The Hundred Reigns 151: Vouivre Delenda Est (17)

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The Lighthouse crumbled in on itself.

The Miasma Cannon blast had struck its base and destabilized the entire structure, causing it to fall to the side onto the plains which it once towered over. Thousands upon thousands of tons of stone and marble crashed onto the ground below in a cataclysmic waterfall of rubble. A massive plume of smoke arose into the sky, followed by a flash of blue light. 

Simon would be lying if he said the Lighthouse’s destruction didn’t shake him to his core. The monument had stood strong since the Doom, enduring over the centuries through Mardok’s slaughters, Gargauth’s devastation, and Balzam’s conquests… yet it took a mere two shots from Vouivre’s Miasma Cannon to bring it down. Simon hoped the wards keeping the demons and monsters sealed by the Church of the Light beneath its base would hold rather than unleash more horrors into the countryside. 

It was always so much easier to destroy than to create. 

No, no, no, I must focus, Simon told himself, forcing himself to keep his mind on the battle. I have to win. If I waver now, I’m dead. 

If he hesitated now, it would have all been for nothing. So he steeled his resolve and focused. 

Miles separated Simon and his allies from the main camp, but he could see raging flames in the sky past the veil of smoke. Endymion’s forces had engaged their own over the ruins of the fallen temple. 

“Duchar, report,” Simon ordered through telepathy. 

“Empress Euphemia and her followers have engaged Lady Vouivre’s troops,” the necromancer replied, “My children and I are currently protecting the Miasma Cannon and Prince Thalas from Prince Dassein’s attacks, but I cannot say how long we can endure.”

“I’ll reinforce your position immediately,” Simon replied, glancing at Lorimor. The scholar had rejoined them after sending the Adventurer’s airship to crash into the maelstrom now swallowing up Voltobauta’s fleet. “Lord of the Demon Castle.”

Simon teleported alongside Casval and Lorimor, leaving the fleet to sink into the waters. They reappeared right next to the miasma crystal embedded in the cannon and were swiftly welcomed by the thundering clamor of battle.

A terrible scene of carnage stretched out in front of him. The surrounding plains had turned into a swamp as the fallen Water Manalith oozed gallons upon gallons of liquid from atop the Lighthouse’s smoking ruins, drowning the grass with mud. Priests had taken position there and shot long-range spells at the Miasma Cannon and the Chest of Worlds, only to bounce off a barrier Duchar and the witch coven had raised around it. Hector and Borsh were clashing with Beatrice and her templars in the muck a little further below on a relatively even footing, the Berserker and his mechanical wolf ally tearing apart holy knights while taking wounds from sacred blades. Beatrice and her forces tried to hold their ground the best they could to protect the priests from the tide of shifter soldiers attacking them from all sides. 

Simon spotted Mastemo across the battlefield, raining down beams of holy light while surrounded by hills of shifter corpses. A strange, colossal entity composed of a house-sized world sphere topped by a mechanical, faceless humanoid torso floated above him, its two golden wings ending in trumpets rather than feathers. The entity blasted down dragonkin trying to approach the High Confessor with soundblasts that tore them to pieces. 

However, the true battle took place in the sky. Dassein’s Rider Corps was contesting the air with a much more numerous army of dragonkin. Endymion’s wyvern and griffin riders were Hastened and well-trained, but quantity was a quality all of its own; there was only so much thousands of high level warriors could do against a horde of dragons that outnumbered them twenty to one. Every wyvern rider took down two of its foes before being swarmed, but their troops felt the sting of the losses much more deeply.

Meanwhile, Vouivre had transformed into her monstrous five-headed form and clashed with Euphemia a mile away from Simon’s position, breathing apocalyptic projectiles at the Judge. Endymion’s empress had put on her Class outfit and grown two wings of light that carried her into the air. She brought down a golden warhammer crackling with holy light and thunderous lightning onto Vouivre’s central head, smashing it so hard the much larger beast actually wavered.

However, the more pressing threat to Simon right now was the golden manticore trying to claw its way past the barrier protecting the Miasma Cannon, and the enraged man on its back. 

“Thalas!” Dassein called out from above, clad in his gilded Rider armor. His half-brother’s steel coffin was tied to the Miasma Cannon. “I’m coming, brother! Hold on!”

