The Hundred Reigns 66: The Season of the Minotaur (15)

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A/N: well, that was supposed to be tomorrow's chapter, but I tried to advance a little and ended up writing it in full... so here it comes early. More info after that chap.

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Robert Flauros was dead on the ground, and the others would soon follow.

Simon felt a pang of hesitation as Tiella tried to defend her dead husband, Mel, and princess Satine from Gregory’s acid slime bombardment by raising her pavise. The projectiles ate away at her shield and slowly melted it down to nothing without giving her an opening. Simon had no idea how long his former lover could hold out against the nonstop barrage, but he could tell she would falter before Gregory ran out of ammunition. 

Although she was now a stranger like Leonard had been, Simon had been very close to Tiella once. He struggled to reconcile his memory of the kind, shy girl he had befriended and bedded with the vengeful Dreadnought that she had become. 

She has heard the Overlord lurked in the Darkwood, so I can’t let her leave or else everything I’ve done here today will have been for nothing, Simon thought, trying to harden his heart for the inevitable. She watched as my minions killed her husband. There’s no way she’ll back down now… 

However… if they captured her alive, they could interrogate her about the Malphas conspiracy. She could provide key insight into the Oracle’s plans. It sounded like misguided mercy disguised as pragmatism, but it was worth a shot. 

“Gregory–” Simon sent a telepathic message, sadly far too little, too late.

Gregory grabbed his imp companion in between two slime throws and launched him at Tiella without warning. Grimm flew across the room and bent himself in midair, slipping right past Tiella’s shrinking shield. 

“Here I come!” he giggled, two poisoned daggers flashing in his hands. “At blinding speed!”

He landed on Tiella’s helmet and drove his two blades through its slits, right into her eyes. 

Her howl of pain physically hurt Simon, and the images on the crystal ball soon became unbearable. Grimm leaped onto her back when she attempted to throw him off her, with the imp proceeding to stab her through the small chinks in her armor while Gregory continued to throw acid slimes at her from the front. Being blinded meant she could no longer anticipate his projectiles. 

“Wait!” Simon telepathically called out to his minions. “I want that one alive if possible!”

“Uh…” Gregory halted his bombardment and looked at Tiella’s collapsed form. “Seems pretty hard to do that now, Lord Belias.”

Leonard might have been able to adapt and recover from the assault, but his sister had only wielded his Crestone for a few months. She lacked his durability or his levels, so all she could do was spasm onto the floor while bleeding out. 

She’s not the Tiella I befriended, but a stranger wearing her face. Simon tried to tell himself again, even as he clutched his armrests. It’s just this reign. This one, disgusting reign. This is war. 

Yet when he saw Leonard’s sister lying motionless in a puddle of her own blood mixed with acid, all of these justifications left him with a hollow feeling of guilt and shame in his chest. Tiella was dead. Murdered in his own dungeon by his forces, trying and failing to avenge the brother Simon had slain. 

This can’t be all for nothing, Simon thought as he turned his divination to the other room. Alphonse and Frea had slaughtered the imps and were about to blast through the walls separating them from her allies. “Ulmos, kill the mage now!”

The ceiling above Frea and Alphonse undulated and revealed itself as a painted, camouflaged slime. Ulmos leaped onto the elven mage from above and quickly engulfed her in its gelatinous mass before she could complete her spell, causing it to fizzle out. Simon couldn’t see whether the slime was managing to dissolve its prey or not, but at least Alphonse's attempt to free his ally without harming her by slashing at parts of Ulmos proved rather ineffective. 

“Grab the princess and go upstairs,” Simon ordered Gregory and Grimm. Ulmos wouldn’t buy them much time. “There’s no time to waste.”

“What of the other?” Gregory asked, looking down on Mel. 

Simon hesitated. He had no particular attachment to her compared to Tiella, and she had a Class specialized in stalking and hunting. The risk that she would wake up from the sleeping gas at the worst moment or escape any form of containment thanks to her passives was too great to compensate for whatever intel she might have. Satine likely knew more anyway. 

Just this reign, Simon told himself before answering his minions. “Kill her.”

One way or another, this was a fight to the death now. 

“Yes, yes!” Grimm boasted giddily as he leaped onto Mel’s back and started stabbing her to death while she was still asleep, before showering in her blood. “So sweet, like red honey!” 

“No time for fun,” Gregory reminded him. 

“But she’s still warm!” Grimm complained out loud. Gregory answered the imp by slapping him on the back of the head before grabbing the unconscious Satine, putting her on his shoulders, and rushing back up the stairs. “Hey, don’t leave me behind!” 

