The Hundred Reigns 264: King of Spiders (6) (Patreon)

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Eole returned from her slavery audit spiritually crushed.

Simon could see the doubt written all over her fair face when he invited her to his office for her report. It was like the light of hope had been snuffed out of her soul, one bitter word at a time. 

“I take that your visit didn’t go well,” Simon guessed, having expected this. “Borsh can be quite harsh—”

“You knew.” Eole looked him straight in the eyes. “You knew what he would show me when you sent me.”

Simon didn’t deny it. “Yes, I did.”

“Why? To crush my faith in my own people?” Eole avoided his gaze. “To teach me my efforts will be for naught, because they won’t stop hurting themselves?”

“No, not at all. I simply wished to open your eyes to the truth of your people’s situation, and show you that there will be no easy solution to a problem as big as slavery.” Simon clasped his hands. “However, the fact that there is no easy solution doesn’t mean there is none. I told you that you have more power than you realize.”

Eole bit her lip and shifted uneasily in her seat. “What do you have in mind?”

“I will spare you the details, but Telluria will soon become a battleground between a newly unified Endymion and Vouivre’s forces,” Simon said. “The balance of power in the region will shift drastically.”

It had been a week since Louis perished, and things weren’t stabilizing as well as they did in the last reign. Although Euphemia was now firmly in control of the empire and Duke Barbatos conceded to her, both Lauriane and Dassein had voiced their distaste with the situation to their followers. Resentment had a way of festering. 

Louis might have been a patricidal traitor, but he still had been the empire’s crown-prince, and his death had lionized him in the eyes of anti-Church Party supporters. Shabram had even informed Simon that her spies reported that many outright disbelieved his kinslaying accusation and assumed it to be mere propaganda. 

It appeared that Louis dying actually resulted in a worse situation in the short term. A runaway gathered little more than scorn, but a celebrated Warrior dying in battle under mysterious circumstances inspired tales. It didn’t help that the bastard had perished at the height of his popularity rather than after ruining a continent through his atrocities.

Why? Why did someone like Louis get a lionizing death, while Simon had to hide to avoid everyone coming for his head? There was truly no justice in this world.

Simon knew the future benefits of getting rid of that maniac would outweigh today’s concerns, but he would need to closely monitor the situation. Illusea had also remained silent to Endymion’s entreaties, while Valne and Lore kept their options open for an attack on Magvolia. Anything could happen now. 

“Both will keep shifters firmly in chains, but one of the sides might reconsider…” Simon met Eole’s gaze. “If you can convince them to do so.”

Eole paled like chalk. “You want me to use my voice.” 

“I won’t force you to do anything, Eole. In fact, I think it’s a good opportunity for you to return home for a time. Take the time to consider whether your mission will be worth it.” Simon snapped his fingers and his office doors opened to let Voltobauta through. “Let me introduce you to the Necromancer, Volto—”

“I can do my own introductions, thank you.” Voltobauta gallantly bowed to Eole, tipping his hat while at it, and then addressed her in the kish tongue. “Amadeus Voltobauta, my good lass, unlucky pirate king and Necromancer extraordinaire. Is it true that your kind lives on flying islands?”

Eole’s shocked expression was an answer in itself, with Simon quickly chiming in. “He already knew. I foresaw that his friend, the current Adventurer, crash landed on your homeland a few months ago.” 

“Of course he knew I would ask you, because he foresaw this entire puppet show and set the stage,” Voltobauta said. “I’m sure he expects to profit from this somehow, or else he would have shared that information himself.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Simon lied. The man was too sharp for his own good.

“You know what I bet with my Adventurer buddy should she confirm the existence of flying islands.” Voltobauta crossed his arms. “I’ll have to join the White Unicorn while working for you. You’ll get an agent in high places.”

“You won’t be a friend to the Overlord or trigger any loophole in the White Unicorn contract if you ever join them,” Simon reassured him with a thin smile. The more spies he placed among the Oracle’s pawns, the better he could anticipate her reactions. “I have nothing against the organization. If you want to help them raid Endymion’s shores, be my guest.”

