticed a few other points of interest, namely, a line of ovals circling the Island, all coloured in green while the largest Volcano on the Island was crossed out with a large, red skull and crossed bones, I could guess what they were, though I did question what the blue crosses were that dotted the Island.

"Please continue with your report, Fergis." I stated as I glanced to my right, seeing the Master Ranger to my side, a tall, 6 foot 9 bear of a man that was wearing green Leather armor with a hood up while his braided beard was easy to see as he leaned forwards and nodded to me. Fergis was the leader of the Rangers and Hunters, specialists that scouted the land to keep it free of unauthorised Bandits and dangerous creatures, usually by killing them, skinning them and bringing back the meat and leather. Often times, Rangers and Hunters worked rather closely with the native Dryad, Ka'lis, who often pointed them in the direction of trouble and even helped the Workers finding land to farm on and wood to harvest, so long as we didn't take too much at any one time and replanted what we took. It was a good working relationship.

"As you wish, My Lord." He stated, his voice booming over the room. "In the last 2 weeks, the so-called 'Glorious Empire' has been pushing for landfall harder and harder. My Rangers, Hunters and I have had to fend off at least 3 separate attempts to give them a foothold on the Island during the night to prevent our forces from just being bombarded by Catapults from the boats blockading the Island. The local Orcs have been getting a bit uppity too, recently, probably just a new Chieftain that got a bit overconfident and thinks that he can try and take our holdings, but nothing serious right now. Finally, we have this." He reached over and tapped the large skull on the map after tapping at the blue crosses, telling me they were monster encounters, I glanced at it as I noted I was apparently in Overlord 2, the name being a dead-ringer from what I could remember.

"3 days ago, me and the boys were doing a nighttime patrol for any Empire forces that were trying to sneak onto the Island under darkness. Instead, we saw a different force coming at us. A pair of Dragons, a mated pair of Red Dragons to be exact." Many grimaced at that as I joined them. I remembered them, both from my memories of the Overlord CYOA and from this life, Red Dragons were aggressive as all hell, volatile and highly dangerous with Firebreath that could melt stone if given enough time. "The 2 of them were carrying what looked like a massive sack in their claws, probably their collective Horde, and headed for Mt. Ashbane, looked like they made a hole for themselves near the top of it, just by what looked like a Lava waterfall, if you can believe it." I nodded in thanks to him as he took a step back at that, bowing with his right fist over his heart.

"Thank you for the information, Fergis. Does anyone else have anything to report?" I asked as a few stepped forwards, starting with a 6 foot 8 man in heavy silver plate-mail armor with a sword by his hip, his hand resting on it as his head was almost shaved and his expression was made of stone.

"Nothing of importance, My Lord, the New Recruits for both the Guard and Knights are coming along, by the end of next week, we should have finished the basics with them and we'll be able to field them. That should give you a total of 150 footman, 30 Knights and 15 Archers to command. My Lord." Came the report from Gallias, the Master-at-Arms, the head of my total military that was focused on a head to head fight. I nodded as the next man stepped up, 6 foot 10 of solid armor, he was wearing a helmet with only his eyes visible through 2 vertical slits and his heavy, black Plate-mail chinked with every step, a thick cloak covering his body as his voice boomed like thunder.

"Your Black Knights now total at 30 strong, My Lord. My sister, Gwendaline, is seeing to those that survive the initial training, but hardening them will take time, we expect to be able to double our numbers within the next month, but that is only if we maintain a supply of similar, or better, quality recruits." Maxximus stated simply as he stepped back. I nodded thoughtfully at that, noting the difference between the Black Knights and normal Knights. Normal Knights are meant to be Shock Troopers, at the front of an army and wearing heavy armor, they fought for glory, honor and all that, sure, my Knights were more pragmatic than that, but they still prefered a straight-up fight with as little foul play as possible, something that I didn't mind given the skill that they were trained with to offset the lack of numbers. Black Knights, on the other hand, they were the opposite, they worked solely within groups of other Black Knights to deal with enemies in whatever way was needed, with them, the Ends very much justified the Means, a few of them were even learning a bit of Magic on the side to give them a Force multiplier for battle.

