The Hundred Reigns 208: The World of Ruins (2)

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Rather than wait to be ambushed, Simon began casting all of his buffs.

The fact that the sun was still high meant he couldn’t use Moonlight Mirage to improve his speed, but Regenerate, Shadowshield, and other cursebuffs should compensate. They spread to his dracozombie mount through their Warmonger bond, at which point Simon went into the offense. 

“Ruin!” he cast on the shadow in the water, opening hostilities with a blanket ailment bombardment. 

His spell bounced straight back at him. 

Though Ruin simply required a line of sight without a projectile medium, Simon still sensed his miasma being turned against him.

Ruin failed to overcome Mirror! Ailments negated by Indomitable Crown and Unyielding Essence!

Simon was thankfully immune to all of his own ailments, but this didn’t bode well for the fight, especially when he saw two red eyes glowing with malevolence beneath the water. A familiar weight of mental exhaustion seized him and quickly revealed his attacker’s identity. 

Lotan’s Crushing Loneliness has cut you off from all others!

Your dracozombie has lost all of its buffs!

Simon barely had time to blink in surprise at the notification before his enemy struck from beneath the water. Purple spheres of miasma shot out of the sea at his mount, forcing the latter to dodge. The projectiles expanded to swallow the clouds above before collapsing in on themselves, crushing anything inside. While Simon’s dracozombie retaliated with its putrid breath, the toxic water’s surface provided plenty of cover for their enemy. 

Lotan? Is the Cobweb somehow still active, or did it escape imprisonment? Simon had little time to wonder about those questions as he attempted to strip the underwater demon of its Mirror effect. “Invert!”

Since it didn’t bounce back, Simon assumed his Invert spell had struck true and morphed Lotan’s Mirror effect into an ailment. He followed through by casting Hellthunder into the water; while it was one of his weaker spells, it should spread through the water and thus easily hit Lotan. 

Simon’s lack of minions to drain mana from meant he could only count on his current reserves, so he had to pace himself. 

His lightning spell fell upon the ocean and spread through the waters in great crimson bolts that revealed Lotan’s shape under the surface. A shriek echoed in response to Simon’s attack, confirming it had hit true.

The sea split open at this point. 

A powerful force repulsed the waters around Lotan, creating a vast spherical perimeter of nothingness around the demon and revealing it floating above the sea floor. The fiend had grown in size since their last encounter and now rivaled Simon’s own dracozombie in bulk. The sheer miasma radiating from the crystal in its forehead was downright oppressive.

This was no summoned echo called into being by Silk’s grimoire, but the actual Zodiac Fiend, free to wreck havoc on the world with its full power.  

Simon thankfully didn’t sense the comet’s energies dwelling within the monster. Whatever enhancement Lotan had received four centuries ago from Abraxas had long faded away.

“Hate,” the crustacean horror hissed as it unfolded skeletal wings from its back and flew out of the ocean to chase after Simon. “Hate you.”

“Same,” Simon replied as he blasted the monster with Mindflayer, channeling all of his rage and loathing for the Zodiac Fiend into his spell. 

He had hoped his psychic attack would somehow bypass Lotan’s defense, yet it still repelled his spell. Lotan gathered miasma in his mandibles and fired another of those imploding spheres of his, except this one was thrice bigger and too quick to dodge. Simon had no choice but to forcefully detonate it with a well-placed blast of Hellfire. The sphere widened, its gravity calling all nearby water and poisonous air into itself, and then imploded into nothingness. 

A direct hit might be lethal, Simon cursed as his dracozombie and Lotan engaged in a race across the sky. The latter proved slower than his mount, but also relentless and impervious to damage. Simon attempted to fend it off with spells like Ectoplasmer or Chaos Wave, to no avail. Neither spell could close the distance between the two foes in spite of being non-physical attacks. 

The gulf separating Lotan from Simon simply never seemed to shrink for him. 

