The Hundred Reigns

The wind blew through the cold Tellurian plains.

The night was dark and chilly, though Simon was used to it. Duchar, Meredith, and Leonard had formed a defensive perimeter around him, while Pallian flew in circles in the sky in his beastly form. The shifter had become an anthropomorphic bat the size of a bear, his white wings obscuring the moon when he flew over them.

Only Lorimor and Cassandra had stayed behind in Beleth to waylay any attempts at locating Simon. He had officially gone on a bounty hunt with his retainers, which should hopefully keep Anna, Dassein, Thalas, and everyone else from asking too many questions about his absence for a few days.

This shouldn’t take too long, Simon thought as he looked around at the forest nearby. He very much recognized this spot. This is where Vouivre slew Thalas once.

“I see movements in the trees up on the hills,” Meredith warned him, clutching her spear. “Scalefolk, I think.”

“They are here,” Simon said as Pallian screeched out a warning. Simon looked at the rising half-moon and spotted an enormous winged form briefly obscuring the moonlight. “Here she comes.”

A flash illuminated the night, and a house-sized fireball fell upon Simon’s party.

Simon rubbed his newly made ring, which worked the same way as the Zodiac Fiend sealing containers, and unleashed the demon kept within it. The creature—a wind elemental demon called a div—emerged in the form of a living tornado, sucking in all the air around itself. It swirled around the group to create a wall of wind that deflected Vouivre’s flames across the plains and set the grass ablaze.

Simon’s retainers immediately readied their weapons and spells, but he stopped them with a raised hand.

“No need,” he ordered, his wind div solidifying into a monstrous toad made of blackened clouds and with a tornado for a mouth. “T’was a warning shot.”

“But Your Majesty–” Meredith said, only for a fearsome, terrifying roar to echo in the distance; a tempestuous noise that struck instinctual fear in all human hearts by reminding them that they were prey.

All stats sharply decreased!

Duchar quickly cast a spell to lift the debuff, as he had been prepared to, and Vouivre swiftly appeared over the horizon.

Her wings whipped up great gusts in her wake and her scales gleamed in the moonlight, revealing her humongous size that yet remained a paltry imitation of Gargauth’s immense bulk. Pallian quickly landed next to Simon’s side as Vouivre crashed onto the plain with a cataclysmic impact that sent dirt and flaming grass flying in all directions. Simon saw fear take hold of most of his retainers, even Duchar, as the immense dragon stepped towards them in all of her majestic glory.

This was the beast of legend that the imperial bestiary advised soldiers to run away from on sight, a monster capable of laying ruin to castles and burning cities to cinder. By contrast, the smaller Casval looked rather puny as he landed next to his sister.

“Remember, you may hear me say things that will sound treasonous to Endymion for the sake of earning this scaled vermin’s trust,” Simon informed his retainers, most specifically Meredith and Leonard, whom he had extensively briefed earlier. “Remain quiet, let me do the talking, and all will be fine.”

“It is not our place to question you, Your Majesty,” Leonard replied, though Simon sensed a certain wariness in his voice, “But this is a dangerous game you are playing.”

Thankfully, Simon had had his fair share of practice recently.

“What was that for, Vouivre Ashmodai?” Simon addressed the dragon without fear, his confidence slightly easing his retainers’ nerves. “A test?”

“A warning,” Vouivre replied, her murderous gaze entirely focused on Simon at the exclusion of everyone else. “Betrayal means death.”

“The same goes for you, dragon,” Simon replied as he put on his Class outfit, miasma coalescing into his Overlord armor. Vouivre glared at him and showed him her fangs. She assessed him not as the weak human she could bully in earlier reigns, nor as prey to slay, but like a manticore warily sizing up a griffin flying into its territory.

She saw Simon as a threat. A fellow predator. She had sensed his power, seen it in the way he could casually bind a high-level demon to shield himself from her breath, and that made her far more cautious than ever before.