You never came for me, Simon thought bitterly, though he tried to suppress those feelings. Dassein did try to help him in the past. It’s too late either way. 

He had to see this through. 

“We can’t let him break through the barrier,” Simon warned Casval and his allies, “Lorimor, Belzemine, with me.”

“Together, we’re invincible, Friend Simon!” Casval boasted with confidence as he took flight. 

Simon wasn’t so sure. Leonard had called Dassein an army of his own capable of matching and defeating Vouivre in battle, and Shabram’s intel put him at over level seventy-five. His half-brother was a fearsome foe who outmatched him in single combat.

However, Simon had managed to beat Thalas while thirty levels under him with reinforcements. They didn’t need to kill Dassein either, and Simon would rather avoid it; they only had to repel him and force him to lick his wounds.

Simon immediately opened hostilities by casting Ruin at Dassein, who shrugged off the Madness, Silence, Blind, and Disease ailments… but ended up affected by Poison as green spots appeared on his skin. Simon hoped his Rider bond would cause the ailment to spread to his manticore as well, to no avail.

Dassein nonetheless backed away to avoid Casval’s breath of fire as the dragon rushed out through the barrier, with Lorimor and Belzemine in tow. The latter had put on her Pyromancer outfit on and flew into the air by channeling a stream of fire from her feet, then quickly cast a buff on Simon. “Aegis.”

Her magic flowed through Simon and quickly expanded to Casval thanks to their bond, reinforcing them both and finally putting an end to the Bleed ailment Voltobauta had placed on Simon earlier. 

Hasten, Rampart, Barrier, Regen, and Aureole status applied for ten minutes.

Simon’s group emerged from the barrier and quickly surrounded Dassein from all sides in a triangle formation, though the Rider didn’t look threatened in the slightest. His manticore roared and snapped its jaws at all of them with bloodthirst. 

“Simon… it is you, isn’t it?” Dassein asked as he spotted his brother, scowling beneath his helmet. “So Anna’s words rang true… you’ve been possessed.” His fists clenched with regrets. “I’m sorry, brother. I knew I should have given chase when you left the Academy, even if it meant disobeying orders… this is all my fault…”

“You couldn’t have changed anything,” Simon replied, though he knew he was both lying and wasting his words. He was just so tired of it all. “Leave this place, brother. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I’m not leaving without my siblings, you fiend!” A golden spear crackled with lightning in Dassein’s hands as his grief turned to rage. He immediately pointed it at Simon. “I will tear you out of my brother’s body with my bare hands if I must! Have at you!”

Simon immediately sensed an invisible pressure weighing down on him, forcing him to focus on Dassein and ignore the chaos around them.  

Rider Dassein challenged you to a Joust! You will inflict reduced damage on all targets except Rider Dassein until you complete the Joust!

Simon mentally ordered his allies to attack and fired an Ectoplasmer spell. Casval breathed fire, Lorimor unleashed a volley of eye beams, and Belzemine followed through with a volley of fireballs. 

Dassein watched this onslaught coming from all directions, and his answer was a roar of defiance. 

The mane of his manticore suddenly glowed like the heart of the sun in a blinding flash of light. Simon grunted as he covered his eyes in an attempt to protect himself, to no avail. His vision went white for a second. 

Blind ailment transferred by Lovestruck! 

“I don’t see anything!” Casval complained through their telepathic link. 

“Fly left!” Simon ordered as he saw Dassein fly past all projectiles sent his way and rush at him with his spear with phenomenal speed. Casval thankfully managed to avoid the blow aimed at him as Dassein flew past them, the tip of his spear missing them by an inch. 

There are still cracks in my ailment immunities, Simon realized, to his annoyance. Bleed, Blind, and what else? “Petrify!”

He attempted to strike at Dassein’s manticore and send them plummeting to the ground the same way he had slain one of the Monk’s students, but the beast easily shrugged it off. Lorimor—who was naturally immune to blinding effects as a creature with so many eyes—continued to bombard him with eyebeams, but the manticore simply ascended upward to dodge them all. 

“Gjallarhorn!” Dassein shouted during his ascent, a war horn appearing in his free hand. He quickly blew into it, its roar so loud it hurt Simon’s ears. The poison infecting Dassein was immediately dissipated, while a thin forcefield Simon recognized as the Rampart and Barrier status effects covered both him and his mount. 

