The Hundred Reigns

Chapter 157: The Sanctuary in the Sky (6)

Simon had done everything in his power not to mention the Overlord to the locals, only for a random stranger to appear out of nowhere and dump the truth for all to hear. Typical Adventurer behavior.

“Did your airship crash here like mine, Magnos?” Alcyone asked, meeting his gaze with heavy suspicion. “Or did you come to these islands to conquer and enslave its people?”

“No, my friend Eole carried me up,” Simon replied while sitting still. He showed neither fear nor concern, which took the Adventurer slightly aback. Good. The quicker he could defuse this situation, the better. “Are you Alcyone Hyades?”

“You should work on your storytelling more, because I’m sure there’s an interesting tale here and your answer is more boring than a Lorean poetry contest.” Alcyone unsheathed her sword, waving it in the air as she bowed like a duelist saluting another. “But to answer your question, yes, I’m Alcyone, Adventurer and Sky Pirate extraordinaire. I hope I live up to the legend.”

Simon was starting to see why Voltobauta got along with her so well. They had the same love for flair and dramatic entrances.

“What’s a sky pirate?” Lady Junon asked with a frown. “And what’s an Overlord?”

“The Overlord is the ruler of Endymion, and my father,” Simon admitted, causing the dryad to blink in surprise. “A bastard who’s thankfully six feet under.”

Alcyone froze in place as the implications dawned on her. “What did you just say?”

“Oh yes, Balzam Magnos died nearly three weeks ago,” Simon said casually, taking delight at the sheer look of disbelief on the Adventurer’s face. “Sorry to break the news to you like this. You missed a lot.”

“This is a joke.” She didn’t believe him. “You’re kidding me.”

“It's the truth,” Eole said. “The Third Overlord was murdered in his own bed. Simon fled with me and another slave here rather than partake in the wars of succession that will inevitably follow.”

Alcyone blinked a few times, her gaze moving from Eole to Simon. He then watched her skin turn paler than chalk as it settled in that no, this was no joke.

“The Third Overlord is dead…” Her free hand moved to her forehead as she stared at the ground in disbelief. “I missed the Third Overlord’s death…”

“Why didn’t you tell us you were a prince of Endymion?” Lady Junon asked Simon, still missing the importance of the Overlord.

“I was afraid you would reject me, or fear I had a hidden motive for coming here,” Simon admitted. “You’ve seen my powers, and my house built an empire out of conquest and slavery. I didn’t want to be associated with them.”

“Your caution was understandable, but unwarranted,” Vayan reassured him. “Our first settlers committed many crimes too, and we welcomed them openly anyway. We will only judge you for what you do in our Sanctuary.”

“Wait, wait, who’s the Fourth Overlord?!” Alcyone asked, her suspicions about Simon temporarily washed away by surprise. “Who inherited his Class?!”

“My father’s will named a certain Laurent Linconnu as the heir,” Simon replied, which was technically true. “My family has been looking for them, but I don’t think they’ll find this successor. Endymion is likely to descend into civil war.”

“Okay, okay, just…” Alcyone took a deep breath. “Start from the very beginning.”

Simon proceeded to give her a rundown of his situation, telling her of Balzam Magnos’ death, his ‘visions’ of the future, and the threat of the Zodiac Fiends. He also gave a bit more details on the Overlord without revealing the truth about himself.

“A Noble Class embodying evil itself?” Lady Junon muttered while Vayan stared at Simon in silence. “It is a frightening prospect…”

“Yeah, I’m not sure I can believe half of what you just said,” Alcyone concluded with some skepticism. “I’ve heard of you, Simon Magnos. Three years ago, a previous Paladin was slain in his bed, and the killers declared that you hired them.”

“That was one of my father’s lies, to ensure the White Unicorn and I would come to blows should we ever meet,” Simon replied, raising his hand at an empty spot. “Could a Paladin’s killer do this?”

He uttered a prayer to the Light Megalith and called down a Kindling prayer from the sky, much to Alcyone’s shock.

“See?” Simon asked. “The Light Megalith has blessed me.”

“Simon saved me from death and slavery too, without expecting anything in return,” Eole argued. “He is nothing like his family.”

“Okay, I can’t really argue against divine intervention.” Alcyone relented and sheathed her sword with a small sigh. “I can’t believe I missed the Third Overlord’s death… I gotta find my way back to the surface before I miss out on Endymion’s collapse too.”