"Nothing has really come up, My Lord. Myself and your other Magicals have been spending our time refining our craft while looking for ways to break the Blockade." Spoke the next person along, a tall woman of 6 foot 3 wearing a green dress that went down to her ankles. The dress itself was segmented with plates of leather that were inscribed with Runes around the edges and I knew that they had been soaked in Blood to empower them. The front of the dress reached up to the woman's neck and was backless, showing off her back muscles while a cut went down the middle of her chest, showing off her massive bust as the dress wrapped around her neck. Her face was a definition of beauty with small, green snake scales climbing the base of her jaw while her hair seemed to have been replaced with green Snake tails, her eyes also being slitted and I knew that her tongue was the same, even though her other features were beautiful and lacking any flaw. Her name was Ker'la, she was the Court Witch as it were and one in charge of my other Magic Users, including the Cultists that I had running around.

"I will admit that I have had to talk with more than a few of the younger initiates about the method of breaking it since more than a few had voiced the idea of just unleashing a number of Water Elementals on the ships, maybe even summoning a Water-based Demon of some kind to kill the ships and Bind it to the Island as a Guard dog. It seems that some of them simply lack the experience to know that such undertakings would take time, especially since we only have 3 Elementalists, all 3 of which being Geokinetics." I nodded at Ker'la, knowing what she was talking about as the final person of the group present stepped forwards.

She was lithe with a well muscled build wearing what looked like a long-sleeved jacket that barely made it passed her generous bust that was being contained by a leather, strapless bra while she wore a belt with a loincloth coming down from it at the front and back in lieu of trousers, a heavy pair of boots on her feet. All of it was black, worn and looked like it had been in use for a long time, the boots having had heavy metal plates stitched on to the toes of them with plates on the forearms of her 'Jacket' as well. It was easy to see that this woman was well toned and experienced given her walk as she moved forwards, her face being smooth and lacking any flaw with high cheekbones, narrow nose and her sleek, silver hair tied back into a bun with what looked like a razor-edged crescent holding it in place. However, besides her eyes, her most prominent feature were her ears, extending at least a good 10 cm out from her heat and pointed at the end, still, she was easily the biggest person present at just under 7 foot.

"Nothin' really to say, My Lord. The Empire took our guys by surprise when they first came, caught our ships in the open and sunk them before we knew what was going on. We've rebuilt since then, got a Merchant ship, 2 Warships and 2 Raiders with another 4 Landers on the way once the Craftsmen finish making the planks in the mills, there all just waiting in Rockshelf Cove." She stated, her name being Tal'den, she was the leader of my Cutthroats and Bandits from before the Empire showed up and her Sister being the second in command, both of them being my Pirate Captains and worked with the Bandit Leaders to sort out raids, keeping most of their stuff tucked away in Rockshelf Cove for when it was need. Rockshelf Cove itself was one of a number of hidden docks that had access to the ocean through an enchanted door that allowed it to project a solid illusion of the cliff face around the outer edge of the Island. It was perfect for hiding the ships in.

I nodded with that as the meeting continued, I spent the time hearing what the others had to say, it wasn't really anything major right now, just little things to keep me up to speed on everything as I focused on it all. Most of the Workers, Blacksmiths and Beast Masters worked through my Priestess, she would then tell me of any problems if they came up while my Spymasters were not present for the simple reason that they were not needed. The 2 of them, being brother and sister, were off training a bunch of spies for infiltration into the Empire, working with a few witches to ensure that they wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb. The Merchant was mostly working within the city, keeping an inventory of everything and making sure that things were running smoothly while the Guardsmen were mostly running drills. My Cult was mostly keeping the peace as they continued to worship me as one thing or another, my Priestess seemingly only a few steps behind me throughout the meeting before it ended, some hours later after the reports were finished, leaving me much to think about as I got my first, good, look around the room.