Casval himself adopted a nervous posture, as if unsure if he should strike now or take flight. Shadows moved among the trees to reveal a small army of scalefolk archers ready to fire on the group to support their master. Vouivre had come prepared.

One could cut the tension in the air with a knife as the two groups stared at each other. Simon and Vouivre locked eyes in silence while their retainers shifted nervously, a twitch away from battle. A single mistake or word might lead to a lethal contest.

“It is good you brought my birthright back to me, human,” Vouivre said, standing up on her back legs to better tower over Simon’s group and cast them in her shadow. “Though your house of thieves will suffer slowly, I shall reward you with a quick death.”

“My life is not so easily taken,” Simon replied calmly, doing his best not to show any hint of nervousness. He had grown much stronger over the reigns, but not enough for him to be confident he could take down this dragon in a fight. “I did not come here to fight, Daughter of Gargauth.”

Vouivre assessed him for a while, her eyelids squinting slightly. Her attempt at establishing immediate dominance had fallen flat.

“My weakling brother tells me you attend Beleth’s academy,” she said, “Balzam Magnos must be dead for you to own the Overlord Class… but if you were strong enough to slay him, then you would be resting on the Crimson Throne rather than playing the fool here. What is going on?”

She’s sharp, Simon thought. That was why he had decided to introduce himself as Overlord rather than play the weakling. If Anna could sense a change in him, Vouivre would have smelled the deception a mile away.

“I will answer that question if you answer one of mine.” Simon pointed a finger at Casval. “Why do you and your brother wear human guises? I can understand his need to infiltrate our society as part of your plan, but why do you go around in false skin?”

“Because your father won against mine,” she replied without shame nor contempt. She was merely stating a fact. “A puny human like Balzam Magnos should never have been able to defeat the great Gargauth, no matter his Class or numbers, yet he prevailed anyway. One must understand their enemies to better destroy them.”

“I see. So you wear human skin in an attempt to learn our strengths and weaknesses.” Simon had assumed as much, considering how creatures like lamias developed human features to better prey on men. “Aren’t dragons too good for that?”

“Strength is strength. One must use all means available to win, because victory demands no compromise.” Vouivre let out some smoke from her nostrils. “I can tell you are strong, but not that strong. How did you obtain the Overlord Class?”

“My father was murdered by my brother with an Oracle-made blade,” Simon replied, a few of his retainers’ heads snapping in his direction as he said it. “It disrupted the Overlord inheritance process and caused the Class to go to me.”

“An interesting tale,” Vouivre commented, showing no hint whether she believed him or not. “Is that how you think you can convince me to spare your miserable life? That slaying you here and now will not return my birthright to me?”

“Besides the fact that it is true?” Simon shrugged. “Fighting me is not in your interests, Vouivre Ashmodai. You are strong, but wise enough to know the limits of your power.”

Vouivre snorted. “My power knows no limits.”

“If that were true, you would have taken Beleth by now rather than try to choke it, or hunt for the Two-Tailed Fish,” Simon countered. “I told your brother I had a proposal for you, and you have chosen to hear it. Whether we come to blows or seize the world next is entirely up to you.”

Vouivre remained silent for a few seconds, during which Simon guessed she was considering whether or not she should kill him where he stood, before her caution and curiosity won over her bloodlust. The Overlord wouldn’t have dared to show his face to Gargauth’s heir without being damn confident she couldn’t do anything to him, and the threat of potential hidden aces up his sleeve convinced her to lend an ear.

“You have five minutes,” she declared, the threat of what would happen once the time ran out left unspoken.

“You can follow your draconic instincts and try to claim my hoard by force,” Simon said. “You can take your chance and try to kill me. I’ll either win or escape, then Louis, Euphemia, and their kind will learn all about you. Maybe you’ll bounce back from it, maybe not… but it’ll take so much effort just to keep what you have.”

Vouivre’s reptilian gaze remained unreadable. “Or?”

“Or you adapt, the same way you chose to wear human skin to better destroy us,” Simon replied. “We set aside our families’ feud and collaborate in the name of our greater interests. We join our strengths, and we take the world for our own.”

