Chapter 73: The Season of the Minotaur (22)

Louis sliced the manatree in two from over a mile away.

The swiftness of the attack was only matched by its absurdity. A paper-thin sword of unfathomable length sliced across the horizon in the blink of an eye, whipping up powerful winds in its wake and cutting through anything unlucky enough to be in its path: clouds, hail, the Halls of the Minotaur, and the manatree’s trunk.

Simon had seen Casval’s beam barely leave a scorch mark on the ancient bark, yet Louis’ sword cut through it like butter, ignoring all hardness and resistance. It appeared as if space itself split apart to let his blade pass by and slice everything in its path. The blade disappeared once it finished its crescent motion with a faint noise that preceded the chaos to come. Simon could have sworn that time froze for a second as the world held its breath, only for it to resume with a loud creaking noise.

The manatree tilted to the side as its upper half slid off from its bottom.

Louis had aimed slightly diagonally rather than purely horizontally, so a huge chunk of the manatree began to collapse due to the lack of support. Its enormous shape began to collapse to the Halls of the Minotaur’s left in a terrible rumble. Branches the length of Whispermire’s streets crashed onto the forest floor and swamps below in violent crashes

This is… Is that what Noble Crestones can do at a high enough level?! Simon wondered, torn between awe and disbelief. Even the buzzing calls of his followers in the back of his mind or the sight of Casval circling the halved manatree failed to draw him back to reality. Norbelle and Thalas were just a preview…

He spotted a flash of steel at the edge of his gaze, flying straight at him.

Simon hastily summoned his spiked shield just in time to intercept the projectile, which saved his life. A golden spear smashed through his protection and sent spines flying in all directions. A flying sword aiming straight for Simon’s head followed afterwards and was thankfully deflected.

Then came another, and another, and another!

A veritable bombardment of various bladed weapons—from swords to polearms—flew from Louis’ airship at Simon with immense speed. He would have likely been immediately unhorsed without his Warmonger Perk preventing forced dismounts, and though he immediately ordered his phantom steed to flee, the attacks continued to strike at him with lethal precision. Louis—this had to be Louis’ doing—could somehow still see him from a great distance.

One of the spears eventually struck Simon’s phantom steed directly, tearing off its head and dispelling it. Simon found himself plummeting to his doom for a second before he quickly used Lord of the Demon Castle to teleport back inside the Halls of the Minotaur’s sanctum. He nearly slipped on pieces of debris on arrival, since part of the ceiling had collapsed from Louis’ attack.

Thankfully, most of his remaining followers had survived. Duchar had retreated here alongside the fruit, Hector, and Cassandra’s coven. The real surprise was the Muse, who appeared alive in spite of a large gash across her chest. She looked more annoyed than hurt, too.

“You live,” Simon said, dumbfounded.

The Muse glared at him. “I am not so easily felled.”

“Most manatrees can recover from a stump, and Asterion’s power likely enhances our host,” Duchar suggested, a deep scowl on his face. “Nonetheless, may I ask what struck us? Some new kind of weapon?”

“Louis struck us.” Merely uttering his name caused Duchar to pale and Hector’s head to perk up in alarm. The rest of the group weren’t familiar enough with the crown prince’s reputation to fully understand the danger they were in, but those two did. “There’s no time to waste. He’ll be here very soon, so we need to evacuate now.”

“Evacuate?” The Muse hissed in contempt. “I cannot go anywhere, coward! I will not abandon my forest to a woodsman!”

“While I do not believe we are a match for the Marshal, our captive archfiend might be another story,” Duchar pointed out. “Evacuation may not be our only option.”

“Asterion is not at full power in his current host. The Muse will be no match for–” Simon froze upon noticing that Cassandra and her coven had stopped incantating, his lover now staring at him with a knowing gaze. “No.”

“I am willing to try,” Cassandra said calmly. “The contract should still apply after the merger.”

“And if it does not?” Hector rasped, being about as opposed to the idea as Simon himself. “What if it begins to wear you like a coat?”