“Have you found a way to repair your metal bird?” Lady Junon inquired.

“Sort of?” Alcyone scratched the back of her head. “Your Forbidden Keep does have a lot of pre-Doom contraptions, but I’m not sure they are compatible with our airship.”

“Unfortunately, we bring ill tidings too,” Vayan said, his immense neck turning towards one of the elves he carried back to Boreas. “Tell her what you found, Anaximander.”

Anaximander? The name sounded familiar to Simon, though it took him a moment to recall it. That name came up in the Church’s books on astronomy and chronomancy… and I think he’s our neighbor too.

The elf in question, a slim, ageless man with long blonde hair falling all the way to his back and golden eyes, stepped forward. He dressed in red and black robes, with a silver circlet around his forehead, and carried a scepter of intertwined wood covered in runes.

“Milady, I am afraid the prophet was right,” the elf said grimly in Elvish. “The seal holding Nodens the Wicked is waning and is impossible to repair. He will eventually escape, although I cannot tell when.”

Lady Junon’s expression darkened, her hands joining as she pondered this dreadful information. Eole stared at her with a worried look before asking Simon, “Did you see when the archfiend would escape?”

“The seal should break when the comet shines within the Goatfish constellation a little over a year from now, on the first day of Pluviose,” Simon explained, “Nodens will be able to manifest a new body then.”

“I will help you deal with it, if it comes to that,” Alcyone said without any hesitation whatsoever. “It’s the least I can do to repay your hospitality.”

“I… I am grateful for your kindness, Lady Alcyone, though I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this.” Lady Junon scowled and then turned to face Vayan. “Can you summon a council of the island tomorrow? The Sanctuary's representatives and eidolons must urgently debate this.”

“Yes, of course.” Vayan unfolded his wings. “We will all gather at the manatree at dawn.”

“We should also follow Simon’s suggestion and craft more Crestones,” Eole immediately suggested. “A year’s time would be enough to arm our greatest warriors and train them.”

“That is something we will have to discuss first,” Lady Junon replied evasively, “Until then, I ask you all to keep this information to yourself for now to avoid a panic.”

This only aroused Simon’s suspicions further. Why were these people so reluctant to create more Crestones considering their home’s abundance of manaliths?

Something didn’t add up here.

Afterwards, Lady Junon summoned every community leader in the Sanctuary to her manatree. Queen Zeal of the harpies, Tybalt, the kish elders, Vayan, and a handful of other eidolons all gathered in Boreas to discuss the upcoming disaster.

Since Simon was told that the debates might last days—he had no idea how these people managed to get anything done if they needed to agree on everything all the time—he decided to go over to Alcyone’s airship to see if he could help repair it, and hopefully learn a bit more about the Adventurer while at it. Belzemine had completed the geas contract by then, so she joined him and Eole on the trip.

However, since the Adventurer might be acquainted with her and react poorly to her slave brands, Simon elected to remove those Gargauth put on her.

“It is only a temporary situation to avoid a fight we cannot win,” Simon said in an attempt to reassure Belzemine and avoid a nervous breakdown. He knew she could function without them for a time from his experience infiltrating the Malphas conspiracy, so long as he gave her hope he would eventually reapply the Devil Brands. “You will have to bear it for now.”

“Your Majesty, I…” It always saddened him to see an elven archmage like her look so crestfallen at the mere promise of temporary freedom. “I need your guidance…”

“Agnes, I can only trust you with this.” Simon loathed saying those words, but it might be a necessary evil on her road to true recovery. “Everything will go as planned so long as you play your role. You can do that, can you?”

Belzemine was torn for a moment, then reluctantly nodded. Simon removed her old brands without applying the new and unbreakable ones, hoping he could help his retainer recover enough that she wouldn’t need them.

Since the islands weren’t too far apart, Belzemine could simply fly there with a Pyromancer spell while Eole carried Simon; Darkflight unfortunately cost too much miasma for the trip. The harpies’ home, Euros, proved a lot less welcoming than any other Sanctuary region so far. While it had its fair share of forest, ponds, and greenery, it also housed a large rocky desert and sharp hills that were the closest things to mountains the Sanctuary had. Moreover, it was located at the center of a spiraling stairway of smaller islands leading up to the Forbidden Keep at the edge of space.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Most importantly, there was not a single flying kish in sight around these parts. Simon caught sight of a few harpies that seemed to patrol the area, but while they did let them pass unmolested, their presence didn’t feel harmless in the slightest. Simon had the distinct impression that their first instinct was to hunt down intruders before their rationality reasserted itself.