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Vouivre opened her mouth wide, revealing the fiery pit that served as her gullet. “You dare give me an ultimatum?!”

“This is not an ultimatum; this is a proposal.” Simon picked his words wisely to walk the fine line between submission and disrespect. “My kish servant is yours to use as you see fit as a token of my goodwill. Open the palace’s doors and take the Two-Tailed Fish’s crystal if you want… but know that your army of dragons will not guarantee victory against Endymion, let alone the Zodiac Fiends.”

“You know about the coming disaster.” Vouivre let out a noise akin to a dark chuckle. “That is why you are here, isn’t it? You wish to learn how I intend to control the Fish.”

“I already have a method of binding some of the fiends, but some of their crystals are out of my reach and they will break free a year from now,” Simon replied. “A hellscape divided between demon warlords is a world unworthy of my rule. There are too many players in this game for a proper and clean resolution.”

“We agree on that, at least.” Vouivre tilted her head slightly, like a curious bird. “Why come to me instead of your siblings?”

“Didn’t your brother tell you?” Simon glanced at Casval, who straightened up. “They are all petty fools in their own way.”

“So I’ve heard.” Vouivre glanced at Casval, who lowered his head in submission. “But even foolish siblings have their uses.”

“Some will fall into the fold once I crush Louis and Euphemia, but they are too deluded to serve for now.” As much as he loved Lauriane and appreciated Dassein, they were followers at heart and too content to follow Louis in his madness. As for Norbelle and Thalas… they were both a handful in their own way. “Louis is obsessed with war for the sake of leveling up without giving thought of what we will rule over, and Euphemia hates me by virtue of my lineage. They let their emotions cloud their judgment when we most need unity. I need someone who can see the big picture.”

“Humans dither and doubt too much for their limited lifespan, yes.” Vouivre pondered his words for a moment before addressing the behemoth in the room. “You will try to kill me as soon as I outlive my usefulness to you.”

“Of course I will, as you will try to slay me,” Simon replied bluntly. Neither had any illusion of what collaboration entailed. “But by the time we inevitably come to blows, all our other enemies will be dead and the world will be ours. That will be simpler, no? The winner takes all, once it’s only the two of us left.”

Vouivre’s reptilian lips morphed into a ghastly, crocodilian parody of a smile. “I don’t hear your heartbeat waver. Unlike your men, you are perfectly calm and cold-blooded.” She glanced at Simon’s retainers the way a wolf salivated at sheep behind a fence. “I see why you came to me. You have more in common with us than with them.”

“My subordinates are my property,” Simon warned her sternly before she could get any idea. “Harm them at your own peril.”

Vouivre nodded slightly, then transformed into her human form in a swirl of smoke, which Simon took as a very good sign. A soulless smile stretched on her face as she crossed her arms.

“Simon Magnos, is it? I like your resolve. Let us work together… for now.” Vouivre looked at his retainers. “Where is the kish?”

Simon snapped his fingers, and Pallian shapeshifted into a copy of Eole… much to Vouivre’s disappointment.

“A fake?” Vouivre snorted in disdain. “I already tried polymorphy magic to break into the vault."

“This one knows the kish song to open the doors, and my brands grant him perfect mimicry,” Simon countered. “He will unlock the treasure.”

“Let us put your confidence to the test then.” Vouivre whistled, and wyverns flocked out of the forest. “You better not disappoint me.”

They spent the night traveling across Telluria and arrived at the Kish Palace’s ruins in the morning.

Having not yet completed his flight spell, Simon traveled on his phantom steed’s back while wyverns carried his retainers. Vouivre and Casval flew ahead without looking back. Simon would spend each minute of the trip half-expecting them to turn and attack without warning while her wyverns tossed his subordinates off their backs.

Yet no such attack happened.

Simon didn’t trust the dragons, but he took this as a sign they were at least considering the possibility of an alliance seriously. He and his group landed in front of the palace, at which point Vouivre and Casval regained their human forms.

