The Hundred Reigns-Chapter 40: Simon the Adventurer (10)

Their blades clashed in a scream of steel.
Dreadful Aura
negated by
Aura of Bravery
!
Ser Alphonse was on Simon in the blink of an eye, his longsword a snake of light. Simon could almost hear it screech when it met his claymore. The Paladin followed their first clash with a flurry of lightning-fast blows, each of them meant to wound and kill. Simon barely managed to parry a strike by leveraging his greatsword’s superior length and range, his counterpush forcing Ser Alphonse to jump back.
The respite barely lasted a second before he pressed the attack again, sparks flying when upswings and sideslashes met his parries. Simon mentally thanked Leonard for insisting on practicing with weapons beyond just relying on his proficiencies, because his
Warmonger
-enhanced instincts quickly failed to keep up with the onslaught.
He’s swifter than me, and the better swordsman,
Simon thought, his blood pounding in his head as sparks flew.
But my strength surpasses his.
Simon retaliated with a swing that crashed on Alphonse’s shield so hard he was thrust back a few feet. Simon immediately followed through by pointing a finger at his foe and firing off a spell. “
Toxin
!”
A cloud of nauseous smog materialized over Alphonse’s armor, causing him to cough and wince as he took some minor Corrosion damage, only to quickly shrug it off.
Poison Ailment negated by
Holy Fortitude
.
How many ailment protections does a Paladin have?
Simon cursed as a good chunk of the audience jeered and called him a coward for attempting to use poison.
At least the damage had gone through, so he’s only immune to the Ailment, not the Corrosion element.
“You would let poison do your dirty work?” Alphonse snapped at him with disgust. “I see why you sent assassins to murder my teacher in his sleep, you craven coward! You cannot win a fair fight!”
“I told you I had nothing to do with that! Besides, you ‘brave knights’ weren’t above ambushing us either!” Simon replied coldly before opening his palm. “
Land of Darkness
!”
Simon attempted to claim the crater as his Dungeon, like he had with the dryad’s forest in his previous reign, in order to enjoy its buffs. Darkness coiled in his hand in the form of a miasma crystal from which an evil will seeped out. Simon spotted Frea raising her staff in alarm, probably to try to counter his magic or protect her allies from the emerging Dungeon.
She didn’t need to.
Alphonse raised his sword of light and stuck it into the ground. “
Sanctify
!”
A pulse of holy light erupted from the Paladin and shattered Simon’s miasma crystal in an instant. Its pieces broke into smoke, flowing through his fingers like sand.
“You shall not befoul this land or any other,” Alphonse swore as he removed his sword from the ground. “There is no darkness my light cannot pierce!”
“You are so annoying!” Simon cursed back. He finally understood why so many people still put their faith in Paladins even after they had failed to slay a single Overlord in the current timeline; their Class appeared almost entirely designed to counter his own. “
Energumen
!”
A crimson aura surrounded him as his spell invited evil spirits to lend him their power, with the shadows of whispering skulls reflecting in its hue. His strength and vitality grew with unholy vigor.
Alphonse countered his spell with his own buffs. “
Rampart, Divine Weapon…
” A brief barrier of interlocked plates of light briefly flashed around the Paladin. “
Haste
.”
He was in front of Simon, and then gone again in the blink of an eye.
Simon barely had time to catch a blur coming at him from the left before a sword of light narrowly missed his throat and grazed his left shoulder instead. The blow wasn’t that deep, but it cut through his armor anyway and baptized his flesh with searing pain.
Supereffective damage!
A whirlwind of steel and light, almost too fast for the eye to see, followed as Alphonse of Lore pressed his assault. This time, he moved too swiftly for Simon to even think about anything but defense. The Paladin drove him back across their field of stone and then against the abandoned temple, cornering him. He struck and slashed and thrust, never giving Simon a respite.
He’s too fast!
Simon breathed fast and deep beneath his helmet as he struggled to keep up, his teeth grinding when his enemy’s blade managed to slip past his guard and cut through his right hip deep enough to draw blood.
I can’t keep this up!
He finally managed to create an opening by parrying a slash, the sheer blowback of his enhanced strength forcing Alphonse back for a second. Simon immediately capitalized on it.
“
Blindness
!” Simon hastily cast, more out of desperation than anything else. Alphonse’s immunities probably worked similarly to Simon’s own
Unyielding Essence
Perk; they grew with levels, but Alphonse was likely at a low enough level that they didn’t cover
everything
.
And it
worked
.
