The Hundred Reigns 239: The Land of the Warlords (19)

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They gave no quarter and asked for none in turn. 

The fact that Alcyone had managed to teleport inside the Sanctuary’s barrier immediately put Simon on edge. Had Lauriane’s miasmic takeover of Junon weakened her defenses to the point some teleportation effects could pierce through it? Or had the Oracle empowered the Adventurer with spells allowing her to do just that? 

Whatever the cause, Alcyone was now the most dangerous fighter in this battle—short of the Oracle, if she had dared to take the field—because she could potentially teleport anywhere in the Sanctuary with a Party of her own, including inside the Forbidden Keep. She could drop assassins behind their lines at will or rescue allies in the nick of time. 

There would be no victory with her in play.

Simon knew the only way to keep her away was to offer too big a target for her to resist, and true enough, her Party immediately chased after him once he had his dracozombie fly over Zephyr’s coast. Their pegasi hunted after him over the birdcage pens holding the kish and the ruins of their villages, though only Alphonse and his father’s mounts matched his own in speed. Their Paladin and Knight Classes boasted riding Perks empowering their mounts.

“I have cancelled the attack on Illusea!” Simon shouted at his pursuers, though he knew his words would be wasted. “I have ordered a ceasefire!”

“Liar!” Alphonse shouted in anger, his Mana Sword replica glowing like the sun in his hand. “Your minions plotted to throw these islands down on the world below the moment they set foot on them! Glint Slash!”

He used a Technique—maybe a spell—which Simon had yet to see, his sword’s slash transforming into a beam of light as it cut through the air. Simon’s dracozombie drowned its radiance in its poisoned breath, but this was a mere distraction. Ser Richard flanked Simon and attempted to strike him. His swift sword clashed with Deathmace to the sound of a resounding blow. 

There was no enthusiasm or bloodlust in Simon’s strike. These people were righteous souls whom he had called his friends in previous reigns. The fact that they now fought on opposing sides was an unfortunate outcome.

Still, Simon had grown used to fighting former friends across the reigns, and he was in no hurry to die. 

His vastly superior strength allowed him to repel Richard with such might that he was nearly thrown off his pegasus. Frea cast thunderbolts, Alcyone threw ice knives, and Mel fired an enchanted crossbow. Satine attempted to assist them, but her Prayers fizzled out before they could turn into spells. 

Simon’s Heretic Title was paying dividends. 

His Hastened mount gracefully avoided almost all of their attacks, except for one. As befitting someone with a Ranger Vassal Class, Mel accurately struck Simon in the shoulder with a crossbow bolt. It pierced through his magical defenses and armor alike, then tried—and failed—to strip him of all of his magic. 

Rune of False Weakness negated Dispelling Bolt.

Sacred wood, Simon recognized as he ripped the bolt out of his shoulder with one hand. The projectile had been made from the same runecrafted material as the bullet that nearly slew him. She must have a limited amount. 

They had come prepared. 

Simon chanted Culebre’s summoning song and called him to his side, his servant materializing in a flash of miasma. His thunderous trumpet echoed across the sky and bewitched the pegasi carrying Alphonse’s team to battle. 

Simon received a new glimpse of Hell as causality was once again violated. He saw the ghosts of Alphonse’s party fighting among the ruins of a castle he didn’t recognize, the tattered banners of the White Unicorn fluttering in the wailing wind. The flash lasted a mere instant, yet he could have sworn those specters were glaring at him through the veil of time itself. 

Simon returned to reality to find that while the party’s pegasi might have been protected from his Dreadful Aura thanks to buffs and other contingencies, there were always cracks in ailment defenses. Winged horses had more in common with the likes of the kish than their earthbound cousins. 

They fell under Culebre’s influence and tossed their riders overboard. 

Many riding-type Perks prevented their users from being unhorsed, but this clearly didn’t apply when the mounts themselves refused to play along. The entire Paladin’s party was thrown off down to the ruins of a kish village below, with Alcyone immediately teleporting to catch the likes of Mel before they could hit the ground. 