“Unlike us, our harpy sisters are mostly carnivores,” Eole explained to Simon after he questioned her on that front. “They feed on amphibians, slimes, griffins, and worms that prosper in Euros, so we mostly live apart outside of trade or reproduction.”

“Are there no male harpies?” Simon inquired. All the ones he had seen were female.

“No, which is why they rely on kish lovers to maintain their numbers. Harpies always give birth to more harpies.” Eole pointed at a distant landmark in the rocky desert. “This should be the place.”

Simon quickly recognized the airship that the Adventurer had fielded against his army in the last reign. The metal bird was stranded in the middle of a rocky and barren wasteland, but showed no sign of exterior damage. Campfires rose from under its wings, where its crew had set up a small camp. Harpy guards observed them from atop nearby hills like vultures waiting for an animal to die to devour its corpse.

Simon, Eole, and Belzemine landed near the camp before making their way to it on foot, where they were welcomed by Alcyone and a handful of human shipmates.

“Am I dreaming, or are you the famous Firewand?” Alcyone said the moment she spotted Belzemine, smiling. “I can’t think of many redheaded elves associated with House Magnos.”

“You know me?” Belzemine asked without emotion.

“Of course I do, freeing you from the Overlord’s clutches has been one of the White Unicorn’s objectives since its inception. I’m also acquainted with your friend, Frea.” Alcyone mistook the brief scowl of anguish on Belzemine’s face for concern. “Don’t worry, she’s alive and well. She’s keeping watch on the new Paladin.” The Adventurer chuckled to herself. “Between us, he pays more attention to her than her prayer lessons, if you know what I mean…”

“I see…” Belzemine replied evasively, fidgeting in place.

“She’ll be delighted to hear you’re free now,” Alcyone said with enthusiasm. “How about you hitch a ride with us back to Lore to meet her again? She’s been dying to rescue you since forever.”

“N-no…” Belzemine looked away. “Please do not tell her I’m here.”

“Huh?” Alcyone blinked in surprise. “Why?”

“I… I don’t deserve…” Belzemine looked at Simon like a child silently begging her father to help her avoid doing something deeply uncomfortable.

“Agnes doesn’t feel ready to face her or anything related to the Overlord and the White Unicorn for now,” Simon said hurriedly. “She needs time to rest and recover.”

Alcyone frowned and studied Belzemine. A flash of recognition passed over her eyes, followed by a look of compassion. The truth wasn’t hard to glimpse.

“Alright, I get it,” Alcyone said after a moment’s hesitation. “I will keep my mouth shut.”

Belzemine answered her with a small nod of relief. Simon wondered if she would ever grow comfortable enough to meet with another survivor from her destroyed home. It would certainly be a milestone in her recovery.

“All I will say is this: Frea still considers you a dear friend. Whatever happened in the past, she will not hold it against you.” Alcyone waited for Belzemine to say something, and when the elf failed to open her mouth, she let out a small sigh and changed the subject. “So, I’m told you could help repair our airship?”

“I have some crafting expertise and I am familiar with Endymion’s airships,” Simon replied evasively. “I can’t promise anything, though.”

“Good, because you’ll stick to consultancy work. No offense, but I won’t let a Magnos touch my Freedom Bird.” Alcyone’s crewmates laughed out from behind her, much to her amusement. “Hey, it’s an amazing name!”

“Sure, Captain,” one of them replied while rolling his eyes.

Alcyone pouted. “I paid the Crafter a damn fortune for it, so I’ll call it whatever I damn please!”

“You’ve met the Crafter?” Eole inquired out of curiosity. “What are they like?”

“The Crafter is…” Alcyone looked away. “Not how you would expect.”

“I sense a story there,” Simon pushed.

“Sorry, you’ll have to use your imagination.” Alcyone invited them inside with a wave of her hand. “Come in, I’ll show you our flying bar.”

Simon thought she was joking, but the reality turned out to closely match her assertion. The bulk of the airship was wasted on large salons, baths, bars, and even a theater. In spite of its heavy armaments, the Freedom Bird was closer to a leisure cruise ship rather than a military vehicle.