The Paladin’s eyes turned white, his assault halting at the sudden loss of his sight. Simon immediately capitalized on it with a counterslash. The Paladin heard the steel flying through the air and hastily raised his shield to stop the incoming blow. His
Rampart
barrier suddenly flared up again to protect him.
Simon would have probably torn Alphonse’s arm off without it, and he still managed to smash through that protection by virtue of his sheer strength. The Paladin’s shield caved in at the impact and split in two, the blowback throwing him back. The old knight and the other adventurers gasped for their Champion as he rolled onto the stony ground.
“You can do it, Alphonse!” shouted one of the women adventurers, the redheaded rogue. “Stand up!”
“Don’t give up! Rise up!” another added, voices rising to encourage their champion to get up, up,
up
.
Soon, the audience mostly devolved into a chorus. Neither Belzemine nor Eole cheered for Simon. They remained tense as poles, ready to spring into action. A mere shared glance told Simon everything he needed to know.
They would only have one narrow window of opportunity…
if
he could defeat Alphonse.
“Do not let this distract you, Alphonse!” the old knight shouted as his precious Paladin rose back to his feet. “Remember what I told you! Clear your mind and trust your senses! You don’t need eyes to see!”
Alphonse took heed of the advice, tossed his broken shield aside, and readied his sword with both hands. He crouched slightly like a cat ready to pounce, waiting for the right moment.
He has keen senses to fight me even when blinded, but he now has to move more cautiously… more predictably.
A plan formed in Simon’s mind.
One good hit is all I need.
Readying himself, Simon stepped forward and followed with a curse. “
Elemental Imbalance: Light
.”
His magic managed to affect the Paladin, granting him resistance to the Light element—which he probably already had anyway—at the cost of gaining a temporary vulnerability to the Darkness in which Simon was already coating his sword.
“Come then, Alphonse!” Simon taunted him in an attempt to make him slip up, and he failed. The Paladin kept his distance and didn’t take the bait. Simon clenched his jaw in annoyance.
No way around it.
“Come, perhaps you will die on your feet, unlike your thief of an uncle.”
Although Simon hated it, the taunt hit true. Alphonse tightened his grip on his sword, his body tensing with fury. “Shut your mouth.”
“Do you know what my father told your uncle, when he asked why he had to die?”
I am sorry, but you threatened us first.
“My father said it was because of you. You and your father both. He died cursing your name.”
“Alphonse, don’t listen–” the old knight called out.
“Does it hurt, Alphonse?” Simon did his best impersonation of Balzam Magnos’ cruel chuckle. “Don’t worry. I know it
does
.”
Alphonse charged.
As Simon predicted, the Paladin immediately zeroed in on his voice and crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye, putting all of his strength and fury in this one final clash… but his blindness forced him to attack in a straight line, which allowed Simon to predict his movements.
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“
Shadowchain
.”
Dark chains sprang from the ground and caught Alphonse’s ankle. The Paladin tripped right as the Overlord raised his sword to welcome him.
Simon tore him in half.
There was no other way to describe it. He impaled the Paladin through his chest with such strength that it snapped him in two like a twig. Soul-screeching wails echoed his triumph as the adventurers watched their hero fail and
die
—none louder than the old, grizzled knight’s. Alphonse coughed blood, his armor dissipating into light to reveal his final expression: a look of horror and absolute despair.
I’m sorry, Alphonse,
Simon thought when he saw the light die in his foe’s eyes.
I swear to you… this will
never
happen again.
A rush of life flowed through Simon’s body as
Deathmastery
fed on the blood showering his armor to restore his lifeforce. He felt the grasp of his shadowy powers coiling on Alphonse’s soul, waiting for his signal to imprison it, and he instinctively answered it before he understood the consequences.
A crystal of miasma holding Alphonse’s soul formed in his hand.
Level 27 Overlord Perk: Lord of the Demon Castle III
(Active): You can teleport yourself and up to ten willing creatures within thirty feet of yourself to Castle Frightwall. You can also block attempts to teleport inside or outside your castle—but only if the caster is of a lower level than you are.
Level 28 Overlord Perk: Unyielding Essence III
(Passive): You are immune to the Sleep and Paralysis Ailments, though you still need to rest.
The redheaded rogue was on him in an instant with murder on her mind.
She closed the gap between them in an instant, a black cape and mouth mask materializing as she put on her Class outfit. She was faster than Alphonse had been, even with his
Haste
spell, but thankfully weaker. Her swords and dagger only managed to graze his armor.
And then chaos reigned.
