The Hundred Reigns 283: King of Spiders (25)

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The timing was so short and precise as to be almost impossible.

Algozoa’s fleshy arrows usually detonated on contact, so the slightest amount of pressure might cause this one to explode in Simon’s hands. He had to grab it just the right way, rotate it by redirecting its momentum, and then throw it back before it could detonate in his face. An absurdly difficult maneuver even with all of his buffs. 

But Simon pulled it off anyway.

He threw Algozoa’s own projectile right back at him and nailed him right in the chest. The arrow exploded on impact in a violent blast that seared the Archer’s flesh off his ribs and left his Zodiac crystal fully exposed. Blood and body parts flew in all directions while the Archer hissed and roared in pain. The blow had hurt. 

As it turned out, Algozoa wasn’t immune to his own power. 

How far I have come, Simon thought with satisfaction. He had grown so much better since the days he used to struggle in a sword fight against Alphonse of Lore. It’s all coming together.

Simon didn’t let his enemy recover from this and pressed his advantage. He grabbed Flaymace, triggered his Crown of Pain, switched his current ring for one of Cursed Wind, and charged. All the while, he attempted to drain his minions to heal his blinded third eye. 

Key word being attempted.

No energy flowed into him to heal his wounds or help him recover his dwindling miasma. All of his Devil Brands had gone silent, their connection suppressed by a barrier too thick for spiritual energy to cross. 

I can’t drain my minions! Algozoa’s comet-enhanced Domain’s barrier had grown so strong as to completely cut him off from the world outside. This is like the eidolon ordeals!

Simon still enjoyed the Regen status bestowed by Shabram’s dance, with his wounds healing on their own, but the rate of regeneration was slower than draining the health of others and would run out eventually. He had to end this fast. 

With eidolon summoning requiring him to drop his Wicked Angel form—and thus risk dying in one hit—Simon elected to simply beat the Archer to death in melee. Algozoa predictably let out one of his sonic howls in an attempt to repel him before he could get close, but Simon’s gear shielded him from the Wind element. The Archer had fewer options to defend himself with than Nodens, which made him predictable. 

Simon flew through the roar as if it were a breeze and struck. “Underworld Hammer!”

Flaymace caved Algozoa’s chest in, shattering ribs and spraying Simon with steaming darkblood. His Crown applied the Anti-Heal and Bleed ailments upon the Archer and caused his wounds to flare up as flames erupted from his mace. 

The bramble making up much of Algozoa’s enhanced Domain suddenly fired arrow-thorns at him from all directions, the same way the Archer had rained projectiles from the sky not so long ago. With little room to maneuver, Simon repelled them all with a Chaos Wave. 

No sooner had he forced the projectiles back than his enemy fell on him again. Simon instinctively attempted to dodge by flying to the side, but the cross on his chest guided Algozoa’s claws toward him. 

They tore into his belly and spilled his acid-filled entrails all over the mud. 

Massive Physical damage! Supereffective Demonslayer damage! Critical hit!

The pain was so raw and intense that it looped back to a numbness in his chest. The blow would have likely slain Simon outright had he been in his human form, but his Regen kept enough of his organs in place to keep him alive for a second longer. 

He channeled Hellfire Gaze to blast Algozoa and seared more flesh off his face, only for the Archer to violently grab and pin him into the muddy ground. The blow caused Simon’s vision to briefly go white, his vision returning a second before teeth threatened to close in on his skull.

However, Algozoa’s head suddenly snapped to the side in surprise before he could bite his enemy to death. Two fiery knives struck him in the eyes from the canopy and blinded him, his hiss of pain echoing through the Domain. 

Then Simon saw her, leaping through the very fabric of space as if crossing an invisible wall with the dagger he gifted her in hand. 

Skeleton Key worked both ways. It allowed a Rogue to escape a Domain, as well as sneak inside it. 

Simon immediately exploited the respite to blast Algozoa’s hand off him with Chaos Wave, a stray thought leaving his mind. “The others—”

“Trying to break in!” Elsa replied, her thoughts short and to the point as she charged. The mud didn’t slow her down in the slightest. “The barrier’s too strong!” 