Moreover, the crew was more or less what Simon had expected from the Adventurer’s retinue: a motley party of rogues and eccentrics ranging from Lorean warriors, shifter treasure hunters, and Musan engineers to goblinoid workers and even a scalefolk. From what Alcyone told them, most had signed on for the novelty of flying an experimental airship and finding a hidden land.

Their head Engineer—with the Class to match—turned out to be a small goblin called Lizzorc, who had spent the better part of the crew’s stay in the Sanctuary trying to repair its manalith-powered engine, to no avail.

“I don’t get it,” Simon admitted. While his crafting expertise lay in miasma-related items, Devil Forgemaster gave him enough intuitive understanding of the machinery to tell him nothing looked obviously wrong. “Your airship’s design is clearly superior to Endymion’s, and everything seems to be in working order.”

“See the issue?” Lizzorc replied with a scoff. “All of our machinery should be working, yet something about this place shuts it down cold for some reason.”

“I grabbed manalith-powered gizmos from the Forbidden Keep in the hope we could replace some parts of the engine, but Lizzorc still doesn’t understand why that tech works while our own doesn’t,” Alcyone explained. “We can’t risk a test flight until we uncover this mystery.”

Simon considered the problem. The Sanctuary held many mysteries, the biggest of them being the presence of the barrier shielding it. His discussions with Isabelle Barbatos and Cocagne’s floating castle taught him landmasses could fly, but the latter didn’t produce a shield shielding it from the rest of the world. What else could stop divinations and teleportations in and out?

The answer came in a flash.

“Could the Sanctuary work like a Domain?” Simon wondered out loud.

“A Domain?” Lizzorc asked. “What’s that?”

“Powerful archfiends can trap their enemies in a separate demiplane by overlapping the Abyss with the material plane,” Simon explained. From the looks on his audience’s faces, they had never heard of the concept, which made sense. Only diabolists or individuals trained to fight demons would be familiar with it. “They can warp physics, and prevent teleportation and divinations.”

“Like this place?” Alcyone stroked her chin. “You think it’s that sealed fiend’s doing?”

Simon shook his head, and Eole was the first to guess the truth. “It’s Lady Junon’s work.”

“I think so,” Simon confirmed. “It’s just a theory, but since Lady Junon has become a Worldsoul of one dryad after separating from her sisters, I think the Sanctuary is a part of the material plane that overlaps with her ‘private Worldsoul bubble.’ It would explain the barrier and the high concentration of eidolons.”

“Does she know?” Eole asked with skepticism. “Our elders believed the barrier was created by the manaliths letting us float in the sky.”

“I have no clue,” Simon admitted. “She might be doing it unconsciously for all I know. Besides, the Sanctuary is not as solid as a true Domain, since people can still come and go. This magical field is something new.”

“It’s still potent enough to negate my Fast Travel Perk,” Alcyone said with a sigh of annoyance. “It’s why I need a lift each time I have to move from one island to another. I would have teleported around myself under normal circumstances.”

“How does your Fast Travel Perk work exactly?” Simon inquired. “I’ve heard rumors, but nothing substantial.”

“Why, you want to steal my Class?” Alcyone teased him, with Simon keeping a blank face. “I’m jesting. It creates a system map of the world filled with every place I’ve ever visited, which lets me teleport there alongside my party.”

“Interesting.” Simon wasn’t sure if it was worth spending a Devour Crestone Perk on now that he had mapped out and learned how to subvert the Cobweb’s Attic for quick transportation, but he remained curious about its limitations.

Come to think of it, he managed to summon Carbuncle to his side in spite of the local barrier’s interferences. The eidolon only moved a few feet away, true, but he still teleported. Simon wondered if there was a loophole to exploit there…

“Anyway.” Alcyone crossed her arms. “That still doesn’t tell us anything about our airship’s issue.”

“I think the airship may be working fine,” Simon replied, “It’s the manalith inside your engine that’s not working correctly.”

“Oh, I get it now!” Lizzorc slapped his face. “Manaliths are fossilized manatrees, and since this place is a private bubble which has been separated from the rest for so long–”

“–it probably interferes with your manalith’s flow of energy,” Simon confirmed, “If I’m right, and that’s a big if, repairing your airship will just be a case of modifying your engine so it can work with both your old and a local source, then switch based on which side of the barrier you are on at the moment.”