“You think you have us all caught firmly in your web.” Voltobauta gave Eole a look of sympathy. “Beware, songbird. This one took more after Mardok than his own father. He’s an insidious snake with a honeyed forked tongue.”

“The pirate is simply bitter that he ended up being the one outfoxed for a change,” Simon reassured Eole, his eyes rolling. “Believe it or not, Voltobauta, but I’m working to save the world.”

“Believe.” Voltobauta snorted. “Yes, that is how your kind works. You make suckers believe their ideas are their own, rather than seeds you planted in their heads. You and the Oracle should marry; I’m sure you would get along like salt and sea.”

“You dare claim the moral high ground over me, Voltobauta?” While he might have a point about Simon manipulating others, the vampire had no right to look down on him for it. “You, who spent centuries plundering the living and wasting your long years? My siblings all grew higher-leveled than you in a fraction of your eternal life, because you’ve never learned to focus.”

Now that comment had pricked the pirate king’s pride. “I make no apologies about who I am. I live the unlife I want.” 

“Thus allowing others to pay the price for your dilettante lifestyle. How many souls will fall into the Abyss when they find the Necromancer too weak to save them from the demons’ jaws?” Simon sneered. “You can’t even save yourself.” 

Volotobauta had the grace not to deny the truth to the man whose might he had bowed to. If he had exploited his Crestone to its full potential, Simon would have been the vassal and he the king. 

“Yes, unlike you, I do believe in something bigger than myself.” Simon rose from his seat. “I believe in the same cause your Noble Crestone was originally created for: to save the world from the Zodiac Fiends who would destroy it, and I will succeed. This gives me strength.”

It gave him the will to continue in spite of his Class, in spite of the reigns, and in spite of everything else. 

Voltobauta looked away, his expression thoughtful and self-reflective for once. Simon’s words had hit a nerve of some kind. As for Eole, she kept shifting in place uncomfortably, her eyes darting between Simon and the Necromancer. 

“Go to the Sanctuary and think about your lives, the both of you,” Simon suggested. “All I ask is that you do not reveal my existence or true identity to the White Unicorn. Otherwise, come back when you’re ready to believe.” 

Simon let them go after that, then waited for the sisters to inevitably come out of the shadows. They showed up within a minute’s time. 

“Flying islands,” Velvet mused with delight, having listened to everything. Simon was starting to wonder if they took turns watching him. “Now I’ve heard everything.”

“Is it wise to let them go?” Silk asked warily. “They could rat us out.”

“They won’t, and I’ll be following them shortly,” Simon replied before laying down the law. “The Kish Sanctuary is off-limits to the both of you.”

That displeased Silk. “Vouivre would pay a fortune for kish slaves, and you said we were in an alliance.”

“And it will crumble if you tread where you shouldn’t. Consider everything kish-related as my privilege alone.” Simon stared at the two of them. “Haven’t I been good to the both of you?” 

“You have,” Silk assented with a shrug. She wouldn’t risk their very profitable alliance for a quick buck. “Fine, do as you will with the birds.”

“Speaking of Vouivre, I’ve delivered the weapons shipment just as you asked, including some of our newly crafted Crestones,” Velvet said. “You should have seen her face. She sounded convinced it was only a matter of time before she conquered Telluria.”

“Good,” Simon replied. “I want her to overstretch herself.” 

“You’re setting her up for failure,” Silk guessed. “Laying a snare to make her dependent on us.”

Simon nodded in confirmation. Vouivre was bound to catch the empire’s attention soon, but she would keep running away from real trouble so long as the Beast’s power didn’t go to her head. She would become all the more dependent on his help and pliable once backed into a corner. 

Simon hoped Eole would come back to work with him, as she did the first time they infiltrated the Cobweb together. While he didn’t need her to access the Kish Palace’s vault and build an alliance with Vouivre, opening the vault without her would cost her her leverage against the dragon queen and thus put Telluria in a worse position later. 