“Not for long.”

No further words were needed as they instantly coordinated together. Elsa rushed at the blinded Algozoa’s ankle in a blur of speed too great for Simon’s eyes to follow and severed the tendon, causing the Zodiac Fiend to collapse onto his back. Simon leaped over his chest and smashed it with Underworld Hammer, drawing upon all of his strength and fury. 

He put down Algozoa like the beast he was. 

His mace pinned him to the ground and raised the very flames of Hell from the earth, shaking the Domain and pulverizing what remained of the Archer’s chest. His limbs fell off, the miasma forming them starting to dissipate. A portion of the demon’s lifeforce flowed into Simon due to Deathmastery, the same way he had dined on his followers’ souls. It gave him enough strength to seize Algozoa’s crystal. 

Devour Crestone?

Algozoa didn’t beg for mercy or utter a final curse as true death stared at him in the face. 

He simply laughed. 

“Yes,” Simon said.

The crystal shattered in his hand, and Simon feasted on his essence while Elsa watched with a grin.

A cataclysmic flood of miasma flowed out of Algozoa’s remains and into his soul. His mouth and spirit watered at the taste of blood, of power and dominance. The greatest predator devoured his challenger and assumed its rightful place at the top of the food chain.

The thoughts of Algozoa filled his mind in chaotic waves. He saw Brimir from the darkness above and felt the fear of those below filling him with the gnashing of teeth, the terror of pounding feet and hungry maws, of being prey in a world of predators. He recalled the fall onto this hunting ground, and the taste of all beasts of the earth. Humans, elves, even his own kind; all were food in the hunter’s eye. He recalled the exhilaration of the chase, the thrill of the kill, and the final frustration of being beaten, chained, and trapped. He recalled the prison of gold in which they trapped him, and the raging against his cage’s gilded bars. 

And then, he recalled the end. 

Crown of Predation (Active): The Archer’s crown. Select a given creature’s Type. All of your attacks will inflict supereffective slayer damage against them so long as your Crown of Predation remains active. You can change the target Type with a thought. 

The experience was spread too thin between Simon and his party to grant him the level-up he craved, but the rush of a newfound power put it to shame either way. What pleasure, what thrill, what overwhelming bliss—

“Watc—”

He heard Elsa’s warning a second before the gunshot.

The bullet struck him in the back of the head like a wasp’s stinger, piercing through his helmet and skull with sacred power. 

A flow of notifications—supereffective damage, demonslayer damage, buffs cancelled—flooded his fading vision as the Domain collapsed around him and roots grew behind his eyes. He could sense the Worldtree’s splinter blooming inside his brain with holy power, and heard the words that spelled his doom.

“That was from Alcyone.” 

No way… Simon managed to turn his head to the side and peek over his shoulder to see his killer’s pistol smoking in his hand.

“A little something she picked from the Crafter for the day I joined her crusade,” Voltobauta explained. He had traded his Necromancer outfit for his pirate one, which suited him better in some way. “Sorry to play scavenger, but I figured I would never get a better opportunity than this one.”

How… how could he enter the closed Domain, unless…

“Rogue… vassal…” Simon managed to mutter as his body went numb. “Skeleton… Key…”

“Traitor!” Elsa snapped at him, her blade out. She struck Voltobauta with the same speed that allowed her to overwhelm Alcyone herself… only to harmlessly phase through his intangible body. 

“You were right. I’m a lousy Necromancer, but I’m a pretty good Raider,” Voltobauta said, a grim look on his face. “And I found I would rather be an oathbreaker than a bad friend.”

“The world…” Simon rasped, his mind struggling to put two sentences together.

“If you had cared about the world, you would have put Chrom in the ground rather than let him go with a slap on the wrist.” Voltobauta sneered, but behind his disdain lurked his disillusion. “We’re all bastards, and none of us deserves to inherit the ashes.”

Simon’s Wicked Angel transformation vanished as he returned to his original form, with Elsa catching him before he hit the ground. Her arms seized him with gripping concern, her face torn with horror and a rush of unfamiliar emotions as the Domain collapsed around them. 

