The Hundred Reigns 267: King of Spiders (9) (Patreon)

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Einganah’s summoning ritual proved rather… unorthodox. 

The tablet’s instructions required that they capture a snake—which were thankfully plentiful in the jungle—ritually decapitate it, and then place its head on a dais in the temple. They then had to drink a toast to the poor snake, with the drink being a mixture of its own blood and venom.

“This Ritual symbolizes the bounty of Einganah, who would bestow both fortune and curses on humanity,” Odette explained as she, Simon, and Xenophon drank to the dead snake’s honor. “A gift we must celebrate.”

“I wonder if Poison Immunity came with the faith,” Simon commented dryly when he finished his own cup. “Or else it is no wonder this city died out.”

“Many of my kindred overcomplicate things,” Xenophon concurred. “If I ever start a religion, my followers will only need to pay a fee. Nothing more.”

“An idea to explore later,” Odette mused as she stared into her empty cup. “I think that should be it.”

Simon knew she was right the moment he looked upon the dais. Mana had begun to gather around the serpent’s head, enlarging and growing it a new body. A being resembling a twenty-foot long, mighty serpent swiftly materialized inside the temple. Its scales were the color of the rainbow and rather pretty, but its visage was a decayed skull devoid of flesh or eyes. It wheezed like an ancient elder struggling to breathe.

Einganah, the Rainbow Serpent

Level 57 Eidolon of Serpents, Rainbows, Fortune, and Fossils

Reptile/Divine

She was even weaker than Vayan, who only had a small community to sustain him. 

“It has been so many years since someone called old Einganah,” the serpent said, her voice incredibly soft and pleasant in spite of her wheezing. Her eyeless gaze settled on Simon with a hiss. “What overwhelming evil I sense from you… are you an archdemon coming to befoul my temple?”

“No, not at all,” Simon reassured her. “We come as friends, Lady Einganah.”

“I am Odette Kano, the current Merchant and a descendant of the Rhaptan people,” Odette introduced herself with a bow, her words capturing the snake’s interest. “We followed the ancient rites to summon you back.”

“A… a descendant?” Einganah assessed Odette and slowly nodded to herself, her skull creaking when it moved. “Yes… I smell your blood. Welcome home, my child. This used to be a great city once… until a great evil came upon us, to slaughter our children and—” The snake coughed, her scales’ lustrous glow losing their shine for a second. “Ah…”

“Oof, you’re on your last leg.” Xenophon cleared his throat. “Figuratively, since you don’t have any, being a snake and all...”

“I am a dying ember,” Einganah admitted. “My cult has long died out, its remains stamped out by that brute Gargunza and other rivals. My memory survives only in folk tales and legends. Centuries of accumulated mana sustain this avatar yet, but my stockpile will fade too.”

“You’ll soon become unable to manifest in this reality at all,” Simon guessed, sensing an opportunity. “I think I can help you with that.”

Einganah cautiously studied him, before warily asking, “How so?”

“I am what you could call a Dark Visionary, capable of forming Abyss-consecrated Pacts with eidolons such as you. I would like to contract your services.” 

“A Dark Visionary?” Einganah tilted her head in disbelief. “Does such a thing exist?” 

“It does. I can grant you great power, albeit at a cost.” Simon would rather that she sign up out of her own free will rather than unwittingly corrupt an innocent soul like he did with Carbuncle. It would help with his own self-therapy. “You will become a Dark Eidolon so long as I channel you, with the Abyss’ strength flowing through you. Some relish the power, others dread it.”

“Power, you say…” Einganah’s tail moved to her maw, like a human pressing a finger to their lips. “Could you restore me to my former glory?”

Simon took her cautious curiosity as a good sign. “The dark eidolon transformation will change you into something new. I cannot tell whether you will regain the heights you once did, but you will certainly grow stronger than you are now. A level 60 eidolon I contracted gained fifteen of them.”

“I didn’t always look like this… with a skull for a face. I am peeling away, memory by memory…” Einganah coughed a puff of mana. “I have very little to lose at this point. If you can give me the strength to restore my cult, then… I will readily shed my skin.” 

“Are you certain?” Simon had expected a lot more back and forth. “The Abyss will witness our Pact, and no power in the planes may violate it. There will be no turning back.”

“Survival of the fittest is paramount… that is the law of the jungle.” Einganah crouched slightly. “I would rather renew myself in darkness than fade away.” 