Alphonse’s death cancelled the protection he afforded his allies, and Simon’s
Dreadful Aura
sent the weakest of them packing in fear. Eole sprang to action, tackling the rogue from behind, grabbing her by the waist, and then taking flight. Belzemine snapped her fingers as both Frea and the Knight put on Class outfits of their own.
“
Contagious Human Combustion
!”
Dozens were burned to a crisp in a series of blasts, like Leonard and Cassandra once perished, decimating the adventurers. However, the spell bore its name well; it only affected humans, and Frea completed her transformation. White robes materialized over her skin alongside a crown of golden laurels atop her hair. The old knight burned too, but managed to survive anyway; plate armor nearly identical to the Paladin’s shielding him from damage. He caught up to Simon even as the flames burned him, sword drawn.
So much for honor,
Simon thought as he tossed Alphonse’s corpse aside and raised his claymore to parry.
Here I com–
“
Bladebreaker
.”
Then the knight’s blade shattered his own on impact.
Simon barely had to blink in surprise before a slash struck him in the chest. The knight wielded none of the holy power that allowed Alphonse to inflict supereffective damage, but what his sword lacked in sanctity, it more than made up for in sheer power. The blow tore through the Overlord’s armor like a knife through butter, drawing blood.
“Your Majesty!” Belzemine shouted, her hands summoning a fiery star she threw at the knight to blast him apart… only for Frea to intercept the attack with a massive block of ice. The two elven mages quickly began to fire spells at each other, with Belzemine frantically trying to incinerate Frea to save Simon and her opponent focusing on defense to keep her busy.
“You slew my son!” the knight raged on as he kept slashing at Simon. The Overlord attempted to protect himself by binding the man’s hands with
Shadowchain
, but he broke through them in an instant and then punched him hard enough to dent his helmet.
The man was nothing like Alphonse. He was stronger, faster, more experienced, and with greater skill. Probably twice his level, too, from the way his blows hurt. Soon, Simon found himself drenched in his blood and on his knees as the knight raised his sword to behead him; all thoughts of sealing the Overlord away forgotten from his mind.
Only one last card left to play.
“Here’s your son’s soul!” Simon shouted as he threw the black gem in which he had sealed Alphonse’s spirit across the caldera. “Catch!”
Panic flashed in the knight’s eyes, and he immediately abandoned his assault to chase after the soul gem. Simon quickly covered the bleeding gash across his chest with his hand. He struggled to his feet and quickly glanced at his surroundings.
Eole had thrown the redheaded rogue over the crater’s edge to her death, and Belzemine was engaged in a fast-paced spellcasting duel with Frea, with fireballs flying past icicles and wind blades. Everyone else was either fleeing or dead.
Well… except for the elves standing on the crater’s edge.
Simon had been too busy with the duel to notice them, but he counted dozens of them around the caldera, each of them clothed in the same Class outfit as Frea. They raised golden staves shining with light that soon illuminated the entire crater.
“
Vile demon
!” they chanted in elvish. “
Recoil in the light of Brimir pure
!”
And then Simon felt heavy.
Shadows danced all over his armor as an invisible force weighted down on him. A circle of complex magical runes materialized at his feet, constraining his movements, and when Simon looked at his feet, he found them slowly turning to cold, hard stone. His mind couldn’t believe his eyes, as he was supposed to be immune to petrification.
No. He wasn’t turning to stone.
He was being
enveloped
in it. The very earth crawled up his armor to swallow him whole.
“No!” Belzemine screamed in pure and utter despair as she pulverized Frea’s magical barrier with an explosion, tearing the elf Sage apart. “Your Majesty!
Greater Dispel
!”
Her spell failed to disrupt whatever ritual the elves were casting on Simon, and neither could he move. He looked up to find a panicking Eole flying at him, only to hit an invisible barrier around the ring of runes.
“No, no, no!” Eole shouted as she fruitlessly smashed her hands against the barrier. “No!”
Simon attempted to activate his
Lord of the Demon Castle’s
teleportation effect in a last-ditch effort to save himself, only to receive an error notification.
Teleportation cancelled
by Eternal Seal.
This was the end.
“Run!” Simon roared to Eole and Belzemine, even as the earth crawled up his neck. “Run and live!”
“I will free you!” Eole shouted at him with tears in her eyes. “I swear to–”
His final words turned into silence once the earth covered Simon, and the last thing he saw before the long dark was a final notification.
You have been sealed.
Frea had called being sealed a dreamless sleep. She hadn’t lied about that part at least.