“No,” she muttered frantically as she grabbed a healing potion from under her cloak and poured it down Simon’s throat, too late to do anything. He was too wounded from the battle to bounce back from this. “No!”

She’s concerned… Simon thought as he recognized the horror and panic on her face. For the first time in her life… she cares. 

Just as Voltobauta expected. The pirate king had taken his cruel revenge.  

“I will carry the memory of watching a friend die before my eyes for all eternity,” Voltobauta informed Elsa with the infinite bitterness only centuries-old immortals could carry. “And now, so will you.”

No… Simon thought as the shadows blinded him and the cold replaced the warmth of Elsa’s arms. No, she won’t. 

The darkness of time swallowed all of their regrets.

—------------------------

He could feel the glee radiating from the Crimson Throne, easily eclipsing a hint of fury. Most of his predecessors were satisfied with the outcome, except for Gargauth, who likely couldn’t stomach that his successor succeeded where he had failed.  

And why wouldn’t they be happy? This reign had been an unmitigated success from their point of view. He had brought down Louis without ever showing his hand, fulfilled Gargauth’s dream of consuming the Crafter Crestone, accidentally brought death to the elven people, and defeated his second Zodiac Fiend. 

All it cost Simon was destroying his family, alienating his allies, ruining the world with a plague, alienating Eole, and losing another lover to the flow of time. Even Gargauth had to find some comfort in his suffering.

Why do I keep doing this? Simon wondered as he faced the Crimson Throne. Getting attached to someone, yet knowing I will inevitably lose them? 

Elsa… he wasn’t sure what they shared could be called love, and he was used to outliving relationships, but it still stung. Her very existence had been a rare and wonderful miracle he couldn’t easily replicate. 

Now all that remained of her were his memories. 

This is the Thirtieth of your Hundred Reigns.

You have earned the Title of Simon the Spider. 

The Spider: You have blossomed into a secret mastermind whose machinations bring countries to ruin—with none the wiser. When using Anathemic Secrecy’s stat-editing ability, you can ensure the world gradually forgets your human identity as Simon Magnos. Your memory will fade from the minds of those who know you, though this does not affect physical records nor will it make people forget about the Overlord. This is a mind-affecting effect. 

Simon blinked a few times in surprise. A Title that could affect the entire world’s memories of a person in a similar manner to Memory Snatcher? How powerful and utterly terrifying. 

Is there a rule to this? Simon wondered as doubt assaulted him. He didn’t recall any Title having such far-reaching consequences. Did consuming Algozoa enhance my Class somehow, or is a Title’s power proportional to certain parameters? 

All in all, it still felt like a reward from the three bastards; a way for him to slip through the cracks should he decide to begin again somewhere else away from his family. Or perhaps it was a cruel mockery of how his attempts at disappearing had caused so much damage by driving his own sister to madness.

Whatever their reasons, Simon soon found himself back in his bed in Frightwall, with no comet in the sky to taint his view.

There will come a night when I no longer have to fear Abraxas’ return, Simon thought as he called upon his newest Crown of Sin. Two out of twelve. 

Whereas Nodens’ Crown of Pain took the form of a fiery halo full of screaming damned souls, Algozoa’s Crown of Predation was made of hideous flesh, fur, and bones. The heads of beasts from all corners of the animal kingdom—reptiles, birds, mammals, bugs—were mashed together into a ring of pain and terror spinning above Simon’s head. Its ability was much simpler than Nodens’, but it would always be useful. 

The battle went well in spite of how it ended, and how much it cost him. Algozoa had been slightly stronger than Nodens, yet they defeated him with much fewer casualties. A team of Noble Class users—hopefully branded and selected for loyalty—was definitively the way to go in order to deal with the Zodiac Fiends. 

He could finally see himself saving the world. 

However, Simon sharply felt the loss of experience that came from dividing it among a large party. It might prove harder and harder to gain levels in order to compete with the likes of Asterion or Helel if he kept using this strategy.