Cassandra scowled for a second, but her resolve remained firm. “I do not wish to abandon the Darkwood, brother,” she said, staring at the Muse with sympathy. “I do not want to leave her to her death. Not after all that she went through.”

“I have no need for your pity,” the Muse replied venomously.

“But you do need my help.”

The Muse had no answer to that. And neither did Simon.

Fighting Louis sounded like assisted suicide, especially after seeing him cut an entire manatree in half from over a mile away before nearly killing Simon. Every instinct in his body told him their gathered forces would only slow down the slaughter at best; doubly so since Casval remained afoot.

But Duchar had a point. Asterion had been a match for the first generation of Noble Class users, and possession by a Zodiac Fiend had strengthened the likes of Eole into an actual threat. The union might give Cassandra the power to fight off Louis, or at least force him into listening to them.

Could they even run away? Simon had been careful to build an escape tunnel below the Halls of the Minotaur to escape the region in a pinch, but they were on foot and Louis had airships. A last-minute flight might be beyond them.

He could teleport a group to Frightwall as a last resort too. Euphemia still held the castle and the War Party was besieging it, but dealing with the dowager empress and trying to negotiate with her might beat facing Louis in the open.

There… There’s still another way to escape this. I knew this reign was unsustainable from the start, and little can be done to salvage this situation. I could simply… take the easy way out. Simon immediately banished that thought and refocused. No. You can never know where the future leads. I can’t take the easy way out. That would be a waste of a reign and pure cowardice.

Simon looked at his lover, who had already made her decision. Cassandra’s misplaced sympathy for the Stone Muse would not allow her to leave, and it might open up a path to new possibilities.

He guessed he could at least see if he could control a Zodiac Fiend with the right Brands and rituals… see what kind of power they wielded when fully unleashed. He could confirm whether or not they could hold their own against the strongest members of House Magnos.

“Very well,” Simon reluctantly agreed. “But beware, please. If the fiend proves too strong and the contract cannot control him…”

“You may simply drain away my mana through my Brand,” Cassandra reassured him.

If it remains after the fusion, Simon thought grimly. He turned to the Muse and hardened his resolve. Let us hope this will work. “Asterion, Minotaur of the Zodiac. Leave your current vessel and–”

A flash of pain coursed through his chest and silenced him.

Having already been backstabbed by Vouivre in a previous reign, Simon immediately recognized the feeling of a sword entering his chest through the back and slipping its way past the ribs. The blade cut through his armor and heart with casual ease, then emerged out the other side. Only the blood covering its invisible edge revealed its shape.

Simon felt sacred power not unlike the Paladin Crestone course through him, dispelling the Dark that granted him his strength, weakening his Perks, targeting all of his Class’ weaknesses with a carefully selected weapon meant to exploit each of them.

This was the sword that had killed his father.

“That was for my son,” Simon heard a familiar voice whisper behind him, which he instantly recognized as that of Ser Richard of Lore. “Your plans will die here with you, Overlord.”

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Supereffective damage. Anti-Heal, Sap, Slow–

The blow would have likely killed him instantly… had he not suffered through it before.

Supereffective damage reduced by the Betrayed Title. Ailments transferred by the Lovestruck Title.

The first title reduced the damage he suffered, and the second transferred the ailments to the Muse as part of their ‘betrothal’ agreement. Simon immediately drew from the lifeforce of his remaining monster minions to keep himself alive, switched his Ring of Cursed Winter for a Ring of Cursed Thunderstorm to grant himself Lightning immunity, and then grabbed the sword tightly with his hand.

“Hellthunder!”

He shocked both himself and his attacker, leaving him open to a counter-attack.

Hector was the first to react, his axe surging at the enemy behind Simon’s back with lethal precision. Ser Richard swiftly withdrew his sword from Simon in spite of the shock he suffered and parried Hector’s attack with it, the blow dispelling his invisibility.

How did he sneak in here undetected? Simon cursed. Did the Cobweb help him infiltrate the sanctum as a back-up plan? Did they tip him off and Louis?