Even living ideas fear death, Simon guessed with sympathy. At least I can ensure she never fades away. Her name will ring into the Abyss for all eternity. 

“Can your dark eidolons grant Prayers, Your Majesty?” Odette asked. “Do those who worship her dark eidolon self also empower her current form?”

“I… I do not know,” Simon admitted. “I’ve never tested it.”

“Then I see a way for us all to profit from this arrangement,” Odette suggested. “I could restore Lady Einganah’s cult, ensuring a steady flow of worshipers to restore her strength.” 

Her proposal took Einganah by surprise. “You would become my priestess, daughter of Rhapta?”

“Are you that attached to your roots, Odette?” Simon asked with some skepticism. She didn’t strike him as the sentimental type, and showed little interest in his demon cult phase in Magvolia. 

“I do wish to preserve my culture… and I did say we would all benefit from it.” Odette rubbed her fingers. “I expect proper compensation for my services.”

Xenophon burst out laughing. “Milady is truly a worthy Merchant. You let no opportunity go to waste!” 

“I have no need for material wealth… for it is the faith of the spirit I feed on,” Einganah replied. “You may keep whatever gold your service entitles you to, so long as you ensure my name echoes again in the hearts of men.”

The irony of Odette dabbling in cultist activities wasn’t lost on Simon, considering how they met. “Then it is settled,” he said, forwarding an invitation to Einganah. “Let us sign our agreement.”

Form a Dark Eidolon Pact with Rainbow Serpent Einganah?

Simon thought ‘yes’ and sensed a chill down his spine as he contracted his fourth eidolon. 

The Abyss bore witness to your Pact, which no power in the planes may break.

You have formed a Dark Eidolon Pact with Einganah, Mother of Serpents.

You can now summon Einganah, Mother of Serpents, to help you in battle and channel its Auspice.

“This contract is different from all others…” Einganah noted. “Demonstrate your power.”

“As you wish,” Simon said as an incantation flowed from his lips. “Dreadful fangs glisten in the dark, as the ruins of the past sink in poison eternal! Devour them all, Mother of Serpents Einganah!”

Miasma gathered inside the Rainbow Serpent, infusing her with the Abyss’ strength. “I feel it…” she hissed in twisted pleasure, her body bulging and twisting. “From within me… darkness overwhelming…”

Einganah shed her body, skull first. 

Odette stepped back and Xenophon stepped forward in her defense as a new Einganah burst out of her old flesh. A twenty-foot long nightmare of slimy coils and dark purple scales emerged from her remains, as terrifying as it was beautiful. The entity combined elements of multiple scalefolk creatures into one, from lamias to gorgons; her lower half was a long serpentine tail that split open into a five-jawed maw like a blooming flower. Out of it rose a naked, voluptuous humanoid torso with deathly pale skin. Her face was truly lovely, in spite of her two red eyes, but she had black snakes for hair coiling around a golden diadem. Her arms each ended in a whip that split into five different venomous serpents, from cobras to vipers. The very air reeked of poison in her presence. 

Einganah, Mother of Serpents

Level 74 Eidolon of Scalefolks, Venom, Ailments, and Renewal

Reptile/Demon

Auspices: Deicidal Venom: Your Poison ailment effects will pierce through a target’s Resistance, whereas Poison Immunity will be treated as Resistance instead.

What the… Simon blinked when he saw the notification. An Auspices that ignores Immunity?!

“Young and strong again,” Einganah rejoiced, her voice now vibrant and full of vitality. She searched for her reflection in a golden pillar, and then caressed her face with her snake fingers with a smile of delight. “I am more powerful and beautiful than I have ever been!”

“You certainly look better,” Xenophon commented. “What a terrifying power.”

“Are you… are you in control of yourself?” Simon inquired. The dark eidolon process had turned Vayan into a mad beast, while both Culebre and Carbuncle turned into sycophants.

“A cloud has been lifted off my mind, my Lord of Dark,” Einganah replied, her snake fingers sensually caressing her breasts, belly, and tail. It reminded Simon of a newborn discovering their body. “My spirit is clear, and my senses are like knives. I feel freer than ever before. Renewed.”

The transformation didn’t seem to have changed her all that much, besides restoring her power and vitality… Simon wondered if that was the result of her particular portfolio. Could the effect be actually beneficial for this eidolon? 