A Technique like Louis’ Spaceslash might bypass the demon’s defense by cutting through dimensions and ignoring distance, but Simon had no such ability to call upon. He had to find another hole in this impenetrable defense. 

Lotan gathered miasma in its mouth again, and inspiration suddenly struck Simon. 

“Dive down as soon as he fires!” Simon ordered his mount, since Crushing Loneliness had cancelled the telepathic connection between them. His dracozombie obediently flew closer to the water as soon as Lotan unleashed his newest projectile. 

Simon immediately activated Hellfire Gaze at that point, sending waves of cursed flames radiating from his eyes past the sphere and straight at Lotan. The inferno struck the Crab Zodiac Fiend in the face and caused it to hiss in pain, while its projectile was thrown off course and harmlessly hit the waters below. 

It cannot repel objects and attack at the same time, Simon realized, to his joy. Separation went both ways, so Lotan had to lower its barrier for a second before firing its projectiles. I just have to nail the timing. 

Lotan’s eyes glared at Simon, and mist began to pour out of its mouth. “Lonely Fog…” 

A patch of thick, rolling mist suddenly filled the sky, swallowing Simon and much of the area. The sea, sky, and Lotan were all obscured from sight. The sheer miasma in the fog shrouded even his Dark Visionary third eye and smothered all noise to the point Simon couldn’t hear the sea below anymore.

Where is it? Simon frantically looked around, preparing himself for the attack he knew would come soon. Where—

Two enormous pincers surged from the mist below to grab his mount’s throat and wing. 

Simon barely had time to blink before rows of sharp mandibles closed on him with hunger. He managed to catch two bare-handed, but two more closed in on the sides of his chest and dug into his armor deep enough to draw blood. 

Simon grit his teeth and powered through the terrible pain as he felt Lotan’s mandibles attempting to disembowel him. Simon’s superhuman strength now rivaled that of a cyclops, yet he still struggled to hold his own against the demon’s grip. 

“I hate you,” Lotan hissed, its malevolence as deep as the bottomless Abyss. The fiend began to tear the raging dracozombie in two by pulling from two directions with its pincers. Simon’s corrosive blood failed to harm the monster either, likely because it had grown used to dwelling inside a toxic ocean. “I hate the sick and the healthy, the living and the dead. Hate mortals and immortals. Hate what is not me. Hate you. Hate.”

The Crab demon began to gather miasma in its mouth to blast Simon at point-blank range, but the Overlord proved quicker on the draw.

“Darkbound.”

Simon underwent a sudden growth spurt that shattered his enemies’ mandibles.

The poor dracozombie below him didn’t share the effect due to Crushing Loneliness and ended up crushed underneath its master. Rather than a large monster attempting to bite a mouse, Lotan was now tussling with an equally large and much stronger opponent. Simon swiftly grabbed its skull and pushed it back, with Lotan’s newest projectile missing his head by an inch. The blast flew out of sight, drawing in fog while at it. 

Then Simon pressed his thumbs into the demon’s eyes and blinded him. 

Lotan shrieked in pain, which delighted Simon as much as the feeling of demon blood dripping down his fingers. He pushed and pressed, hoping to shatter his foe’s head like a fruit. 

“Leave me…” Lotan thrummed with power and fury. “Alone!”

A Chaos Wave of cataclysmic proportions erupted from Lotan, tearing the dracozombie to pieces and throwing Simon across the sky. He was propelled backward faster than the wind, escaping the fog and continuing his course without pause. 

Lotan became a small spot in the distance, and then nothing. 

—--------

Simon was flung for countless miles across the sea in the blink of an eye. 

He tried to slow down with Darkflight, but his sheer velocity meant he ended up hitting an obstacle before he could adjust his trajectory. His vision went white with a sickening crack echoing through his head. 

On one hand, the impact hurt like hell.  

On the other hand, he finally hit land.

Ugh… Simon struggled to think as his body shrank back to normal size, sand flowing over his armor. 