Maybe I should try to defeat the weaker Zodiac Fiends on my own, or hunt down some enemies I haven’t slain yet. Simon sat at his desk as he attempted to clear his thoughts. He had begun to map out different possibilities and routes across the reigns in order to better prepare, including how to grow stronger; focusing on a productive task would also help take his mind off Elsa. I’ve finally filled out all of my available Devour Crestone options.

On paper, his build now covered all bases: Techniques, spells, eidolons, crafting… Simon Magnos could do anything.

The only thing he lacked was practice. Being capable of summoning mighty eidolons did him no good without the control to maintain them in his Wicked Angel form, and the ability to craft anything didn’t mean he knew which was the optimal item to create. With his grudge on the Godmind settled, Simon could now dedicate more reigns to training. 

However, he would unfortunately have to do some homework in order to leave peacefully. 

I should inform Lauriane I’m faking my death before I leave, to prevent her from going off the rails, and remove Louis in a subtler way to prevent him from becoming a martyr for his foolish cause or his demise being traced back to me. Dassein might be instrumental in pacifying the empire too, since he was the only one in the family—except maybe Thalas—who could put their feud aside with time. Simon was beginning to discern a path towards an optimal and peaceful future. This would prevent the civil war and allow Euphemia to negotiate peace with Illusea, thus putting the world in the best position to deal with the Zodiac Parade. 

Simon had also found a way of neutralizing and repurposing the Cobweb, which would be a necessary step to prevent them from causing trouble… but it would require him to waste weeks going to Valne to meet with Silk and then enslave Bert. He wouldn’t be able to subvert the Attic until he defeated Valravn too. 

I can’t afford to waste so much time with so many moving parts. Simon folded his hands as the answer to this dilemma came quickly. I need to learn Teleport. 

Everything would be so much simpler once he mastered it. He could deal with the Cobweb and other troublesome elements the moment he woke up, then catch up to Casval, Vouivre, or anybody else he needed to meet with in order to achieve his perfect timeline of events. He would also access places even the Attic hadn’t yet intruded upon. 

The spell should be well within his grasp now that he had unlocked Tier VIII spellcasting, but actually creating a miasmic version of it had proved surprisingly difficult. He needed to find a tutor to expedite the process. 

Remedia immediately came to mind, but as much as Simon craved to meet her again, convincing her to teach such a mighty spell to a Magnos prince—and the Overlord on top of it—would take a lot of convincing. 

Moreover… reconnecting with an old flame so soon after losing Elsa didn’t sit well with Simon. She had cared about him in the end, and he had felt affection for her in turn. It would be like betraying her memory. 

After a moment’s consideration, Simon decided to investigate all possible options before settling on a course of action. He moved into Shabram’s office and introduced himself to her as he had done dozens of times by now—dashing the guilt he felt at failing to protect her the last time around—then asked her to provide a list of anyone with knowledge of the Teleport spell. 

Her answer was about what he expected. 

“No one in the empire knows how to cast the true Teleport spell, or even holds theoretical knowledge of it,” Shabram confirmed. “His late Majesty invested considerable funds in developing our teleportation gem technology, but those use weaker variants. Only Queen Remedia or Cocagnian noble houses and magisters know it, and they jealously guard their knowledge.”

“As do the elves,” Simon guessed with a sigh. “Remedia it is, then.”

“I do think Your Majesty is missing the most obvious possibility,” Shabram said with a thin smile. “There is someone in your entourage that specializes in Conjuration, and would be much more eager to help you than any Cocagnian national. The very same person His Late Majesty trusted with advancing teleportation gem research.” 

“And who would that b—” Simon froze as the answer suddenly dawned upon him; one that his mind had subconsciously blocked out to avoid dealing with the hassle. “No. Just no.”

“She would be the most amenable solution,” Shabram insisted, and she was unfortunately right. 

Norbelle.

Norbelle knew how to cast Teleport.

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A/N: onwards to Five Sovereigns ;) thank you for voting!

PS: End of reign Simon's stats: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Lgvmznh1dDwRts34ZBTlogt9vRZCMiBRZTjjP9GCOP0/edit?usp=sharing