However, two of his foes didn’t fall.

Satine and Frea levitated in the air with the strength of their magic, their staves radiating mana.

Simon had already seen Frea do that back when their group besieged the Halls of the Minotaur, but his own Darkflight was a Tier VI spell. Satine would have to be at least level 50 to use something in that weight class, or else rely on a rare magical item. 

They’re stronger. A combination of Heroic Destiny, Alcyone’s Party System, and the constant pressure of the war had provided plenty of experience for this group to level-up on. Simon had to assume they were at least all level 50 at the bare minimum by now. But half of them are still inexperienced.

Besides, he already knew how to deal with mages. “When the curtain of darkness falls on a world devoid of light…” 

“Teacher, I can’t use my Prayers!” Satine panicked as her magic continued to fizzle out in her hands. “He’s blocking them somehow!” 

“Switch to Thaumaturgy!” Frea replied as she gathered energy in her staff. Simon immediately recognized the Nova incantation. 

Alas, she was too late. Carbuncle whined in horror as he materialized beside him, his whining turning into a wail upon transforming. 

Sustaining two dark eidolons at once used to be impossible for Simon, but Norbelle’s training and his improved miasma control had done wonders. It helped that Carbuncle and Culebre were relatively weak compared to Vayan’s overwhelming might. Maintaining the two strained his concentration, yet he endured. 

The veil of time flickered once again, and the vision from before returned clearer than ever. Simon recognized the castle as the one in Magvolia he had glimpsed in his old Remembrance, albeit ruined and collapsing. Satine was a wailing corpse weeping over a murdered knight, and Frea a banshee screaming in despair. It was so vivid, so real…

What were these damn visions? 

The light of the Nova spell banished the darkness and Simon’s thoughts alike. Carbuncle’s Mirror Auspice threw the spell back at its sender with violent force, with Frea instinctively creating a magical shield around herself. It held strong and only shattered with great difficulty. 

Alas, the less experienced Satine failed to do the same and ended up struck by the blast’s edge. Simon couldn’t see much of her due to the light, but it flung her body to the ground below. 

“Satine!” Frea shouted in alarm and concern. She immediately flew after her student to catch her, but Simon immediately exploited the opening by having his dracozombie close in. His beast opened its jaws to gobble up the elf whole. She proved quicker and waved her staff at the beast. “Piercing Spell!” 

Simon couldn’t tell whether she used a Sage Perk or another ability, yet the results were clear: when Frea activated her telekinetic push spell to repel the dracozombie, the Mirror effect failed to bounce it back. The wave of power shattered the undead beast’s jaws and pulverized its skull. 

Still, it provided Simon the opening he needed. He leaped off his dracozombie and then exploited Frea’s brief inability to cast her telekinetic push twice in a row to strike her in the chest. 

“Magic Eraser.”

His inhumanly strong blow tore Frea apart. 

A dash of guilt briefly struck Simon along with a rain of blood and bones, alongside dark thoughts. He had just slain two people he had called allies not too long ago, yet he felt none of the anguish that once paralyzed him when he accidentally slew Anna. 

He had almost gotten used to fighting people he called friends and family from one reign to another.  

What was he supposed to do? He didn’t want to commit mass murder, fight the Paladin and his allies, or let the Overlord spirit have its way with the world, but peace and diplomacy always fell on deaf ears. Neither the Church nor the War Party could bring balance to Endymion, staying out of trouble doomed the world, and half of the people who wanted to save it also wanted to kill him on principle. 

His doubts faded into worry when he realized he couldn’t activate Darkflight in midair. His miasma control still wasn’t good enough to do that while supporting two dark eidolons at once.

His summoned creatures dived to catch him while his dracozombie collapsed back into raw miasma, but someone else reached him first. Alcyone teleported right next to him, this time with no Chaos Wave to repel her sword as it impaled Simon through the chest. The magical ice coating the blade surged once it struck and froze the blood in his veins, and though he managed to put on a Ring of Cursed Winter to protect himself from the Frost damage, it still hurt. 