Simon winced when he noticed Tiella’s, Mel’s, and Robert Flauros’ corpses rising up on their own, their Class outfits dispelled from their soulless carcasses. Tiella’s face was a horrifying mass of blood with holes where the eyes should have been, and her husband was an acid-disfigured skeleton. His Dungeon had automatically animated their remains as undead monsters, while their souls would mindlessly haunt the Halls of the Minotaur until the Muse achieved freedom.

And the worst part?

Simon could feel he was gaining some experience from this; that he was being rewarded for crafting traps which had led to the death of heroes inside his demesne. 

It’s just this reign, Simon kept telling himself. Extraordinary circumstances. 

Ulmos’ death rippled through his mind and drew him out of his thoughts. The wall separating Frea and Alphonse from the rest of their party soon exploded. Stones and pieces of slime flew across the room, likely due to the same telekinetic wave Frea used to defend herself against the wraiths earlier. Ulmos had at least managed to leave blistering burns on her skin and damage her clothes, so her defenses had failed with Tiella’s death. 

No sooner had the hole opened up that the three corpses lunged at Alphonse, as if infuriated by the Paladin’s holiness. He winced and wavered for a second, but his combat instincts swiftly took over. He exorcized all three undead with a swift swing of his sword. 

“They will pay for this…” Alphonse cursed with grief and sorrow after cutting down the corpses of his former comrades, before noticing an awful detail. “Where is Satine?” he asked, his voice wavering when he spotted the empty stairs. “They took her!”

“Wait,” Frea said, her hand searching a small backpack for a manalith and potions. “I need a refresh.”

“But we have no time to waste!”

“Us exhausting ourselves is exactly what the Overlord wants, Alphonse.” Frea looked up at the ceiling. “You’re watching us, aren’t you? I can feel your foul gaze staring down upon us. Does it amuse you to watch your slaves kill our friends?”

Simon wouldn’t have answered even if he could. He had given them the opportunity to turn back already, and the losses on both sides had crushed any hope of a peaceful settlement. 

It was a fight to the death now. 

“If you were strong, you would have confronted us ourselves rather than throw fool after fool at us. You think you cannot defeat us, young and green as you are.” Frea clutched her staff. “And you are right. Once we find you, you will die.”

Do your worst, Simon thought as he checked on his forces. Gregory and Greg had delivered their sleeping captive to some cultists and taken position alongside Duchar and Hector at the next ambush point. Simon ordered his other followers to take Satine to a specifically prepared cell after confiscating her Crestone. 

He then checked on Alphonse and Frea. The latter had recharged her mana reserves with a manalith and healed her wounds with a healing potion. They had wisely taken supplies with them on their doomed expedition. 

“Sanctify!” Alphonse attempted to purge the Dungeon, and failed. “The core is too far away.”

“Upstairs,” Frea replied, “the Dungeon’s miasma crystal and the Overlord will both be hiding in the sanctum.”

So that Perk can only destroy my Dungeon if the crystal is within reach, Simon gathered. Good to know. 

The thought of teleporting away to warn the world of the Overlord’s presence in the Darkwood didn’t seem to have crossed their minds. Simon had Duchar add anti-teleportation wards across the Dungeon on top of the defenses afforded by his own Lord of the Castle Perk, teleportation gems should have failed outright anyway. Frea might have been able to flee, but that would mean abandoning the Paladin and the princess to their doom. 

But then again, why would they run? They had torn through half of Simon’s minions so far. They could credibly finish the job and rescue their remaining ally. 

I’ve kept the best for last, at least, Simon thought before giving orders to his remaining followers. “Gregory, switch to alchemical fire. Duchar, Hector, here’s a rundown of the spells I’ve seen the elf cast so far…”

Simon proceeded to share all the information he had gathered with his allies as Frea and Alphonse climbed up the stairs. They landed in an art gallery whose Pictomancer paintings actually contained sealed plant monsters, but Frea simply burned them to ashes with a fireball. Alphonse then spotted spike traps hidden beneath the floor, which they skillfully avoided.  

Simon was starting to wonder if exhausting her mana was truly the best solution. Frea had only been forced to recharge after casting multiple Tier 7 and down spells in a row. If she had another manalith…

Most spellcasters suffer from a bad match-up against close-combat fighting or rogue Class types, and the wounds Frea suffered against Ulmos was proof of it, Simon thought as he analyzed the past fights. She’s frail without Tiella covering her.