Vayan had once told Simon that the Dark wasn’t inherently evil, and that some entities like the qlippoths could be harmless to mortals. Maybe he finally had a case study to justify that belief. 

“Let us see if you can fulfill Prayers,” Simon suggested. “Do you know any low level ones I could cast? Something that wouldn’t drain much mana from you?”

“Venomleash ought to do, my dear Lord of Dark,” Einganah replied after a moment’s consideration. “It is a Tier III Prayer that lets me bless any whip or flail you wield with a snake’s head for six minutes.”

Simon nodded, used Warmonger to turn his Overlord scepter into a whip, and then repeated the words Einganah whispered to him. “May this weapon become Einganah’s Venomleash!” 

Magic poured from his hand and coursed through his whip, causing it to grow scales and turn its head into a black adder’s venomous maw. It hissed as Simon swung it. 

“I hardly felt its cost,” Einganah said with a triumphant chuckle. “The Dark fuels me.”

This is like the Light Megalith, Simon realized. Helel could intercept and mimic Prayers by transforming her miasma to mana. The process likely worked the same for dark eidolons: they harnessed the miasma they received from the Abyss through their connection to Simon, shifted it into mana, and then issued the spell back to their followers. Miasmic Archmage applies to them.  

“What’s the strongest Prayer you can grant?” Simon inquired. 

“We eidolons can grant one Prayer Tier’s worth of spells per every ten levels we have,” Einganah boasted. 

“So you could grant spells up to Tier VII in your current form, and V in your normal one,” Simon guessed. Unfortunately, I may only be able to channel her Prayers when I summon her. Miasmic Archmage won’t work otherwise.

“This jungle will tremble at the name of Einganah once again,” the dark eidolon replied, her forked tongue licking her lips in anticipation. “That usurper Gargunza will be the first to feel my wrath! I will strangle and devour him in front of his enslaved worshipers, or maybe petrify him so I can look upon his fearful face for all eternity! So many possibilities…” 

“That can be arranged, but first…” Simon cancelled the summoning, causing Einganah to swiftly revert back to her original form as the miasma deserted her body. She collapsed onto the dais, hissing and wheezing. “Are you well, Lady Einganah?”

“Why?” she asked him, her voice a rasp full of longing. “Why… did you change me back?”

“Some eidolons regret the transformation,” Simon admitted. “I would rather have your informed consent before I—”

“Change me back!” she instantly demanded, in stark contrast to the likes of Carbuncle or Vayan. “I was young again, stronger, better!” Einganah looked at her tarnished scales. “I don’t want to be like this… I would rather be the other me.”

“All the time?” Simon inquired. 

“All the time,” she confirmed, marking a short pause. “You don’t understand how good it feels… for the old to be young again.”

Perhaps, but I understand the pleasure of gaining strength after a lifetime of weakness. Simon gathered his breath and uttered the summoning chant again. Well, it is her wish. 

Others had sold their souls to him for far less.

—------------

Simon had one last thing to do before leaving Uyo’s jungle. 

He took a few moments to test Einganah’s Auspice using a spare golem he kept in his Inventory. Although these creatures were usually immune to the Poison ailment, having neither flesh nor a circulatory system of their own, casting Ruin on it twice in a row caused the venom to begin to corrode its metal plates until it eventually broke down. 

Vulnerability to Ailment doubled the chance of being afflicted with one, Resistance halved it, and Immunity outright shielded the target from it. Abilities capable of piercing through the latter were said to be the realm of high-level Noble Class wielders or transcendental beings. To think he wielded this power now…

However, as astonishing as it was, the fact he had to use his Ruin spell two times for it to stick confirmed to Simon that Deicidal Poison didn’t guarantee he could poison usually immune targets; it only made it possible. 

This remains a game-changer, Simon thought once they departed Rhapta. I should work on a Poison-compatible spell next. Find ways to exploit synergies with my Auspices.

Since using two dark eidolons at once prevented him from casting spells due to the strain, Simon decided to try channeling Einganah as long as he could manage to better practice his summoning craft. This would also confirm whether the eidolon suffered any ill-effects from a long-term transformation. 

The group quickly located the ape shifter tribe encampment they avoided on their way to Rhapta earlier in order to seize their totem. They didn’t even need to fight them, since Einganah did more than look like a scalefolk. She had inherited many of their innate abilities, including the gorgons’ infamous petrifying gaze. 

She only had to take a look at the shifters to turn them all to stone. 