Supereffective damage! Ailments transferred through Lovestuck. 

“Culebre?! Carbuncle?!” Alcyone twisted the blade in fury upon recognizing the eidolons. “What have you done to them?!”

“I soiled them,” Simon replied grimly as he swung his mace at her. “Like this place.”

Alcyone teleported out of the way before the weapon could hit, yet new pain surged in Simon’s back. A crossbow bolt fired from the ground struck and unwove his magic. 

Buffs dispelled!

Simon cursed and managed to hang onto Culebre’s tail as they reached the ground. This allowed him to make landfall somewhat softly amidst the ruins of the kish village and immediately heal his wounds by draining his minions. 

A crux-shaped light glowed beneath his feet the moment his feet touched the ground. 

“Northstar Strike!“ Alphonse shouted. 

Simon hastily switched his Ring of Cursed Winter for a Light Immunity one provided by the Church, yet the Technique managed to pierce through its protection anyway thanks to the Paladin’s Perks. A burst of holiness swallowed Simon and put the demonic half of him through terrible pain. 

Supereffective Light damage! Anti-Heal, Sap, and Anchor ailments applied! Damage transfer Perks negated! Slow and other ailments negated by Unyielding Essence! 

This time, all of the Mana Sword replica’s effects affected Simon. Did its properties somehow carry through the Technique? Or did a Paladin’s Perks allow him to do that and cancel out Lovestruck on top of it? 

The Sap effect began to eat away at his miasma reserves, but not enough to offset what he could drain from others; the Anti-Heal effect, however, meant that he couldn’t heal anymore. Losing his Regen might actually have been a blessing in disguise. 

Alphonse and Ser Richard were already on the ground and flanking him from two sides, while Alcyone remained at range with runecarved throwing knives in hand. Simon couldn’t see Mel, but he did spot where a new bolt was coming from. 

Simon opened his Inventory and unleashed a surprise he had kept in reserve there. “Hector, to me!” 

His retainer appeared in the form of a steel golem. The rules of Inventory meant he had to dedicate individual slots to his retainer’s soul-infused helmet, Crestone, and steel golem body, but he could materialize all those pieces into a single whole. Three more demon-possessed steel automatons also appeared around Simon to complete the set and protect him from all sides. The dispelling crossbow bolt and Alcyone’s throwing knives bounced off their metal cuirasses and the Executioner’s axe. 

Culebre and Carbuncle descended from the sky to strike at Alphonse, the former with a sonic blast, the latter with a beam of miasma fired from his mirror. The Paladin Hastened himself to dodge the bombardment, but soon found himself forced to split off from his allies. 

“Hector, find the archer and deal with her,” Simon ordered Hector through telepathy before reactivating his Dreadful Aura to strengthen his allies and debuff his foes. “We must divide and pick them off individually.”

Two of his golems chased after Alcyone, who teleported away, and another prevented Ser Richard from rushing at Simon. Hector deflected another bolt and rushed towards its source to deal with Mel. 

Simon immediately used the brief respite to check on Anna through their brand connection. “Are you alright?”

“No,” his wife replied bluntly. “Your ailments are a pain to remove, and we’re still on our way to crash.”

Simon cursed as gears flew past him.

He thought his golem defender would slow down Ser Richard and allow him to reposition himself. He was mistaken. The knight struck a blow that sundered the machine in half through its armored chest in a single blow. Simon’s Armsmaster Perk recognized the move as some kind of Bladebreaker variant, except this version seemed optimized to either damage artificial constructs or armor. 

Richard was on him in an instant, his blade coated in electricity. Simon activated his Crown of Pain and instantly lunged at the knight with Deathmace. The two weapons clashed a second after Simon switched his current ring for one to shield him against the Lightning element. 

The electricity surging out of Richard’s blade inflicted no damage, while Simon struck true. The Mana Sword replica was inferior to the original in everything, and Simon had studied that one well. 

He had no issue finding its flaw.  