Simon could land a fatal blow if he teleported close to her. His S-rank strength and Warmonger Perk meant a strike to the vitals would either kill the elf or at least incapacitate her. The issue was that she would likely use her telekinetic pulse to repel him if she proved faster on the draw. He had to make her hesitate somehow, to give himself a second of doubt where she would fight her own instincts…

Simon’s jaw clenched. He had a plan in mind, one that might mean certain victory at the cost of spitting on a friend’s grave. 

It’s either that or she will kill us all, Simon thought as Frea and Alphonse reached the next ambush point. I can only use it once, so I will need the right opportunity. 

The intruders reached the next and probably final ambush point—since Simon lacked any other significant forces to throw at them past this point: a great hall which had once served as an auditorium for singers and theater troops to entertain the Muse and her followers with operas. Hundreds of cushioned chairs faced a tall stage illuminated by ghostly candelabras. Two balconies on each side of the room oversaw the area from the second floor. 

Alphonse and Frea walked onto the stage and froze upon seeing elven wraiths seemingly appearing in each seat in the audience. However, while they were indeed genuine ghosts among the audience, most were illusions conjured by Duchar from atop the right balcony. 

Moreover, the whole thing was a setup to distract them from the threat lurking among the stage’s rafters: Hector himself. The Executioner immediately fell upon Frea while she was seemingly distracted, axe raised for a decapitation strike. 

“Above!” Alphonse shouted, his speed and reflexes proving troublesome. He pushed Frea out of the way in the nick of time and parried Hector’s axe with his sword. The stage cracked beneath their feet from the impact, but the Paladin held strong. 

Duchar immediately commanded the ghosts in the audience to rise from their seats and swarm the stage, while Gregory and Grimm appeared on the other balcony. The juggler gargoyle began to throw flasks filled with alchemical liquid at the elf. 

Frea repelled both the ghosts and early projectiles with her telekinetic spell, sending the flasks shattering across the room. The liquid inside caught fire when exposed to air, setting the carpet and curtains ablaze; a minor inconvenience to Simon’s allies, who were all equipped with Rings of Cursed Flame or naturally immune to the element. 

What surprised Simon was that Frea leaped towards the audience rather than keep the telekinetic shield up when Gregory continued to pelt her with projectiles. She instead stayed on the move and struck the balcony with a Gigagust spell, destroying it and forcing Greggory to take flight. 

Either she can’t use her telekinetic repel spell consecutively, or it taxes her mana reserves a great deal, Simon guessed. Sensing his moment approaching, he began to cast buffs like Dark Saber and Energumen on himself. “Duchar, debuff Alphonse. Gregory, Grimm, keep harassing the mage and don’t give her any breathing room. Keep pressing her until I can exploit an opening.”

“I’m running out of incendiary projectiles, Lord Belias,” Gregory warned him. “I won’t be able to hold her off for long.”

True, the Juggler Class’ weakness was that it had no ability to produce enhanced items by itself besides normal balls. Gregory relied on bombs and slimes produced by allied crafters to make the most use of his Class, and his bags would soon become empty. He flew around the hall, avoiding Frea’s ice spikes and retaliating with his own alchemical fire flasks. Flames began to consume half the seats. 

Hector and Alphonse were locked in battle on the stage. The duel reminded Simon of his own clash with Alphonse in Valne, where the Paladin used his superior speed and offense to pressure a stronger but slower foe. Unfortunately, while Hector was faster and mightier than Simon had been in Valne, he lacked the spells that allowed him to blind and stun Alphonse. The Paladin deftly avoided all his blows and countered with smiting strikes that cut radiant swaths across the undead’s body. Duchar was attempting to support his son by weakening Alphonse from afar, but his Paladin abilities appeared to cancel out most of his attempts. 

“Where is she, monster?!” Alphonse shouted angrily as he smote Hector, slicing open his Class outfit and spilling his guts all over the floor. This angered the flesh golem, but did not slow him down. “Where did you take my friend?!”

“To the master’s harem,” Grimm lied gleefully. “Her sheath is being introduced to a demon’s claymore, if you know what I mean…”

“A welcome change from the Paladin’s dagger, if you ask me,” Gregory quipped back before grabbing his imp colleague and throwing him at Frea after running out of alchemical flasks. Frea retaliated with a telekinetic pulse that threw Grimm back at Gregory so violently that it knocked the gargoyle out of the air and onto the burning floor.

Here’s my chance, Simon thought as he activated his Lord of the Demon Castle’s teleportation ability. “Fiendmask.” 

He teleported right behind Frea. She turned around in an instant upon sensing him, staff raised. “Nov–”

She froze upon seeing him clothed in Belzemine’s skin. 