“That should work, though we’ll need to excavate a big chunk for the Freedom Bird to take off.” Lizzorc smirked to himself. “I can run a few tests with small samples to confirm your hypothesis.”

“Great, you’ve got this!” Alcyone met Simon’s gaze. “In the meantime, the two of us can review that magical contract of yours.”

Simon didn’t need a translator to get the hidden memo: she wanted to talk to him alone. While he remained a bit wary, he didn’t think a White Unicorn Adventurer would be the kind to murder a guest, so he nodded politely. “Sure.”

“Eole, Lady Firewand, feel free to hit the bar in the meantime,” Alcyone said with a grin. “I swear to you, our Cook is amazing, and not just because he’s got forty levels under his belt. Our stage is also in need of a songstress.”

“I accept your invitation.” Eole smiled at Belzemine. “Come, it will be fun!”

“Y-yes,” Belzemine replied with some hesitation before Eole grabbed her hand and gently swept her off her feet. Simon hoped they would have fun.

Meanwhile, Alcyone guided him to a private study on the upper deck. That room was decorated with various trinkets ranging from flags, miniature ships, various weapons, exotic masks, coins, jewelry of unknown origins, and bizarre figurines that made Simon feel uneasy just from looking at them.

“I’ll give you a tour of my trophies later,” Alcyone said the moment she closed the door. “Firewand… She’s broken inside, isn’t she?”

“My father and his predecessors did terrible things to her,” Simon confirmed. “They used her knowledge as a dryad caretaker to harm her own people, among other things.”

“Which she must feel guilty for.” Alcyone put a hand on her waist. “No offense, but your dad was an enormous dick.”

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Simon replied. Every time he thought his father couldn’t sink any deeper, a new atrocity would come up to top the last. “I hope spending time with the local elves and away from the surface will give Agnes some peace of mind.”

“And here I thought floating islands were the greatest wonder in the world.” Alcyone cracked a smile. “I stand corrected. I’ve finally met a Magnos with a heart.”

Simon scoffed back. “Have you ever met any other Magnos?”

“Yep, I briefly clashed with your dad and brothers back when they invaded Magvolia. Your father would have killed me had I not teleported away at the last second.” Her expression darkened. “We lost many good people that day.”

“I’m sorry,” Simon said sincerely. “For all it’s worth, I don’t support our empire’s wars of expansion.”

“It’s worth something. I’m not sure how much, but it’s better than nothing.” Alcyone’s expression turned grimmer. “Those prophecies about a new Doom and rising archdemons… are they true? Or were you pulling a fast one?”

“They’re true, I swear to the Light and Dark both.” Simon crossed his arms. “The Oracle didn’t inform you?”

“See, that’s exactly my problem. We should have been informed if it were true. A Second Doom is about as big a threat as the Overlord, if not more, and I don’t see the Oracle with her world-spanning information network missing something so huge.” Alcyone crossed her arms. “So either you’re lying, or the Oracle is withholding that information from us.”

“You should ask your elven friend or check the truth yourself when you return,” Simon replied. “I can give you the location of the archfiends I’ve glimpsed in my visions.”

“I’ve sensed the evil in the Forbidden Keep, so I’m leaning towards believing you, at least on that front.” Alcyone hesitated, then unsheathed her sword. Simon briefly worried he had been wrong and that she would skewer him on the spot, but she instead examined it. “This blade was a gift from the Oracle I received through Frea. It’s a copy of a sacred sword capable of harming the Overlord and other nasties.”

“Really?” Simon replied, feigning surprise. “It must be quite powerful.”

“It’s apparently identical to the real one, except the original received the Mana Goddess’ blessing.” The Adventurer pointed the blade at him. “Do you see the issue?”

Simon frowned. “I don’t?”

“If they can mass produce sacred blades capable of harming the Overlord, why not just bless them all?” Alcyone asked. “I asked Frea, and she told me that the Mana Goddess has been gathering her strength for centuries.”

“Gathering her strength?” Simon squinted. “For what? The second Doom?”

“Makes sense, doesn’t it? I think the Mana Goddess is plotting to do something when that comet of yours comes back to ruin our day once more.” Alcyone studied her sword again, its silver reflecting the light of nearby lamps. “Something the Oracle doesn’t want us to know.”