The Hundred Reigns 289: The Five Sovereigns (6)

Previous Chapter

“Light Megalith, shield my life with your holy light! Aegis!”

Simon chanted with all of his soul, pouring all of his false faith and deceitful light into the Prayer, only to see it go unanswered once again. 

“I do not detect anything wrong with you, Your Highness,” Belzemine informed him after casting a few analysis spells. He insisted she avoid using ‘Your Majesty’ on the airship, in case anyone overheard. “Your posture was great, and the chant flawless.”

“Then why does it keep failing?” he inquired. “Again and again?” 

Simon’s attempts to learn the Tier VIII Aegis spell from Belzemine had gone surprisingly nowhere. He was doing everything right on the surface, singing the chant and calling upon the Light Megalith to grant his Prayer, yet no power answered his plea. The spell simply wouldn’t work.

Simon had also noticed a similar problem with Tier VII Prayers like Sunbeam or Regenerate. They functioned most of the time during practice with Belzemine, but they often failed for no discernible reason. What a vexing issue.

“It may be that the fault lies with the Light Megalith rather than you,” Belzemine pointed out. “Faith builds a bridge to a patron, but whether they answer or not is their purview alone.”

Ah, true… Simon gave it some thought. Prayers come at a cost for the one who grants them, and I know Helel is the one who really answers mine. She’s likely just choosing to ignore my pleas once in a while.  

It made some sort of sense. Helel answered Prayers in order to create faith bridges that let her steal faith from the Light Megalith and prepare its worshipers for future transformation into enslaved angels. 

In short, it was an investment, and she likely weighed the value of answering each individual request. She could grant a Tier VII Prayer every so often, but repeated castings likely drained too much of her miasma for her liking; while Aegis had simply too high a cost to bother with when she could use the same power to fuel dozens of lesser spells. 

What a cheapskate of a false goddess. 

I might be better off turning towards stabler and more obedient gods. Simon’s experiments with Einganah had proved he could channel Prayers from his dark eidolons, so one of them could grant him an equivalent effect to Aegis if he asked nicely. Still, I won’t be able to cast those spells until I can reliably channel eidolons in battle. 

Thankfully, he had considered a Devil Forgemaster-powered loophole. His most recent experiments showed that whereas Skillbooks let readers learn information, enchanted scrolls outright captured a spell to be released at a later date. Simon could store a dark eidolon Prayer in one, and then unleash it when needed. 

However, that consumed valuable Inventory slots he would rather use for better gear. Simon was better off learning how to summon dark eidolons in eidolith form, since they should still be able to grant Prayers in that state. 

Thankfully, he may have found a way to expedite his training on that front…

“Mmm?” Simon frowned. 

“Your Majesty?” Belzemine inquired. 

“One second.” He pointed at a spot in their suite’s corner. “Hellthunder.”

Lightning surged from his finger and electrocuted a rat hiding beneath a shelf, killing it. The smell of charred flesh filled his nostrils.

“Another spy,” Simon commented. It was the third one he had slain so far. “I don’t know where Filip keeps finding them.”

“I’m… I’m sorry, Your Highness,” Belzemine apologized. “My mind… it is still foggy…”

“No harm, no foul,” Simon reassured her. “I shouldn’t be pushing you so soon after our first session.”

After having her summon him back from Telluria with Overlord Call, Simon had proceeded to use Memory Snatcher to ‘prune’ past atrocities from Belzemine’s mind. He had focused on ‘lesser’ ones for now to avoid damaging her psyche, but he had still erased things that ranged from her rape at Balzam’s hands to healing prisoners so they could be sent back to the torture chambers. 

Belzemine hadn’t acted much differently after that, likely because those memories were a drop in the sea of filth that the Overlords drowned her in, but Simon was optimistic. He would work his way back all the way to the source until he had erased the sewage in her brain and cleansed her spirit. 