“Fascinating…” Duchar said upon climbing down his wyvern, glancing at the kish capital’s sunken ruins. “I knew of this place’s location, but never visited it. The ancient wonders that must slumber beneath these muddy waters…”

“Everything here belongs to me, mage,” Vouivre warned him before turning to Simon and her brother. “Only you two and the false kish will be allowed any further.”

“Stay here and wait for further orders,” Simon informed his retainers, before adding telepathically, “Call me through the brands if they try anything. Kill them if you must.”

His subordinates reluctantly nodded, and kept their weapons close when Simon and Pallian followed Vouivre and Casval into the palace. The bat shifter looked down at the ground to avoid the dragons’ gazes.

“Everything will be fine,” Simon reassured him through telepathy, “No harm will befall you so long as you remain under my protection.”

“Thank you, master,” Pallian replied, though his thoughts remained heavy with dread. They walked past the icy throne room and frozen skeletons in the walls, then into the tunnel leading to the vault Simon once unlocked with Eole. Their breaths turned to mist from the cold.

They eventually reached the sapphire stele sealing the Two-Tailed Fish’s treasure room. Its inscriptions glowed with magic and the miasma in the air coalesced, as if to welcome the Overlord in.

“Open the door,” Vouivre all but ordered.

“Sing the song,” Simon told Pallian, who quickly transformed into Eole, gathered his breath, and uttered the notes.

The shifter’s gentle melody echoed into the tunnel and caused the stele’s sapphire to glow in response. The seal sank into the ice and opened the path to a smooth ice dome cloaked in miasma. The Two-Tailed Fish floated in its center, shining and pulsating with otherworldly malice like a frozen heart.

“I sense you, dark one,” it whispered to Simon’s mind. “This child with you… is no daughter of my blood.”

“I’m afraid not,” Simon replied mentally, and then asked Pallian, “Can you hear the crystal’s voice?”

“I do not hear anything, Master,” Pallian replied with Eole’s voice. His birth sign was different from hers, and he might lack other qualities she possessed even after polymorphing. “Do I…”

“You may retake your true form,” Simon confirmed as their dragon guides walked up to the crystal. This might be a difficult moment.

Casval stared at the Two-Tailed Fish like a child leering at a candy in a store and gulped. “Sister–”

“Mine,” Vouivre hissed threateningly, causing her brother to flinch. She swiftly grabbed the miasma crystal within her palm, her eyes gleaming with the same all-consuming greed Simon had seen in her father’s eyes. “All mine.”

The apple hadn’t fallen that far from the tree. Simon subtly renewed his buffs before Vouivre turned around, her fist clenching on her new prize. Her blank, inhuman expression hardly disguised her true thoughts. She was strongly considering using the crystal’s power against him.

“You delivered on your promise,” Vouivre stated after a moment’s consideration, “What stops me from killing you now and seizing my birthright?”

“My strength and your intelligence,” Simon replied bluntly. A thin, amused smirk stretched across Vouivre’s lips in response. She only respected power, like Louis, which was likely why they were able to hammer out an alliance in a past reign.

“You must have quite the devious tricks up your sleeve to be so boldly confident, Overlord Simon,” she said with a hint of wariness. The fact he allowed her to obtain the crystal had only made her more cautious, because no one in their right mind would do so without keeping a bigger and better weapon in store. “Casval.”

Her brother tensed like a bowstring. “Yes?”

“You have served me well in organizing this gathering.” There was no warmth to Vouivre’s praise, only an observation. “You will continue to serve as a liaison between our new ally and I from now on. An order from him is an order from me.”

“Yes, sister,” Casval replied submissively.

Her pragmatism has won out, Simon thought. Their alliance would hold… at least for the time being.

“What is your plan, Overlord Simon?” Vouivre inquired. “What did you intend to do beyond this point?”

“I return that question to you,” Simon replied, “What were you planning?”