She should return. Eole was stronger than she looked, and her resolve to challenge her own people’s legacy of slavery was ironclad. She would come back reforged and ready for what came next. 

Voltobauta himself would likely follow too. Besides his oath to Simon, he remained a pirate at heart. His friendship with Alcyone was rooted in shared passion for adventure rather than any ideology. A cynic like him would never believe in the Oracle.

“I’ve gotta say, you’re frighteningly good at moving so many people like puppets on strings…” Velvet complimented him. “Remind me never to make an enemy out of you.”

“Thank you.” Simon folded his hands. “How did your expedition go?”

“I thought you would never ask.” Velvet grinned ear to ear and brought out a sealed box radiating miasma. Exodeos’ crystal glowed within it with all the weight of the demon’s malice. “He gave us a little trouble, but your intel, our Demonslayer weapons, and our own leashed demon let us prevail.”

“I hope you gained a few more levels from the venture,” Simon replied. This made four crystals in their possession so far; a number he hoped to raise to seven within the next few months. All the others were either beyond their grasp or too dangerous to deal with. “I’ve already ordered Chrom Cruak to forge scales for you to wield it, Velvet.”

“Thank you, thank you,” Velvet said with a smirk. Simon caught Silk frowning on the side, which made him wonder if the Rogue didn’t particularly want her other half to have her own pet Zodiac Fiend. 

“I also took the picture you asked for using Lotan’s crystal to fuel your machine.” Silk handed Simon a sheet holding the image of a wizened elf staring back at the onlooker; the very same specter which had been guarding Exodeos’ peak. “Though I can’t fathom why you would want it.”

“I suspect this elf was one of the mages that helped seal the Zodiac Fiends in the first place, if not a Noble Hero,” Simon explained as he studied the picture. The specter looked back at him without a sound. “My modified pictobox can capture spiritual beings inside manalith sheets, and this ghost might hold useful secrets.”

“A pity our Necromancer just left, then.” Silk scowled. “There’s more. We weren’t the only ones snooping around Mount Perun.”

“If you are speaking about the Church of the Light, I’m aware of Mastemo’s interest in—”

“They were elves.”

That took Simon aback. “Elves?”

“Yes,” Velvet confirmed. “A group of long-ears was climbing the mountain while we were leaving it. Ranger Vassals, from the look of it.”

“I don’t know how they landed without alerting the mermaids, and we couldn’t find any nearby ship,” Silk said. “My guess is that they were either locals or brought along a mage capable of teleportation with them. This screams Illusea to me.”

That… that was new. New and worrying. The Oracle never risked any of her troops outside her territory outside of total war, and Illusea had left Bujan mostly untouched. She did recruit the Malphas family there, however, so she might have other agents in place.

Had Louis’ death emboldened the Oracle? Why would she send agents after Exodeos? Had she decided leaving the Zodiac Fiends’ crystals untouched was no longer necessary now that Endymion might sue for peace and her plan to escape to the moon had been ruined by Belzemine’s death? Or had the Ram’s disappearance begun to worry her? Viceroy Koryu shouldn’t have noticed its disappearance yet, but the Oracle had other information channels…

What would that mean for the other crystals?

“You didn’t see that coming, did you?” Silk noted. “Your foresight has flaws.”

“Yes, a flaw called the Oracle.” Simon quickly decided to move ahead with some projects and put others on the back burner. “Change of plan: tell Odette we’ll begin the expedition to Rhapta as soon as I return from a trip, and prepare yourselves. We’re going to Uyo.”

He had to secure all the crystals within his reach as soon as possible.

—-------------

Simon spent the next day trailing after Eole and Voltobauta with Darkflight, then infiltrating the Sanctuary. He knew the two’s arrival would capture everyone’s attention, from Vayan to Alcyone and Lady Junon. This provided him with an easy opportunity to sneak in with a Fiendmask on.

Simon flew to the Forbidden Keep while avoiding any inhabited island, walked into the cathedral, seized Nodens without anybody noticing, and then left without further ado. Another crystal thus joined his growing collection. 