The room itself was large, high ceilinged and made of angled, black stone that extended from the ground to the ceiling to form a ridcage-like pattern while beams of solid stone hung down the middle of the length of the room, from which, multiple chandeliers hung to provide light from glowing crystals. A set of massive Steel doors lead into the room, inscribed with massively complex runes forming added protection on top of what must have been at least 50 cm of solid steel with at least 9 dead-bolts in each side of both doors. To the left of the doors, half way up the room, was a throne that was 10 steps above the ground, padded in leather and made from more steel and stone with a polished finish that made it seem like solid obsidian, a small wall separating it from the leading doors so that an Assassin wouldn't have a straight shot at me. I was further to the right of the Throne, standing alone at a series of tables covered in maps, paper and various tomes that listed various items from observations of the local Empire forces. There were even a few examples of weapons that the Empire had lying on another table to my left as I looked back down the room to the closed door, it was covered in a few pieces of Armor from an Empire grunt, even the staff of a Sentinel was present and in perfect condition, it's last user having died of an Arrow to the eye. Glancing behind me, I spotted the smaller doors that opened to lead to a small Balcony that overlooked the city, windows present, but reinforced by hidden Runic arrays like the ones on the doors and walls, allowing me to see the underground city with ease as I walked over and out, on to the Balcony.

The City was made of stone and steel, buildings being built like blocks with each block being placed on top of another, corridors being created as the houses seen formed into spires as they climbed towards the roof of the cavern a good few hundred metres above my head. All of these being made from the same black stone and also being made with heavy defences around the base of each growing spire, turning each of them into miniature fortresses in their own right, it was an effective design with little between each spire beyond a few paths, workshops, Blacksmiths, and mines, keep the raw materials and production separate from the housing to prevent problems, all being easily defendable with the terrain working against attacks. The tunnels leading into the cavern I was in were all at the bottom of a downhill slope with jagged rocks working against them, pointing up hill and making it impossible to see what hid under them until you walked passed them, meaning that a trap could be hidden under the shadow of every rock. Guard towers also dominated the final stretch between the spires and the cavern entrances, each of which having multiple Archers positioned on it with Ballistas, Primitive muzzle loading Cannons firing cast Iron balls filled with Black Powder and more than a few Catapults that threw what looked like Stone Octahedron with Runes carved in each side and designed to trigger blasts of elemental energy on impact from blasts of intense flame to flash freezing the surroundings in an instant.

The Palace itself stood separate from the Spires and the rest, however, built into the wall of the cavern and the front looking like a massive gate, it was impossible to take with only a single entrance and the surrounding rock having been fortified to an extreme so that digging through it was next to impossible. Even more Guard stations were positioned around the main gate with multiple backup positioned hidden by reinforced blast shields that could be lowered at a moment to reveal turreted Ballistas, Catapults or tri-mounted cannons.

Darklight was like a series of fortresses located within one massive Fortress, within a Labyrinth that was nearly impossible to attack, let alone lay siege to since logistics into the tunnels was nearly impossible since enemies would simply get lost. Of course, that was without considering the various deadly and dangerous local creatures that had long since been domesticated, they were only being kept in check by the various Beast Masters, I smirked at that thought.

You know, you mentioned that you wouldn't have your people breaking the Blockade. You never mentioned anything about me breaking the Blockade? Why is that, thinking that you could get me to just smash it wide open? I suddenly heard as the silence stretched. I knew that no one was around me as the voice was not coming through the air, smooth as silk and carrying a seductive edge to it that sent a chill up and down my spine as I felt a memory flash through my head.

