Helluva Boss X Reader

Overlord Intro Part 5: The World XXI

ZA WARUDO!!!

Sorry.

Ok, so what you're about to read is long, even longer than the Loona Bonus Chapter, so strap in. (Gods, I cooked with that one.)

In Tarot, "The World" may represent an end of a journey, so that another one may begin. A revolution. Completion. Accomplishment.

The next few weeks were a logistical nightmare. With Loona's help, you were able to reach out to trustworthy Hellhounds, and those Hellhounds spread the message of your new "carrier deal."

You steadily gained influence and souls at record speed, due to the revolutionary new soul deal you had created, which turned ordinary sinners into temporary soul "Carriers." Turf wars became a thing of the past in districts where Hellhounds were a majority of the population, as they joined under a collective banner in the name of Kerberos.

As Loona had predicted though, hundreds, perhaps thousands of sinners scrambling to offer their souls to you, or even just trying to know more about you, had caused some issues.

For one, Kerberos became a publicly known name. It had mostly been contained to the Hellhound and Sinner community you had accidentally established throughout the Pride Ring, via your "Aid Hellhounds" clause. Now news of the existence of a benevolent Overlord, rising in power faster than even The Radio Demon had, earning the respect of the lowest of all Hellborn species, was spreading like wildfire. You became known as "Kerberos, The Hound Demon," due to your name, and the nature of your supporters. It was all the news outlets had to go off of, after all. They didn't know the exact nature of your deals due to the silencing clause, and you had never made a public appearance to your people.

Secondly, Hellhounds that spread your information and guided new sinners arriving to Hell became known as "The Many Heads of Kerberos." This wasn't inherently dangerous, as only a select few Hellhounds actually had a close connection to you. You knew the names of these specific Hellhounds, and thus visited them regularly to find the "Carrier Sinners," the sinners that, as the name suggested, carried the souls that would eventually make their way to you. You made sure to never reveal your face to these trusted "Heads of Kerberos," fearing that an uncontrolled slip-up would reveal your identity. However, if you weren't careful about it, you could draw too much attention to a specific Hellhound, and you could upset the delicate, balanced network that they had created all throughout the Pride Ring. And oh, gods was it tempting to visit some over others. A few were really good at their job of directing "Carrier Sinners," and you could gorge yourself on the number of souls they delivered to you.

You honestly hadn't expected there to be so many. Though, as you had suspected from the beginning, most were new souls to Hell, and you rarely, if ever, made a deal with a sinner who had successfully hidden the status of their soul's ownership. It made some kind of sense, though. A human dies every few seconds. If even a small fraction of those people descended into Hell, that would generate plenty of new souls for you to deal with. The idea of naming yourself after the hound that guarded the gates of Hades was truly symbolic of what you had become, and you eventually lost track of the true number of souls you harbored within yourself.

Despite all of this newfound support and power though, you found yourself lacking in the ability to dismantle the established systems that oppressed Hellhounds. You had a name, and physical power, but no wealth to speak of (besides what you earned at I.M.P.). However, you were still doing something. Your followers had built a tight-knit community, and it was clear that the status of Hellhounds was improving gradually. They were no longer being oppressed, instead aided by a steadily growing portion of the Pride Ring's population. The threat of harming a Hellhound was too great for those who didn't support you, for having a mob of sinners bound to help the Hellborn attack them was a near certainty. Even the sinners who had sought refuge from other Overlords found their lives an improvement over their peers whose souls had been taken by someone else. Your influence in Hell was spreading.