His Rider abilities are better than my Warmonger Perk, Simon thought as Belzemine quickly healed Casval of his blindness with a healing spell, They only share beneficial effects, not the negative ones. 

“Target the mount and stay at range,” Simon ordered his troops as they gave pursuit. “Lorimor, dispel and debuff, Belzemine all offense. If his Perks are anything like mine, the Rider cannot be dismounted by force.”

The trio chased after Dassein into the sky, flying past the dense melee of dragonkin exchanging fire with the Rider Corps. They traveled past the sea of clouds until the people below vanished into dots. 

Dassein suddenly turned around and charged back at them with the speed of a meteor, forcing the trio to split up. The manticore deftly dodged Lorimor’s eyebeams and gave chase to Casval, catching up to him in spite of his Hastened status. 

We have to slow him down somehow, Simon thought as he put on one of his magical rings and called out a wind div. The toad demon gathered his breath and breathed out a croak that blew a storm Dassein’s way. 

The Rider suddenly found himself facing hostile winds that significantly slowed him down, allowing Lorimor to close in and hit him with his dispelling eyebeams. Dassein’s Rampart and Barrier protections were stripped away, but he quickly retaliated by throwing his lightning spear like a javelin at the scholar. The projectile surged across the battlefield like a thunderbolt and impaled Lorimor through his torso, the impact being so strong it tore out half his body and killed him instantly. 

Belzemine flew past Lorimor’s falling corpse and moved behind Dassein, her hands gathering a blue fireball. Casval charged forward with the wind at its back like a jouster horse and trapped the Rider between him and his elf ally. The manticore unleashed its own fiery breath to clash with Casval while Simon cast a quick Putrefy. His spell rotted the manticore’s left wing, and Belzemine blasted off the other. 

Yet it did not fall.

Dassein’s manticore continued to float in place in spite of its crippling wounds while its rider unsheathed a colossal, curved greatsword. Dassein swung it at Simon and Casval, the slice creating some kind of curved beam of light. Casval immediately dodged by veering to the side, but Simon realized they were never the targets when his wind div was sliced in two and summarily slain. 

With no storm to slow him down, Dassein’s manticore charged after Casval with a fiery aura surrounding it. Simon managed to cast a quick Mindflayer spell that caused the beast to veer off its trajectory before it could ram into his own mount. The manticore and the dragon instead flew past one another like jousters, their riders trading blows. 

“Fight the evil back, brother!” Dassein shouted at Simon as his sword clashed with his sibling’s morningstar. The sheer blowback would have unhorsed them both without their Perks, yet neither refused to yield. “I don’t want to hurt you!”

“Me neither!” Simon snapped back with bottled anger and bitterness. “But you and the others never listen!”

The two riders’ weapons ceased their clash and they continued to fly past one another. Belzemine forced Dassein back with fireballs when he tried to turn around for another charge, the manticore swirling on itself to dodge the attacks and swimming through the clouds like a shark on the prowl. 

“Prince Dassein has Auto-Hasten and Auto-Levitation effects of some kind, Your Majesty,” Belzemine warned Simon through telepathy, “They reapply themselves every minute.”

“So we only have one minute of vulnerability at best,” Simon thought back. The Rider’s Perks weren’t as versatile as those of the Overlord or the Mage, but like the Berserker, they were excellent for their specific purpose. “Wait and Dispel at my command.” 

To his surprise, Dassein suddenly had his manticore fly up towards the sun. He put his war horn aside and raised his hand, the spear he used to impale Lorimor to death returning to him in an instant. 

“Charged Attack, Wotan’s Judgment!" he shouted as lightning began to gather in his spear. Magic swirled around him, and he suddenly stopped his ascent once he was half a mile above his enemies. “This will hurt, brother, but I swear you won’t die!”

Simon doubted his promise as the air suddenly became oppressive. Dragonkin and demons alike below them turned to nervously look up at the Rider the way animals anxiously stared at an incoming thunderstorm.  

“Friend Simon…” Casval said, sounding anxious. “I don’t think that’s good for us…”

“It’s not!” Simon replied as he ordered his allies to charge. Casval and Belzemine immediately ascended after Dassein. “Putre–”

Then came the notifications. 