“Bladebreaker.”

It was somewhat ironic that Simon shattered Ser Richard’s blade with the very Technique his son had helped him refine. Its shards flew in all directions and left the old Knight wide open. 

Simon had watched Lorean swordsmen in action often enough to learn that almost every high-level fighter followed a Bladebreaker strike with a quick melee finisher. Ser Richard acted appropriately in this situation by instinctively stepping back to put some distance between them and avoid the strike he knew was coming. He didn’t even think about it. It was a reflex honed through years of fighting, and which likely saved his life many times. 

However, Simon anticipated this and switched Deathmace for a sheathed sword in his Inventory. He triggered Quickdraw and swiftly closed the gap between them, then immediately followed it up by replacing it back with his morning star. 

Underworld Hammer.

He caved Ser Richard’s chest plate in on itself and slammed the old knight into a fiery crater. Ser Richard was strong in a fighting Class and well-equipped, so he didn’t die instantly, but it did pin him to the ground. 

This allowed Simon to grab him by the throat and cast him into an abyss of terror. 

“I’m sorry, old man, but I need a hostage,” Simon apologized as the jaws of a hellish demiplane opened beneath the knight to swallow him whole. “The pain won’t last.”

His words didn’t provide any comfort to Richard as he vanished into the fire.

Simon recalled the day when he needed an army to barely scrape out a win against the Paladin’s party. It wasn’t that Alphonse’s allies were weak, since they had grown in strength compared to all their previous encounters. 

Alas, this was their first time battling Simon from their point of view, whereas he had learned all of their tactics from their many clashes. He knew how they fought, how they reacted, and how to best exploit their weaknesses with the tools he had available. 

He had mastered their battle script. 

I’m finally getting somewhere, Simon realized. Mixing dark eidolon support with spellcasting, Techniques, and the right tools of the trade would let him rule the battlefield. He had a tool to deal with each and every foe once he mastered their synergies. I still need to improve my miasma control so I can spellcast while maintaining multiple eidolons as the next step. 

His attention turned to his other foes. Alcyone had already destroyed one of the golems and was demolishing the other, while Hector wildly struck his axe at something invisible; likely Mel. 

As for Alphonse, he had smashed Carbuncle’s mirror with his sword and tossed the poor creature at Culebre. The two crashed nearby, bleeding miasma from their many wounds and causing the pain to ripple through Simon’s soul. It turned out corrupted eidolons did not fare well against a Noble Hero optimized to demolish creatures of the Dark. 

This was bad. A dark eidolon’s death would ripple through Simon, perhaps even knocking him out. Should he cancel the summoning now?

“Father!” Alphonse glared at Simon, his eyes burning with righteous fury behind his helmet. “Bring him back, monster!”

“Agree to a ceasefire, and I shall release him. Otherwise, he will learn more about pain than you ever wished to know.” Simon pointed his mace at the man he had come to call both a friend and a foe. “You will find no victory here, Alphonse.” 

A small quake and the thundering horn of airships followed his declaration as if on cue. Great shadows of imperial war machines flew over Zephyr to contest the White Unicorn for control of the Sanctuary’s sky. 

Louis, Euphemia, and other imperial reinforcements were here. 

Simon took it as a good sign; the tremors beneath his feet, not so much. Had the Sanctuary begun to dislocate or was it continuing its descent towards its target—

A chill traveled down his spine, followed by a pulse of miasma rising from the depths of his soul. He sensed something wrong with his dark eidolons, and glanced at the spot where they landed. What he saw gave him pause. 

Carbuncle and Culebre were melding together.

Simon couldn’t describe what was happening any other way. Their miasma blended at the edges where they touched like two colors blurring and mixing. Parts of their bodies mixed into what could best pass for tar and liquid darkness. 

My energies sustain them both. Simon’s heartbeat quickened at this unexpected development. The two conduits of power produced by his own Dark Visionary third eye and the Overlord’s stolen Summoner Perk were resonating together. It can’t be…

His dark eidolons had begun to merge.

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