“I intended to enslave and recruit all independent beastmen tribes in Telluria, then lure the Rider out of Beleth to his doom, either to take his Crestone or force him to abandon the city,” Vouivre explained. “Your family overextended. Endymion’s supply lines across the region are stretched thin and will collapse when Beleth falls, which will put all of Telluria under my control.”

“And the imperial loyalist tribes?”

“They will bend the knee or they will die,” Vouivre replied without concern or hesitation. “Your ability to turn beastmen into kish will let us enslave rebellious heads rather than crush them and spare ourselves pointless battles.”

Pallian anxiously looked at Simon, who considered the matter at hand. He considered Vouivre’s strategy in earlier reigns and quickly gathered her general plan.

“The best way to take central Endymion is to surround it by taking the unsecured periphery," Simon guessed. “Target Scaland, the Berwick Islands, and Uyo to lock out the eastern sea, then push from multiple directions.”

“Yes,” Vouivre confirmed. “Your empire is a beast carried by its momentum, feeding on old conquests to fund its future campaigns… but it has left itself vulnerable at the peripheries in doing so. Half the tributaries aren’t loyal and will turn coat if pressured, Uyo’s colonies are fragile, and resentment festers beneath the surface. Once we strike Beleth and Balzam Magnos does not appear to defend it, it will crumble in on itself.”

“It is too early to make a push,” Simon replied. “I have tricked Louis and Euphemia into preparing an invasion of the western continent.” Well, it had been an accident, but Vouivre didn’t need to know that. “We can make our move once their troops have crossed the Dragonsea and are bogged down in Valne.”

“You thought that far ahead?” Vouivre sounded slightly appreciative. “That would indeed serve our ends.”

“But this is all a distraction,” Simon countered. “The Zodiac Parade is hardly a year away.”

“You need not worry yourself about that, now that I have this pretty stone,” Vouivre said as she played with the miasma crystal. “The Two-Tailed Fish’s true power will be revealed once the comet shines in its constellation. Otherwise, I have… assets that will ensure our victory against the fiends.”

Like the Horoscopic Sword? Simon thought, though he kept that for himself for now. The more Vouivre thought he knew about her plans, the more she would guard her remaining secrets. Moreover, he had already seen her dragons struggling against demons during the Zodiac Parade, so her ‘assets’ didn’t guarantee victory like she believed. I will peel this onion one layer at a time.

“Our true sources of concern are the Minotaur, the Maiden, and the Oracle,” Vouivre said. “The former two are the most powerful of the Zodiac, and the third’s schemes will inevitably collide with ours. Your Anathemic Secrecy should prove useful against the elves.”

“The Cobweb needs to go as well,” Simon added.

“The Cobweb?” Vouivre squinted in slight surprise. “They have been helpful in financing my war effort so far, and I granted the werewolf Borsh my protection after the empire issued a bounty on his head. Why would they be a threat to us?”

“The Cobweb’s leader, Verney, is the Zodiac Fiend of the Twins in disguise,” Simon warned her. “He schemes to gather the other crystals for his own ends.”

“The Twins, leading the Cobweb?” Vouivre scowled at the information. “It does not surprise me much. The Twins are the fear of wrongness, of things not being quite right, of strangers and betrayal. It would fit right in in a thieves guild. That one is the Maiden’s thrall too, so we will have to eliminate him.”

As Simon suspected, Verney had probably been looking to secure Anna as a vessel for the Maiden. He truly needed to find that particular fiend’s location and neutralize it before the comet arrived, both to protect Anna and take a dangerous threat off the board.

“For now, we should focus on gathering as much territory, troops, and power for ourselves,” Vouivre decided. “We will use your fake kish to enslave the remaining beastmen tribes until they declare me the new goddess of Telluria.”

“Forcing mind-controlled slaves to call you that won’t give you legitimacy,” Simon pointed out.

“Strength is the only legitimacy I need, and a great power will be revealed once all tribes of Telluria gather to swear allegiance to their rightful ruler.” Vouivre’s smile split to reveal her draconic fangs. “The Beast Crestone will soon find its wielder.”