“I should smash them all,” Einganah commented as she slithered among the petrified monkey-men. “The very sight of these apes infuriates me.”

“It would be a waste to kill potential worshipers,” Odette warned her, stroking her chin as she spoke. “Although we should start thinking about our market… scalefolk are a given, but I would rather target wealthier demographics.”

Simon paid them no mind, his gaze wandering to the item he had been looking for: a nine-foot tall statue of finely carved wood representing a crimson gorilla. The construction incorporated a drum of fine skin, with the ape’s hands raised as if to slam it. 

“This is one of Gargunza’s totems,” Odette informed Simon. “According to tales, shamans can summon him by playing a certain tune.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Simon replied as he touched the totem. He could feel the mana radiating from it, and its connection to the eidolon it embodied. A System notification flared up in front of him. 

Force an Ordeal on Gargunza, the Gorilla God?

“I can force the summoning,” Simon informed Einganah. “Are you sure you wish to proceed with this?”

“Gargunza must suffer for sacrificing the best of my faithful and stealing away the worst of them,” Einganah insisted. “I wish to strangle him, and bite him, and eat him. He will be the first to perish by my newfound strength.”

“Gargunza’s defeat would be a net positive for the local communities, considering how his cult sacrifices people to him,” Odette pointed out. 

Well… even if Gargunza only acted like this because his followers believed he should, he indeed remained a self-proclaimed deity that encouraged human sacrifices in return for his help. Simon wouldn’t feel any guilt about leashing him. 

“Very well,” Simon replied as he accepted the notification. “I shall grant your wish.”

The jungle shuddered the moment he did so, and reality blinked out. 

The shifter encampment disappeared all of a sudden. The tents, the petrified occupants, Odette, Xenophon, and even Einganah herself disappeared. Simon sensed their telepathic connection being cut, and his bond to his Devil Brands being suppressed. The jungle appeared to fold up and twist on itself, with trees uprooted until they obscured the cloud and sky. It was as if the very jungle had swallowed the world whole from all sides. 

Simon watched on from the ground as the heavens above became a canopy centered around a shining sun of mana. He saw no walls to support this structure; only the earth rising up and wrapping up. 

I’m inside a sphere, Simon realized, the mana above so blinding it almost hurt to look at it. A demiplane. 

The Worldsoul is witness to your battle. 

Time has crawled to a stop, and escape is impossible until the Ordeal concludes. 

All your buffs have been cancelled for fairness’ sake, and you cannot call on allies except for eidolons.  

Simon put on his Overlord armor as the totem began to glow and morph into a massive, living creature. A massive gorilla nearly thirteen feet tall materialized out of the statue, roaring and growling. His fur was black and red, his arms thicker than Simon’s whole body, with sharp fangs and bloodshot eyes. The eidolon bore a necklace of animal skulls and a crown of horns made in a pale imitation of kingship, alongside golden armbands and anklets. 

Gargunza, the Gorilla God

Level 69 Eidolon of Primates, Might, Rainfall, and the Jungle

Beast/Divine

“How?!” The gorilla king stomped the ground with his fists in anger, the ground trembling from his overwhelming might. “How can a mortal like you force me into an Ordeal?!”

“I have my ways,” Simon replied calmly as he summoned a mace from his Inventory, confirming it still worked in this strange dimension. “Don’t tell me you would have denied my challenge?”

“Gargunza fears nothing and no one! If you are strong as you are brave, summoner, then prove yourself and…” Gargunza’s simian visage twisted into a dark scowl once he took a better look at Simon. “Wait… you are no Summoner, nor a Visionary… you reek of the Dark!”

“I think you misunderstand.” Simon raised his mace. “Dreadful fangs glisten in the dark, as the ruins of the past sink in poison eternal! Devour them all, Mother of Serpents Einganah!”

The entire half-reality around him shook from the weight of his power, as darkness intruded upon the Worldsoul’s heart. The mana sun in the sky flickered, with miasma gathering around Simon in waves. The ground turned to poisoned mud, which then assumed Einganah’s natural shape. It didn’t take long for her to flicker like a mirage and swiftly transform into her new, mightier self. She loomed behind Simon like a familiar, her snake fingers and hair snapping their fangs in anticipation. 

“If you prove your might, Gorilla God, then I will consent to lending you mine,” Simon boasted as his new servant hissed behind him and cast the shocked Gargunza in her shadow. “Put on a good show.”

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