Thank the Light and Dark he hit normal rocks rather than magical ones, or Unyielding Essence wouldn’t have shielded him and he would be a bloody smear on the shore right now. The impact had broken quite a few of his bones in spite of his buffs, and he could hardly move a muscle. 

“Reg… Regenerate…” Simon cast after cancelling his armor and uttering his Prayer. The magic filled his body, slowly putting his ribs back into their proper place and closing the wounds Lotan opened on his sides. “Ah…”

Simon put back his armor as soon as he recovered enough to stand up, then looked at the horizon. The poison sea stretched on in the distance as far as the eye could see. He searched it for any hint of Lotan, but he could see nothing but clouds. Simon remained tense for a while before realizing he was waiting for nothing. 

The battle had come to an abrupt conclusion. Either Lotan had lost track of him, or the fiend did not dare give pursuit. Simon had the feeling it would be a temporary respite either way.  

No matter. The next time that Crab dared to attack him, Simon would be ready to put him down for good. 

This at least told me two things, Simon thought as he looked around. I’m not alone, and the ocean is dangerous. 

He had hit a stony cliff whose clefts oversaw a black sand beach. Such places were usually littered with seashells, algae, or flotsam, yet this one was as devoid of life just like Frightwall’s shores. Simon briefly wondered if Lotan was the only thing that remained to haunt this bleak new world until he spotted something unusual far beyond the cliff.

Smoke. 

Plumes of smoke rose into the sky to the west. Possibly an active volcano, or a forest fire, or maybe even forges. Simon climbed the cliff by hand to avoid spending precious miasma after deciding to investigate. 

He found quite the apocalyptic sight.

An expansive region of sandy dunes and narrow rocky ravines stretched ahead into the horizon, with not a single patch of grass or tree to improve the view. A vast firestorm of colossal proportion dominated the horizon and filled the air with smoke. 

When priests of the Light discussed Hell, surely they imagined something like this. 

Simon nonetheless took this finding with optimism, because a firestorm usually meant forests and thus life. He must have finally reached Magvolia’s Darkwood, or at least a similar environment.   

Since he wouldn’t be able to summon his dracozombie until at least one hour had passed, Simon started the journey on foot and walked into the desert. The air was hot, and would have been unbearably so without his natural Fire resistance. The dry wind alone broke the silence. 

At first.

It didn’t take Simon long for his heightened Perception to catch on to small and familiar noises coming from the dunes around him. He stopped at a desolate spot between three of them, his body trembling with anticipation. 

“Come on out,” Simon called out to the enemies slithering around him. “I’m happy to negotiate your surrender in good faith.”

A few seconds of silence followed, at which point his enemies revealed themselves. They were a strange motley of bizarre monsters: centaur-like archers with a scorpion’s lower body and a ghoulish humanoid torsos, ten-foot tall felines, demons resembling savage humanoid lionesses with pitch black eyes, undead soldiers wielding sabers, three demonic manticores, and even a handful of stone golems with carved lion faces. The leader appeared to be an undead mummy. Clad in bandages like Chrom Cruak, the corpse wore expensive clothes and a golden mask resembling a sphinx. 

Simon was starting to notice a pattern there. 

“You would be wise to surrender, elf,” the mummy rasped, a golden glaive in his hand. “I do not know how you slipped past our lines so deep into Lord Mithras’ territory, but your journey ends here.”

“Mithras?” Simon squinted at them behind his helmet. Elves were apparently still common enough that he could be mistaken for one. Interesting. “You serve the Lion?”

“The War Lion rules these lands drenched in blood.” The mummy pointed his glaive at Simon. “If you bend the knee, you may yet join his armies as a slave and sword-fodder.”

Simon scoffed in disdain. He could taste the anxiety radiating from his ambushers. Although they outnumbered him by three dozen to one, Unquestionable Ruler instilled in them a primal awareness of where he stood on the food chain compared to them. 

“I assume this place used to be called Navarre? Then I fear you are under a misconception.” Hellfire built up in Simon’s eyes. “You are trespassing on my lands.”