A knock echoed on the door, but the person behind it didn’t have the patience to wait for an answer before teleporting in. “Ew…” Norbelle waved her hand in disgust the moment she finished materializing. “What’s that smell?”

“A dead rat,” Simon replied. “This ship has no shortage of them.”

“You should mount it on a plaque and send it to Filip as a gift, to join the wall of trophies we’ve claimed today,” Norbelle mused. She looked to be in a rather good mood, so Simon assumed the Uyo safari went well. “Though I don’t know where he’ll find the space. Filip managed to hunt down and kill a three-headed wyvern.”

“Really?” Impressive. Those beasts were usually the result of a normal wyvern mating with a hydra, which resulted in a rather dangerous hybrid. 

“Yes, he actually looked like a passable Ranger for once. Even Verdis managed to slay a giant frog and offered it to me. We’ll eat its legs for dinner tonight with potatoes.” Norbelle went to slouch on Simon’s bed like she owned it. “I beat and bound Gargunza, by the way.”

“Good for you,” Simon replied, having informed her of his existence in return for a certain favor. “What did he ask in return for a contract?”

“That I crush him in a fight, which I did. I gained a few levels out of it too.”

That was quite impressive, considering Gargunza was close to Norbelle in might, but it didn’t surprise Simon all that much. She could summon two eidolons at a time while still spellcasting herself, on top of possessing exceptional Perks. She likely punched way higher than what her Summoner level suggested.

“Aren’t you going to applaud me?” Norbelle asked in annoyance. 

“You’re amazing, Norbelle,” Simon replied with the driest, most deadpan tone imaginable. “I’m so proud of you.”

“You need acting classes,” Norbelle commented, which Simon actually agreed with. “Here’s a starting exercise: put on a Fiendmask of Father, and then congratulate me again.” 

“Maybe later.” Simon clasped his hands. “I recall you promised me an eidolon’s location in return for Gargunza’s.”

“Are you doubting me, Simon?” Norbelle scoffed. “The one I have in mind watches over a certain place in Scaland, so we can visit his shrine when we arrive.”

“Excellent.” While Simon didn’t feel confident about confronting the Five Sovereigns yet, nothing stopped him from adding new eidolons to his arsenal. “How far have you progressed on the Dark Door spell?”

Norbelle smirked at him. “I don’t recall any spell with that name.”

Simon sighed. “I’m not calling it Booty Call, Norbelle.”

“Yet, you just did,” Norbelle replied with a smirk. “Be patient. I need a bit more time before we can proceed with the tests.”

Simon thought it would take much less time if she wasted less of it on leisure, but a knock on the door echoed before he could chide her. Unlike his current visitor, the people on the other side actually waited for his permission to enter.

“Your Highness.” Leonard and Meredith bowed as the latter presented Simon with a thick wooden branch radiating mana. “We have found what you sought.”

“A manatree’s branch?” Norbelle said upon recognizing it. “It must have cost you an arm and a leg.”

“It did not come cheap and we had to haggle dearly, even with our significant allocated funds,” Leonard confirmed. The price of manatree bark usually rivaled that of the purest strands of manalith. “Uyo’s coastal villages thankfully trade with the jungle’s elven communities, so we found a seller with the required quantity.” 

“You did well,” Simon congratulated his retainers as he took the branch. He could feel the magic through his gloves. “It was the only missing piece.”

“The missing piece?” Norbelle raised an eyebrow. “Of what, Filip’s stake?”

“Your Highness!” Meredith protested.

“It was a jap.” Norbelle waved her hand. “He’s too up his arse for impalement to work anyway.”

“If you wish to know, manatrees are by nature highly attuned to the Worldsoul, and thus eidolons.” Simon smirked ear to ear. “So I’m going to use this branch to craft myself a summoning amplifier.”

“You intend to cheat at your eidolon training?” Norbelle stuck out her tongue at him. “Boo! Boo!”