Simon had spent so long around her that his Fiendmask mimicked her down to every last minute detail. He had no idea whether the elves knew she had been slain or not, and it didn’t really matter. Frea found herself facing the friend she had failed to save from the Overlord approaching her. 

She hesitated, and that was enough.

Simon’s morning star hit her face before she could trigger her telekinetic defense spell. He bashed her skull with all of his might, tearing her jaw apart and smashing her brain to bloody bits. He ended the elf’s life in a single blow, the last thing she ever saw was her lost friend killing her. 

And the power. Oh, the sweet rush of power that followed that act of immense cruelty, it was pleasure beyond words! 

Level 40 Overlord Perk: Miasmic Archmage IV (Passi–

A Paladin’s screams of rage interrupted the notification. 

“No!” Alphonse shrieked with anger and absolute despair as he abandoned the fight with Hector and leaped off the stage at the disguised Simon, his holy sword raised to strike. “Murderer!”

It was a valiant effort, but a predictable one. 

“Chaos Wave,” Simon cast upon taking a leaf from Frea’s book. 

His shockwave threw Alphonse back at the stage and straight onto Hector’s axe. He hit the Paladin in midair and threw him onto the ground, bleeding. Even then, he tried to rise back up to continue the fight out of sheer fury and a desperate desire to save his friend. 

Simon didn’t let him. 

“Hellthunder,” Simon cast upon cancelling his Fiendmask, adrenaline pumping through his heart and squashing any hesitation he might have had. Vile crimson lightning coursed from his fingers and electrocuted Alphonse. His screams only heightened when Duchar joined in from the balcony with a lightning spell of his own. The two kept Alphonse immobilized and allowed Hector to close in with his axe.

The Paladin’s head went rolling across the floor, bringing the battle to an end. 

Simon felt a little experience flow into him when Hector slew Alphonse, though it paled compared to what he earned from slaying Frea; even if the experience was split between everyone who participated in the conflict. He let out a breath of contentment and briefly allowed himself to bask in the rush of victory. 

Level 40 Overlord Perk: Miasmic Archmage IV (Passive Perk): You can learn and cast spells up to Tier IV, but only those fueled by miasma.

Level 41 Overlord Perk: Warmonger V (Passive Perk): Weapons in which you have a proficiency will inflict the Anti-Heal status on a successful hit. This is a Curse effect.

Level 42 Overlord Perk: Devil Forgemaster III (Passive Perk): You have learned to craft enchanted weapons, shields, and armor, but they must be infused with miasma.

Level 43 Overlord Perk: Anathemic Secrecy III (Active): You have learned to veil your inner evil behind false holiness. You can transform the aura of Dark that surrounds you into one of Light at will, but your Dreadful Aura or Unquestionable Ruler Perks are cancelled until you reveal your true self.

Incredible. He could finally hide from the Paladin, the elves, the dryads, and demons without alerting them of his true nature. The crafting and spellcasting improvements would also improve his life so much in the future.

“Gregory, Grimm?” Simon called out to his troops across the burning amphitheater. “Are you still in one piece?”

“Barely!” Gregory replied with a groan of pain. His imp companion settled on pained gargles. Well, they were still alive at least. 

A light shining within hand’s reach of Alphonse caught Simon’s eye: a radiant, golden Crestone that shone like the heart of the sun. A piece of exquisitely crafted manalith holding all the world’s hopes. 

The Paladin Crestone. 

To think this could have been mine in another life, Simon thought as he moved to grab it. Such a shame you had to bear this burden, Alphonse–

Then came the pain. 

It was like touching a molten rock and being struck by lightning all at once. A pulse of agony so intense as to defy description struck Simon the moment he touched the Crestone. Its hatred for him, for all the evil that the Overlord represented, surpassed anything the Merchant Crestone could muster. It was so intense that Simon nearly dropped it. 

How could Gargauth hold this Crestone in his stomach for decades? 

Simon powered through the pain and activated his Inventory. The Crestone vanished in a flash, and a new entry appeared next to other weapons and supplies he had stocked within it. 

New Item Added: Paladin Noble Crestone. 

I hold you now, like Gargauth before me, Simon thought. And you shall disturb me no longer.

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Next Chapter

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A/N: yeah, that was supposed to be tomorrow's chap but finished it early by some miracle. Otherwise no chapter tomorrow since it'll be my 'day off' (as in I'll be working on admin, TPR and other stuff...). I'll try to align to the RR schedule so chapter will come out on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in the future (with B&C on Saturday).

In any case, hope you've enjoyed this reverse dungeon crawl. There are still some chapters ahead for the Season of the Minotaur but we're approaching the ritual's final stretch, so I think I'll post the next reign poll to outline it soon ;)