"No. The Empire already knows that we have Magic Users present here due to those damned Sentinels, the moment that they see a Dragon, let alone a Black one, I highly doubt they wouldn't sent reinforcements to try and catch, or kill, you. They want Magic Users purged, and your a pretty damned powerful one yourself, Hana." I replied mentally as the voice spoke in my mind. I felt something wrapping around my waist as arms slide over my shoulders, I glanced to my right to see scaled arms wrapping around my shoulders as a black scaled tail came around my waist.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Who can tell with those Hypocrites given that their 'Sentinels' are Magic Users themselves, not to mention the fact that those mated Red Dragons are still sitting in Ashbane, what's to say that the Empire doesn't see them and simply sends reinforcements to deal with them rather than me?" Hana asked, her voice whispering in in my ear as I felt her long as hell tongue flick against my right ear, her arms tightening around me.

"True, but a Black Dragon is something that they rate a hell of a lot more dangerous than a Red one, Reds are aggressive, yes, but if you stay out of their way, they generally are harmless unless provoked first. I'm pretty sure you should know that from the information that the Coven managed to drag out of that last Sentinel that the Hunters captured, they apparently view Red dragons the same way as a Volcano, stay the hell away and ignore it and nothing will happen. Black Dragons on the other hand..." I left it hanging as I heard her groan behind me, her tail and arms letting go as I turned to face Hana.

Hana was tall, standing at 7 foot 1, with the figure of a goddess to match. Her body was covered in scales forming into what looked like a One-piece strapless, backless swimming suit that barely concealed her bust that, frankly, was just insane in size. Her arms from the elbow down were scaled and covered in thick plates and spikes while her fingers ended with razor sharp claws that she could retract for delicate work, her legs were similar with thick plates and black scales from the knees down. However, instead of legs like a Human, she had digitigrade ending in massive talons with the largest toe hovering above the ground like the striking toes of a Raptor. To add to this, 2 massive pylons came from her back, forming a massive set of wings that were tucked behind her as her tail lay by her legs, the wings being larger than I was with a wingspan that was over 6 m from tip to tip in her Dragonborn form while her tail could extend to over 5 m at will. Finally, Hana's face was much like Tal'den's, the definition of beauty with high cheeks, angelic features and long, brown hair that almost shined in the lighting of the cavern, she had 2 horns sweeping back from just above her temples, however. Along with that, the bottom of her jaw, back and sides of her neck were covered in black scales with a few more circling her serpent-like eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness as slithers of silver on a black background. Lastly, I saw her tongue slipping out of her mouth, I knew the damn thing was over half a metre long and tipped with one hell of a barb.

"Fair enough, you've made your point, Corvus. I go out and try breaking the Blockade and the Empire pulls in more grunts to try and crush Darklight." She sighed at that as I nodded.

"Don't worry, I have a plan. It will just take some time to pull off." I stated simply with a grin as she looked back at me with a smirk, taking a step to my side and wrapping an arm around me, her tail going around my waist in an instant as she smirked more, looking down at me.

"Tell me more..." She purred with a glint in her eye. I shivered at that, Black Dragons all obsessed over one thing or another, not stopping until the object, or objects, of their interest were theirs, it looked like whoever put me here had a shit sense of humor as Hana seemed to be obsessed with me.

XXX

I'll admit, suddenly going from a Uni student to an Overlord was not an easy shift to make, but I think I did fairly well in coming to terms with the turn my life had taken. Still, just going around and seeing everything was really worth it since, even with the memories, this new world was truly something else. However, besides doing a bit of sightseeing, I was doing work as to solve the problem of the Blockade on the Island, mainly via working through Alchemy and looking into my options for Magic, such as Enchanting, Elementalism and Golemshop. I was rather thankful for the fact I had taken 'Study' when I first got here since it helped my learning curve greatly as I divided my time with the separate tasks that I had along with talking with a few of the others.