“Says the girl born with a once-in-a-century Visionary eye,” Simon replied as he summoned various tools and materials from his Inventory. “I was truly tempted to steal it to improve the device, you know that?”

“Please,” Norbelle said while Leonard and Meredith clearly held their tongues at their antics. “I would have been wounded if you didn’t even consider it.”

—----------

Simon completed his Summoning Amplifier during the trip to Scaland.

The final result took the shape of a wooden headband with a sharpened horn made of manatree bark in its center, which would serve as a ‘planar receptor’ to better connect to the Worldsoul. Since he usually summoned an eidolon in its natural form before the Abyss’ power transformed it, this should greatly help stabilize the process.

And it did.

“When the curtain of darkness falls on a world devoid of light, the black mirror shall show your true self!” Simon chanted during the field test in his suite. “Reveal thyself, Carbuncle the Devil-Mirror!”

While he disliked calling upon Carbuncle, he was the only eidolon small enough for him to summon on the airship without catching much attention or causing an incident. Mana immediately gathered in front of him, his headband’s horn vibrating in response as it resonated with the magical wavelength. His third eye of darkness echoed the power channeled through it, like a shadow matching the movements of an object bathed in sunlight.

I can see the flow, Simon thought as he focused on the mana coursing through him. His senses had greatly sharpened and let him see details previously invisible to him. I see it…

The Amplifier sharpened his vision, letting him glimpse at echoes of a plane beyond his ken; a blinding light as warm as the Abyss was cold, calling upon an idea conjured from the hearts of men and giving it shape. The energy began to expand and solidify into a precise shape, growing limbs and—

No… Simon seized the mana and wove it like clay, folding the legs and ears, keeping the core’s exterior smooth, plugging the conduit to prevent an avatar from forming. Not all of Carbuncle… just the part of him I need. 

He concentrated the power into a smaller shape until the mana solidified into a ruby no bigger than a Crestone, reducing the idea that was Carbuncle to its most basic state; the legend of a precious gemstone that healed wounds and granted luck to those who possessed it, a tale shaped into a mythical creature by hearsay and refined by the love of the Sanctuary’s inhabitants.

Then darkness flowed through the crystal, and when the Abyss came, so did the shadows. 

The ruby crystal darkened into the color of blood, and the veil of time lifted around Simon. The airship’s metal walls turned into the rotten cabin of a ghostly ship sailing across a dark ocean. A familiar island arose from beyond the porthole, ashes and fire covering its darkened shores… and a figure stood there, his face a burning skull with black stars for eyes. 

“I don’t need eyes to see it, Simon,” Voltobauta’s ghost said, his pistol pointed at him. “Your guilt.”

He pulled the trigger, and Simon snapped back to reality with a bloody ruby floating in front of him.

The core, nay, the concept of Carbuncle the Devil-Mirror floated around his head like how planets orbited the sun. It hardly demanded a fraction of its full avatar’s miasmic cost to maintain, but as Norbelle suggested, its power continued to flow back into Simon in a self-sustaining cycle. The Auspice continued to wrap him in its Mirror effect, and a mighty rush of pleasurable experience followed this success. 

Level 83 Overlord Perk: Lord of the Demon Castle VIII (Active): The master calls, the castle answers. You can teleport Frightwall to your current location once per year alongside everything within its confines in a mighty burst of hellfire. This ability does not work across planar boundaries.

What power… power overwhelming, a bliss potent enough to make him forget that gruesome vision for a moment, though that faded quickly. 

These visions… they have to be the echoes of past reigns rippling through the Abyss, Simon thought upon recovering from his level-up. It seemed stabler that time, more vivid… the Amplifier let me see more. 