The Goatfish ended up sealed in a modified pictobox, whose miasmic pictures continued to show the exact same image they always did: a cursed version of the Musan Sniper aiming at the onlooker. 

Odd that it kept showing that specific Remnant out of the dozens or so Simon must have left in his wake. Was there a rule to this phenomenon? Simon suspected it had something to do with the fact that the Musan Sniper slew him twice in a row. Maybe the reigns preserved things in his close vicinity after death, with certain anomalies like Gourmand managing to endure for a time.

Simon would need to try with a pictobox incorporating more than one Zodiac Fiend’s crystal, but those experiments would wait until after he had secured the Archer and hopefully the Two-Tailed Fish. 

Setting these matters aside, Simon used the Attic to travel back to Granny Radhag’s drug cottage in Uyo. The compound had grown quite a bit since his last visit, mostly because the Honorius family had settled there. He arrived to find the mistress of the house brewing some foul potion in her cauldron in Lorimor, Duchar, and Cassandra’s company.

“Baby bones mix better than virgin blood with black lotus powder, darling,” Granny taught Cassandra. The hag had used her Brands of Lust and Envy together to adopt a voluptuous, corrupted elf’s appearance. “It thickens the potion.”

“My research indicates that baby-related ingredients carry their potency because they are almost always virgins in the first place,” Duchar said. “I think any donor below twelve should be a safe bet.” 

“Demonic secretions can serve as a nice substitute, too,” Lorimor suggested. 

“I produce those once a month around the full moon,” Cassandra replied, while Lorimor dutifully scribbled notes on the discussion. “Would that work?”

“I’m sure everything that comes out of you will taste sweet, my dear,” Granny said before giving Duchar a dirty look. The old Warlock’s small, sly smile sent shivers down Simon’s spine. “As sweet as your handsome father’s skin.”

“I see you are all getting along,” Simon said upon interrupting the gathering. Maybe a little too well, actually… “I hope you haven’t slacked off on your duties, though.”

“Not at all, Your Majesty,” Duchar reassured him upon stroking his beard. “Lady Radhag’s anti-sleep potions and assistance greatly eased our task.”

“I’ve learned many things,” Cassandra replied. “She has been very kind to me.”

“My dear demoncake, how could I not?” The hag’s new appearance hadn’t changed her grandmotherly demeanor. “You truly are adorable.” 

“My masterpiece is complete, oh Lord of Dark,” Lorimor boasted upon presenting Simon with the very same black compendium of fear he had written so many reigns back: Darkest Fear: The Thirteen Terrors of Man. “I have woven dread into each and every word.”

“Excellent,” Simon replied upon seizing it and copying it in his Abyssal Chronicle. “I’ll be sure to test its power in a safer place.”

“My own contribution, while nowhere near as exhaustive as my colleague’s, won’t require such security measures.” Duchar beckoned Simon towards a shelf where he had begun to settle his own grimoires next to Granny’s own. “This project’s implications have been truly fascinating so far.”

Since running a global criminal conspiracy took most of Simon’s time, he had entrusted Duchar and Lorimor to research Libromancy based on his pointers and guidelines. He had mostly given them instructions on how to create a ‘Skillbook’ based on intuition provided by his own Devil Forgemaster Perk. The result was a small leather diary whose miasmic enchantments were barely detectable, even with Simon’s Dark Visionary senses. 

“It would appear that Skillbooks are magical objects capable of directly recording and transferring information into the reader,” Duchar explained. “As per the name, their words imprint the writer’s knowledge onto anyone reading the pages without need for practice. I was able to record my knowledge of the Tier I Shadow Chain spell inside this one.”

“I know of it,” Simon replied upon seizing the book. Shadow Chain had been the very first miasmic spell he ever learned, though he hadn’t used it in a very, very long time. “It should take more than a day for a layman to master it.”

“Not with this,” Granny Radhag said. “Come outside, your malevolence, come and see.”