Elementalism was my main focus for the time being, specifically on Water rather than any of the other elements since that was the one that was needed most right now. Still, progress, even with Study, was slow and I was only just grasping the basics of manipulating Water after a few weeks of tireless practise while I studied other subjects as well to get the most out of my time and energy. I talked with Ker'la often, she had more than a few fields of experience that she had mastered in terms of Magic, more than just my own skills as I talked with her about the possibilities of making a Gateway of a kind. Sure, the Witch had experience making Gates to other realms like Hell or Limbo to make deals with Demons or gather lost souls for rituals, but the idea of making a portal to travel from one point to another within the same realm seemed like a novelty to her. Yes, I could have opened a portal with my Shadow Bending, but that was tiring for me, and exceptionally so the further the portal travelled and the number of people that were transported, hence why Ker'la was looking into an Enchanted Stone arch inscribed with Runes and empowered by either a blood sacrifice or burning a few dozen souls gathered from Limbo, either worked.

Alchemy was rather useful as I used it every chance I got to experiment with things. I was one of those guys that was constantly curious about stuff and looked it up on the Internet if given half the chance, the fact that I remembered a lot of it was also useful as I remembered what I had read about things, one such thing being C4. I'll admit, the thought of sending swimmers to strap time-delayed C4 charges to bottoms of numerous Imperial ships was a strong one, especially since I knew that the Imperials stored barrels of Black powder at the bottom of their ships, but I also knew the consequences of doing that. Suddenly destroying an entire Imperial fleet in a single night was a bad thing since it meant that I'd draw more attention to the Island, especially since I also knew that the Empire had fast boats that came and went every 3rd week to pick up and drop off reports and orders. If I took them out and the boar returned, then it was only going to lead to more trouble as a bigger force might be diverted to the Island, which was actually named Crescent-Morn.

No, my plan was to cause trouble for the Empire, but not directly. I was going to wait for Ker'la to finish her work on the Gateway before using it to transport my Bandits to the mainland and begin harassing the various towns belonging to the Imperials around their lands. It would draw attention away from the Island and would cause the Empire to redeploy forces in such a way as to cover their towns as I would motion for the Bandits to go for Night-time Raids, attacks on caravans travelling along roads, and occasionally doing more large scale things such as sneaking into and planting explosives inside of Imperial fortifications. But still, that was only a part of what I had planned, I was already thinking up ideas for a submersible craft that I could give to the Pirates under my command as a means of harassing the sea-born Imperials and cause them more problems via sinking supply ships along with the occasional warship. The whole idea being that I would need to draw them away from Crescent-Morn, eventually trying to convince them that it was simply not worth expending resources on a location that wasn't providing anything in return. Yes, that would be difficult given the sheer amount of land and might the Empire had, but it was not impossible.

However, after 2 weeks, I decided that I would mention something to my Priestess, at least about my plan... And possibly about my past life...

XXX

"You called for me, My Lord?" Heran asked as she stepped into the room, giving a half bow as I looked up from the book I was reading, a tome I had taken from my extensive library within the Palace, this one being about Elementalism and focused heavily on water as I held an orb of said classical element in my free hand as I leaned back in a chair. Around me was my Workshop, covered in tables, bookshelves and various papers with half-finished alchemical arrays and numerous calculations as well as half finished circles on the floor, a Demonic ritual circle off to one side of the room and plenty of tools dotted around the large room that was built into the heart of the Palace, though slightly off to the side so that experiments didn't bring the entire place down. I smiled slightly at that as I turned to address Heran, dismissing the water in my hand, causing it to drop into a formerly empty bucket that I had by my feet before I laid the book down at the page I was at.

"Yes, Heran. I called you here to talk, as I have much I wish to discuss with you." I stated simply as I gestured for her to take a seat opposite me. Silence followed for a moment before I continued after collecting my thoughts, though I decided to start with the simple things first.

"Tell me, Heran, what do you think of the plan that I'm working on? I mean, your personal opinion of it." I stated as she nodded.

"While I can't say I understand it, My Lord, I do question the wisdom of sending your forces so far afield from the Island when they could be used to break the Blockade easily enough. Forgive me for being presumptuous, My Lord, but you have the power to wipe the entire Blockade out in an instant if you so wish, yet you restrain yourself from doing so. I will admit that this is something that all your servants have been thinking of." I nodded at that, knowing that they might have been confused by a few things.