Anti-Heal and Anchor ailment transferred by Lovestru–

Anti-Heal and Anchor! Sharp debuff to all stats!

Simon was almost used to these sneaky attacks, but the real surprise lay in their source: the Devil Brands. 

A barrage of ailments flowed out from multiple thralls of his spread across the battlefield, traveling through the soul connection he shared with them. Simon immediately put his Soul-reflecting amulet on to protect himself right as multiple psychic blasts of pure psychic energy traveled through the bonds. A few were deflected straight back at the senders, killing the thralls and cutting their connections, but others slipped past his safeguard to assault his mind. The mother of all headaches seized him and set his brain ablaze, breaking his concentration and paralyzing his thoughts. 

Mind damage! Mind damage!

Simon suddenly realized he had made a terrible assumption: that since the brands bonded with the soul, only Soul-elemental attacks could travel through them, and his amulet didn’t protect him from the Mind element... Even Indomitable Crown only shielded him from mind-affecting effects like Madness or Berserker rather than the pure blasts of psychic damage traveling through the brands.

“Ah…” Simon tried to form a word, and failed. Not only did the constant barrage of mental attacks paralyze his body and mind, but the Anti-Heal effect turned Aegis’ regeneration into an insidious poison eating away at him from the inside out. “Must… break…”

“Friend Simon?!” Casval asked in panic, noticing his distress and shock. “What’s going on?!”

“Your Majesty!” Belzemine’s eyes widened in alarm, and she quickly rushed to help him rather than target Dassein. “Clear!” 

Her spell—some kind of advanced Dispel—removed the Anchor and Anti-Heal status effects alongside his buffs, which allowed Simon to immediately drain the thralls to death in order to both heal himself and cut off the connection… at the cost of letting Dassein complete his technique. 

“Here it comes!” Dassein chanted an incantation, immense amounts of lightning gathering in his spear until the heavens themselves were streaked with thunderbolts. “The supreme lightning that guarantees victory!”

Acting quickly, Simon put on his Ring of Cursed Thunder and cast one last spell to protect his allies. “Elemental Imbalance: Lightning–”

“Ragnarok!”

The lightning burned the horizon and smote them.

A thunderbolt of unbelievable voltage burst out of Dassein’s spear with all the heavens’ fury. Belzemine moved in front of Simon and Casval to hastily weave a magical barrier to protect them, but the bolt pulverized the meager shield and vaporized the elf along with it. Simon heard the echo of her death ripple through her brands right as the light consumed him and Casval. 

His dragon shrieked in agony, and so did its rider. Though Simon’s ring shielded him from the actual lightning, he couldn’t say the same for the divine energies carried by the current. They fried his eyes and tongue, set his nerves ablaze, and melted the Overlord armor and his flesh in a blinding flash of true agony. 

Wotan’s Judgment pierced through your mount’s Lightning Resistance!

Massive Mythic damage! 

Simon only managed to formulate one thought through the pain and thunder: Lord of the Demon Castle.

He and Casval teleported next to the Miasma Cannon, two piles of half-dead molten flesh lying in their own blood. 

Simon drained his remaining thralls to recover, his eyes healing enough for him to see again. His body hurt all over, his cracked Overlord armor leaked miasma, and he smelled of burnt flesh and leather, but he was still in a much better shape than his dragon mount. 

“Ah…” The charred thing that used to call itself Casval let out a rattle through a cheekless mouth of bones. His scales were fried and gone in many places, leaving exposed flesh whose muscles continued to jolt from ambient lightning. Some of his guts had spilled over the ground. “It… hurts…”

“Hold on…” Simon grunted as he removed his Overlord outfit. Every word hurt his chest. “Kind lightstone, restore our wounds with… your Megaheal…”

His magic coursed through his hands and flowed into Casval, soothing his pain and closing a handful of his many, many wounds.

“I… can’t see…” Casval rasped, shivering. “Simon… I don’t… want to die…”

“I won’t let you,” Simon lied as he continued to cast Megaheal, to little avail. Casval was losing more blood and guts than his magic could heal him. “I won’t let you.”

He issued a telepathic call to Cassandra and the others to regroup at his position and come help, yet received no answer. The barrier protecting the Miasma Cannon had disappeared and he could hear the sound of battle in the distance. Was their position being assaulted? 