It couldn’t have been Voltobauta though. Even a vampire Necromancer wouldn’t survive long in the Abyss. It couldn’t have been the real him, staring back from across time to condemn him and his world to destruction…

The past was erased when Simon turned back time. Whatever lingered was eventually erased and drowned in the darkness of nonexistence. Only the final reign mattered, and yet… yet…

Why can’t I get that gnawing doubt out of my mind? Simon wondered as he looked at the ruby orbiting around his head. He stopped its endless rotation with a thought and locked it in place in front of him. I haven’t dared look into my heart for a while… 

He guessed he could at least check whether his self-therapy was doing him any good so far.

Shifting Carbuncle from his eidolith form to his mirror one simply took a thought from Simon, and much miasma. The difference in output was significant. 

“Show me my heart’s desire, Carbuncle.”

“Yes, my master.” Carbuncle’s surface rippled, his obsidian mirror reflecting Simon’s innermost desire. “This is your wish.”

Simon vividly recalled what he saw the last time he dared to peek into his own heart: him ruling an ordered world, with his family united in world domination, his enemies dead, and a growing number of lovers. 

Nothing had changed.

Well, no, that wasn’t entirely correct. Some details differed. Marthrone looked far more technologically advanced than before, with free electricity, automated golems, and pictoboxes being used everywhere. A growing number of uplifted animals had joined the ranks of Endymion’s citizens under the watchful gaze of Overbot guards constantly patrolling the streets to prevent crime and unrest from ever troubling their peaceful existence. 

Otherwise, his family, retainers, and loved ones were still united in devotion, though Louis was now firmly leashed and chained like a dog to the Crimson Throne. Jym and Magda had joined the people Simon wanted in his life; the Oracle, Chrom Cruak, and Carlo of Muse had joined his cohort of dead enemies; while his harem of concubines had grown to include Elsa, Shabram, and even Euphemia of all people. 

And he was still at the center of it all, lording over all existence as the Overlord on his Crimson Throne; basking in the adoration of thralls and worshipers alike.

“This is your wish, my master,” Carbuncle whispered. “A perfectly ordered world full of content and happy people, which you rule over as a god.”

“I’ve seen enough,” Simon said as he outright unsummoned Carbuncle. He couldn’t exactly deny the truth in front of him. 

All of those reigns and effort only to end up in the exact same place.

His therapy attempts at shaking the Overlord Class’ influence clearly weren’t working, and his Overbot was walking proof of it. Even if the Overbot was clearly malfunctioning somehow, it didn’t change the fact that Simon modeled it after his own personality. Some of its more sinister tendencies emanated from its creator’s mind. 

Maybe… maybe I could create a reverse-Overbot. A machine made only of ethical guidelines. Besides his inability to connect with his victims, Simon needed a mind capable of acting as his conscience like Eole once did; one that wouldn’t ruin his plans by accident. A Palabot. 

All in all, Simon struggled with Elsa’s advice that he accept the shadow within himself. How could he, when it was so dark that it drowned out the light? 

The faint sound of music echoed through the airship’s speakers, followed by Norbelle’s voice. “Everyone, we’re now within sight of our new destination: Scaland, the Island of Dragons! Please go take a look!” 

Simon did, his gaze wandering to the porthole. A vast island indeed appeared beyond his window, one rising out of an ocean of water rather than darkness.

He had never visited Scaland before, though the tales matched reality somewhat. Its shores of stone and sand stretched across the horizon, the tropical heat so great Simon could almost feel it from here. Vegetation had managed to cover much ground in spite of the arid nature of the tributary’s climate, and there wasn’t a single manatree in sight. A great, curved mountain akin to a half-crescent dominated its landscape instead. A ring of glowing auroras shone around its peak like a halo.

Simon could sense the miasma and mana rising from it. 

His Summoning Amplifier let him see both in equal measure, rising from the mountain’s depths; a magical power that could perhaps rival the Worldtree itself in intensity. Simon had no doubt the Ur-Dragon’s reliquary rested there, its dracolith’s energies so great as to irradiate the entire island.  

Wait, that shape… Simon squinted as a horrifying realization dawned upon him. Mountains aren’t shaped like that… that…

That wasn’t a mountain.

That was a fin.