"Understandable. I'll admit that what I'm doing is slightly unusual since it slips our forces, but the whole point of it is to break the Blockade, however, it will not be through direct combat, but through indirect force projection." I explained as she looked at me with interest, leaning forwards slightly as I started. "The Empire, while vast and well funded with Gold and resources, can only field so many soldiers at a given time, if they want to field a formation of Legionnaires in a given area, then they must redeploy those forces. As such, if they concentrate forces in one point, that will leave other areas either with only a token Garrison or lacking a Garrison altogether. This Blockade could be seen as a similar situation, hence why I'm having Ker'la working on the Gate for the Bandits along with a gift for Tal'den to allow her and her crews to get back to harassing the Empire's supply lines." I smiled at Heran as I saw her cup her chin in thought before I saw her eyes widened in comprehension and understanding.

"So, your plan isn't to break the Blockade, My Lord, but to make it seem too costly to just leave such a concentration of soldiers in a single area that is seeing next to no active use beyond blocking the path to an Island that clearly doesn't need any active trade to function fully." She stated in a matter of fact way as I nodded, regardless of the fact it wasn't a question, she smirked at that. "Truly, it is a stroke of genius, My Lord." I smiled slightly at that, enjoying the ego rubbing at that.

"Thank you, Heran. However, discussing my plan with you so that you could tell the others was not the only reason that I called you here." I stated as I regarded her for a moment. "Tell me, what do you know on the subject of reincarnation or past lives?" I asked as I saw her face scrunch up in thought for a moment.

"I'm afraid I know little on the subject beyond what I might infer from the names, My Lord." She replied after a moment of silence. I nodded with that, materials on the subject were actually rather hard to come by, my own Library only having a select few of them for the time being and all of them just inferred the same things about the subject but added a few personal opinions of the authors as well.

"Again, that is understandable since there is actually very little on the subject, all things told." I noted as I continued on. "To put it simply, a Past life is a life that you have lived before dying and moving on to either some kind of afterlife or been reincarnated into a new life after having the past life being locked away or erased to ensure that you don't remember it. However, exceptions are present that do remember their past lives, and about a week ago, I became one such exception." I stated simply as Heran looked shocked at that.

"My Lord? You mean that... That you remember another life that you may have lived?" She asked, curious and shocked at that. I nodded.

"Yes, though 'Past' is only the correct term for the last life I lived in terms that I lived it before my current life. If I went by how advanced the people were in my last lifetime, then it might need a new name since the people in my last life were staggeringly more advanced than the people of this world." I explained as Heran leaned forwards in interest.

"How so, My Lord?" She asked, growing curious, I could easily hear her thoughts on the matter as she was wondering what kind of secrets that I knew and what they would do to enhance my power, hell, I could even feel the religious fanaticism growing in her.

"Well... The people of my past life were all Humans, Elves, Orcs, Ogres and other Magical beings, or Magic itself, was nothing more than a fantasy to them. Alchemy did exist, but it was considered an early and very crude version of what they called 'Science', though, they lacked the ability to transmute one material into another, but that didn't stop them. They built massive cities made of glass and steel with towers rising from the ground, and in some cities, rising above the clouds themselves. Weapons like Swords, Maces and Bows and Arrows were all considered as being impractical on the battlefield as soldiers often went to war with weapons that were similar to miniature Cannons, but scaled down to the size that a single soldier could carry one in a similar manner to a Repeating crossbow." I explained simply as I continued on for a time, explaining a few of the things I knew, going into detail for certain things like weapons and armor, not to mention a bit about medicine and the like, by the end of which, Heran was overwhelmed by the sheer difference between my past life and this one, and how different war was, though I did explain that I was planning to build a few things to help against the Empire. Yes, such things would take time, but they were coming along as I researched more on the subjects.

It was all just a matter of time.

AN: Hope you enjoyed this and please tell me what you thought in the Reviews.