Simon did so. The vast clearing outside still held the heart of the Cobweb’s drug-running activities, including the gigantic cauldron and other devices meant to refine dreamshade leaves into a product they could peddle to wealthy clients. While Simon had tightened his control to make the Cobweb more ethically selective of its clients, the activity remained a major source of income.

A large part of the area now hosted a large group of mephisgoats, demotaurs, and a small group of human experts recruited by Odette for the expedition. Kano herself was busy assigning them orders with feverish focus.

However, something else warranted Simon’s attention. While most of Granny’s goblinoid workers were busy harvesting dreamshade leaves and refining them into drugs, a handful of off-the-clock minions were playing a tug-of-war game with the Shadow Chain spell. Orcs and goblins alike pulled dark bonds of miasma over a pile of mud until one side dragged the other into it, much to the winners’ cackling delight.

“Two orcs and three goblins learned the Shadow Chain spell from the Skillbook upon reading it,” Duchar said. 

“All from one book?” Simon inquired, his heartbeat quickening from the implications. “Its power didn’t run out?”

“The number of readers doesn’t seem to diminish the book’s power, as far as I can tell,” Duchar explained, before adding a caveat. “However, the goblins quickly exhausted themselves when they first cast the spell, likely since they lacked prior miasma and mana control training or endurance. Only the orcs have the reserves to reliably use it.” 

Yes, imprinting a piece of knowledge onto a mind without the necessary basics would no doubt carry certain risks, but the applications, the applications! If a Skillbook could teach spells, why not Techniques? Why not crafting recipes, martial arts, or any useful piece of knowledge? This would drastically accelerate any would-be mage or warrior’s training, or quickly allow Endymion to create highly educated elites out of unskilled workers. 

Simon immediately checked the book himself in order to test it out, but no sooner had he read a few words than a reddish System notification flared up in his brain. 

Mind-affecting effect negated by Indomitable Crown.

Argh, Indomitable Crown considered that kind of direct mental input an attempt at psychic manipulation and outright rejected it. 

“My defensive Perks cancel the effect for me,” Simon complained. There went his hope of accelerating his training. “At least I can quickly share my knowledge with others.”

Duchar nodded sharply. “My current experiments suggest that the amount of knowledge a Skillbook can store depends on its creator’s crafting talents. I have only been able to store one spell per book so far, but no doubt Your Majesty can write down texts compiling a library’s worth of content.” 

“Miasmic content,” Simon guessed. Devil Forgemaster’s limitations would likely prevent him from inscribing the likes of Techniques, though he would need to check what he could and couldn’t put inside a Skillbook. Having to write down the texts would also take a while.

Still, the things he could do with this craft… it beggared the mind that Balzam Magnos didn’t mass-produce Skillbooks to empower his army. 

Why didn’t he? The question bothered Simon. Skillbooks were too useful not to exploit. My father would have realized that, both as the Overlord and former Commander, and he had plenty of time to test these items out. So why didn’t he mass-produce them? 

Maybe this had something to do with his father’s Biographer project? He had yet to find a paper trail leading to the hidden archives holding it and Balzam Magnos’ Abyssal Chronicle. This remained one of his predecessors’ best-guarded secrets to this day…

There had to be a catch of some kind, like how the Devil Brands could be used to attack the holder, or the fact that Indomitable Crown considered it a dangerous mind-affecting effect. 

“Keep experimenting with this, Duchar,” Simon ordered his retainer upon returning the Skillbook. “This is a most promising development.” 

“I agree,” the Warlock replied as Silk and Velvet walked out of the Attic’s doorway and joined them on the threshold. “I take it we shall not accompany you on the expedition?”

“I prefer a smaller, quicker group.” Simon squinted at the sisters. “You’re late.”

“Sorry, I had to pick up my new toy.” Velvet proudly raised her pair of Exodeos-powered scales. “I figured it would come in handy.”

“It might,” Simon conceded. Rhapta shouldn’t be a problem for a party of their power, but he couldn’t lower his guard with the Oracle on the move. “To the Archer we go.”

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