“Ah… I’m… relieved…” Casval rasped, coughing blood. “She… would have left me…”

“She’ll be back for you,” Simon lied. Vouivre was still locked in battle with Euphemia across the horizon, if the blasts of energy and holy pillars of light across the horizon were any indication. “Just wait–”

He heard footsteps behind him. Heavy ones. 

“You know,” a familiar voice said, Simon immediately putting his Overlord armor back on, “That was the exact same tactic your father used to take down Gargauth’s thrall network.”

Of course this was all his trap… Simon thought as he forced himself to peek over his shoulder to see the figure of the Commander standing behind him with a squad of Assassins and Ninjas whose weapons were drenched in blood, likely those of his followers. “How…”

“I read my daughter’s letters. Between the timing and your powers, the truth wasn’t hard to glimpse. I kept quiet because she cared… and I will die regretting it.” Maublanc unsheathed a Fablan-styled saber, his eyes gleaming with pure hatred beneath his helmet. “My daughter loved you, and you killed her.” 

That accusation hurt even more than Dassein’s lightning. 

Simon immediately attempted to teleport himself and Casval to Frightwall, consequences be damned, but he sensed a weight forcing him to stay there and face his death. 

Commander Maublanc’s No Escape Tactic prevents escape and teleportation outside its perimeter!

“Gargauth tried that too, for all of his draconic pride,” Maublanc said with disdain. “You betrayed your own blood and nation to dragons, and for what? Because you thought you were above consequences?” 

“Yes,” Simon replied honestly. He couldn’t deny the truth. “Yes… I thought I was.”

“You were wrong.” Maublanc walked forward while his men watched, clearly intending to murder Simon himself. “Your short reign is at an end, patricidal scum.”

Simon summoned his morningstar, though he knew it was futile. He was out of thralls to drain, surrounded, and unable to teleport. The best he could do would be to use Darkflight to fly out of the perimeter and escape, but it would mean abandoning Casval and the Chest of Worlds. 

“Friend Simon…” Casval rasped. “Fly away.”

“Not without you,” Simon replied, the words escaping his mouth before realizing he had uttered them. Why? Why was he holding his ground for him?

“Oh…” Casval coughed, sounding somewhat pleased. “Alright… then…”

The dying Casval gulped, and spat out a pair of broken scales at the Commander’s feet.

Maublanc and his soldiers only had time to blink before a massive amount of miasma erupted from the artifact, a wave of fear and dread heralding the coming of their doom. A towering demonic knight formed from those energies, a crystal glowing on his chest. 

“Take comfort, mortals, for your futile struggle is at an end,” Exodeos declared as shadows danced around him to celebrate his return, “And your meaningless existence with it.”

Casval’s hand suddenly surged and struck Simon on the chest by surprise, throwing him back right as Exodeos summoned his Abyssal Domain. Casval, the Zodiac Fiend, the Commander and his soldiers… all were swallowed into a sphere of darkness that cut them off from the rest of the universe, leaving Simon alone next to the Miasma Cannon. 

What… What just happened? 

Did Casval… did Casval sacrifice himself to save him? Why? Simon knew the truth, but he struggled to accept it, because he didn’t want to admit it was the same reason why he had held his ground. 

In the end, they had indeed become friends. 

In spite of their reptilian nature, in spite of their cruelty and savagery, in spite of everything… dragons could feel affection for others. 

The blade struck Simon in the back of the head, splitting his helmet and spilling his brain onto the ground. Something bypassed his Betrayed Title, the blow hitting so hard it brought him to his knees and filled his eyes with blood. 

Oh…. Simon thought as he looked up at the cannon to find a certain steel coffin empty and dangling into the void. Of course Maublanc would free him as well. 

“That was for Anna,” he heard Thalas say behind him as he pulled back his weapon for a second strike. He sounded grim, his words devoid of glee or satisfaction. There was only revenge and duty left to carry him forward. “This one is for me.”

The last thing Simon saw before his head rolled off his shoulders was lightning striking Vouivre across the horizon. 

For the only thing capable of bringing a unified House Magnos down… was itself.

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A/N: and we're onto the Sanctuary in the Sky arc next ;) thank everyone who participated in the poll!