Simon slaughtered them with a mere wave of his Dreadful Aura.  

His malice poured out in a flood of curses that snuffed out many lives and left a handful of soul gems in their wake. The golems and undead soldiers alone were spared, but Simon quickly vaporized the latter with his Hellfire Gaze. 

While the mummy was left speechless and terrorized by this gross display of power, the mindless golems charged at him with towering fists. Simon dodged one, grabbed its arm in midswing, and then threw the automaton at its nearest ally with much violence. He then summoned his scepter in the form of a mace and pulverized the rest with Underworld Hammer. 

The blow shattered the golems to pieces and raised flames so hot they scoured the dune’s sand to molten glass. Once he was done, Simon looked up at the mummy survivor.

The undead met his gaze for a second and clutched his glaive with his courage’s last embers…

“Now,” Simon said, raising his mace, “where were we—”

The mummy turned away and ran down the dune.

Simon remained silent a moment as he struggled with disbelief, then activated Darkflight and chased after the mummy. He quickly caught up to the foolish undead and smashed him into the ground, face first. 

“I concede that was an excellent strategy,” he warned the mummy, “but alas, I need a guide.”

The mummy attempted to fight with the energy of despair, but Simon easily shattered his glaive underfoot and followed through by enslaving his soul with the Brand of Pride. Simon had almost forgotten the rush that particular Devil Brand provided.

He had the nagging feeling he would get used to it by the time this reign came to an end.

“Answer me truthfully,” Simon said after tossing his new minion aside. “Where is this Mithras? Who is he fighting against?” 

“I will tell you noth—” The mummy let out a rattle as the brand took him over. “Lord Mithras rules an empire south of these Borderlands… he entrusts operations against the elves to his warlords…”

“The elves? Are you fighting Illusea’s armies?” Had that damn Oracle somehow survived the mess she created? 

“They’re just… the elves.” The political situation appeared lost on the undead. “Their woods must fuel the fires of Lord Mithras’ forges, so his armies may defeat the Destroyers.”

“The Destroyers?” Simon didn’t like the sound of that. “Who are they?”

“The Destroyers are the enemy!” the mummy snapped back with fanaticism. “They are archfiends who would destroy the world Lord Mithras and his fellow Dominators are destined to rule!”

Did he speak of Exodeos and Shin-Drazil? Mithras was allied with Valravn, who implied other members of the Zodiac Fiends would rather destroy the world than rule it. Simon guessed that four hundred years had been plenty of time for those differences to boil over into an open conflict. 

“A Zodiac civil war?” This explained why Demonbinding had failed: Hell was empty because all the demons were already here. “I suppose it saves me the trouble of hunting them down myself.”

Still, the knowledge that enough Zodiac Fiends were active for them to raise armies and take sides didn’t reassure him in the slightest. He was alone and without allies to confront them. 

The enemy of my enemy could be an ally… and these elves may be unrelated to Illusea. Simon interrogated the mummy a bit further and confirmed the fires on the horizon came from their burned and besieged forests. I could at least capture and interrogate one for answers. 

Unfortunately, the mummy was of little value. He was a mere sergeant—Mithras’ army was apparently structured enough to use military ranks—tasked with intercepting anyone approaching these lands and bringing them back to a fortress closer to the elven frontline for labor or interrogation. He knew nothing of the demons’ military operations or the political landscape besides fanatical loyalty to Mithras. He didn’t even know which archfiend fought on which side of the Dominator-Destroyer conflict.

However, his superior at that border fortress should be more than kind enough to answer Simon’s questions on the matter…

“Lord Deathmonger is one of the strongest archfiend warlords in Lord Mithras’ service!” the wretch boasted once Simon had finished interrogating him. “He will shred you and shit out your soul!”

“If I were you…” Simon glanced at one of the manticore corpses, and his newfound collection of miasma gemstones lying in the sand. “I would stop worrying about my soul and start fearing for yours…”

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