Simon was trapped in darkness, neither alive nor dead, vaguely conscious of his own existence but not of passing time, unable to think or dream. He couldn’t feel his body nor move it, even though he was aware it existed somewhere beyond the reach of his consciousness. It was like the brief nothing that followed each of his deaths, except it lasted on and on…
It wasn’t painful or agonizing because he was too tired to think. He had no idea how long he had spent lost in the dark this way. Months? Years? Decades? Time flowed strangely without being able to count the passing of days.
That was the
true
torture. The knowledge that the world moved on without him, that he was stuck on the threshold between life and death, unable to cross either way, whether to end it all or begin again. His inability to think clearly in this state was a boon, for he would have surely gone mad without it; but he eventually would, should it continue for too long. His mind would turn on itself like a beast eating its own limbs in an attempt to stave off the weight of passing eons.
He wanted to scream, to roar, to cry and rage, to feel and think, yet even those small pleasures were denied to him. All he could do was to experience it all and pray for a swift end.
And eventually, someone listened.
His salvation came from outside. He could sense it, like sunlight on his skin. A dark, unholy glow that strengthened the Dark inside him. It watered the power within his soul until the dam keeping it trapped began to crack.
Hidden Innate Perk:
Serpent-Bearer Sign (Passive)
, activated.
And then Simon woke up.
The stone cocoon keeping him entrapped in time shattered in an instant, jolting him back to reality. Miasma seeped out of his Overlord armor in a shadowy shroud of hateful malice. Strength unlike anything he had ever felt surged through his limbs withered by imprisonment, and the silence turned into a chorus of distant roars and shrieks. A burning wind filled with dust and ashes blew onto his helmet.
He awakened to a scene of utter desolation.
Around him were countless petrified corpses; winged kish carrying spears and bows frozen in time like Simon had been facing stone elves and knights in what must have been a close battle. Part of the crater had collapsed, revealing a flood of miasma covering the land under a crimson sky.
Yet those very same skies were far from empty, for a battle yet raged among sickly yellow clouds. Dragons the size of Casval fought with monsters straight out of the Abyss; winged terrors with spiky spines and horns, great bats with ghastly skulls for a face, and tentacled beasts that hurt Simon’s eyes just to look at them. All these creatures danced the waltz of death and war across a burning horizon.
Had the Gates of the Abyss opened and unleashed demons upon the earth?
His confused eyes looked up to a brightness that rivaled that of the sun. There, above his head, flew a great black star with a crimson tail tainting the heavens red. It dominated the sky, its malevolent purple glow reflecting in the Serpent-Bearer’s constellation like how Balzam Magnos once dominated his court.
A… a comet?
A black comet? How long had he bee–
The blade struck him from behind in a flash of blinding pain.
An abominable metal lacerated his heart, lungs, and every organ within him on its way out of his chest. Simon knew he was dead the moment he saw a steely red tip bursting out of his flesh, coated in his own thick black blood, yet his own flesh seemed to instantly try to close around the wound… only for the miasma pouring out of him to get sucked into the sword.
Regeneration negated by
Horoscopic Sword
.
Simon collapsed on the ground, his vision red, the sword stuck in his chest sapping all of his strength and feasting on his lifeforce. He heard steps at the edge of his blurring vision, alongside mocking laughter.
Familiar
laughter.
“See, kish?” a hated voice laughed behind Simon. “Your wish has been granted. Your companion is free. Free from pain and suffering.”
It… can’t be…
Simon mustered enough strength to peek over his shoulder to face his slayer. Her human form hadn’t aged a day, but her left eye was gone, replaced with a claw-shaped scar carved deep into her flesh.
How…
Dragonlord Vouivre smirked at him, her hand holding a rune-carved leash binding a kish woman with a metallic muzzle as if she were a dog.
Eole.
But it was not the Eole he knew. Her wings had turned into fish scales, and a familiar miasma crystal glowed in her chest. Her gaze was empty, devoid of thought. Runes glowing on her slave collar sapped her of her will as surely as the sword in Simon’s chest drained the life out of him.
Simon would have been furious, if the last of his flickering life wasn’t fading away already. His vision blurred into shadows, much to his killer’s joy.
“Do you now see what happens when fools lack a master to follow?” Vouivre waved her sword at the monsters clashing in the sky. “Worry not. Once I take my birthright back from your thieving human hands, I shall throw the rest of these fiends back into the Abyss where they belong and restore order to this ruined world. Take solace in the fact that your death shall mark my ascension.”
Her iron boot stomped his skull into the ground, and all of time began anew.