Chương 214: The World of Ruins (8)

Algozoa lunged at them with an ear-piercing roar. It was a terrifying sound, a cry melding a mimicry of human screams and the final wail of a thousand beasts into a single horrifying note that wormed its way into Simon's very soul. He felt it sapping his strength, reminding him that for all of his power, he remained mere meat on nature's grinder. Terror negated! Stats sharply debuffed! But an Overlord was no prey, and Simon welcomed the challenge by calling upon his Crown of Pain.

The sight of a halo filled with Nodens' anguish briefly caused Algozoa to freeze in surprise, and Simon answered it with a burst of Hellfire. His Edict's effect boosted his spell's power and turned his flames into a searing blast that melted away the demon's skin from his ghoulish face. Algozoa still powered through it, forcing Agrat and Simon to fly out of the way as claws pounced on the spot they used to occupy with uncanny force.

The Archer smashed the ground with such violence it left a crater in its wake, but quickly chased after Simon with catlike speed. Simon immediately felt the effect of Algozoa's abilities on his person. The monster's claws seemed to bend slightly to match his movements before he could even think of dodging and swiftly caught him. He barely had time to summon his Overlord scepter and turn it into a shield before impact, the claws tearing through the metal and grazing his chest plate. Critical hit!

As it turned out, the Archer could indeed fight well in melee. Simon still held his own with the inhuman strength he had gained across the reigns. Agrat herself stayed at a range and stuck to their strategy by buffing Simon from afar. Stat debuff dispelled! Simon sensed his might returning to him, enough so that he could push back the claws and follow it up with a Chaos Wave. The blast repelled Algozoa a few feet away, at which point Simon summoned the Deathmace from his Inventory.

He flew at the monster and struck its chest with Underworld Hammer. Algozoa's scales screeched at the impact. Simon's eyes widened in horror as screaming faces appeared on them around the spot where the blow landed. Humans, dark elves, shifters, animals, and even dragon faces morphed on each individual scale's surface like a tapestry of horrors. Simon's Dark Visionary senses detected the light of their souls trapped in shells of darkness and held in perpetual agony. Algozoa carried his trophy wall everywhere.

The scales he had struck with Underworld Hammer shed the souls trapped within them. The spirits of Algozoa's victims exploded outwards and phased through Simon's body, filling him with an otherworldly chill. Minor Soul and Frost damage! New soul-scales shifted around to replace those he had destroyed and knitted the wound, with Algozoa retaliating by swiping at Simon with his tail. His appendage whistled through the air like a whip as it smashed into Simon's shield and shattered it to pieces. How?

Crown of Pain forced an Anti-Heal effect on anyone he wounded, so how could Algozoa regenerate? Unless… he's like me. He keeps what he kills, and he can use his victims as lightning rods. The Archer's countless victims were trapped in his scales, and much like how Simon's Deathmastery allowed him to heal with each death he inflicted, Algozoa could use his soul collection to transfer ailments away from himself and recover. But it is a finite supply. He'll run out if I keep inflicting damage.

Freeing those poor souls would be a mercy.

"Weakness Collar," Agrat cast on Algozoa. Runes floated around the Archer's throat and bound it tightly, slowing him down. The Zodiac Fiend answered the attack by unleashing colossal quantities of miasma that swiftly enveloped him and Simon both while excluding the Nightqueen. The terrain began to shift around them. Enormous blades of thick grass and muddy water smothered the fires of Simon's Edict of Wounded Earth, while great trees of flesh rose into the sky and blanketed the sun into near total darkness.

A dreadful forest not so different from the Darkwood surrounded the two opponents from all sides. Algozoa, the Last Predator, has trapped you within his Domain! You can no longer teleport away. Algozoa is always aware of your location, and all his attacks will gain a Manslayer effect. This put Simon on edge.

Not only had Algozoa separated him from Agrat—no doubt intending to kill them separately—but Manslayer was an effect that allowed attacks to inflict supereffective damage against the Humanoid Type; a category that unfortunately included Simon himself. Worse, the Zodiac Fiend unleashed another pulse of miasma which shattered the runic collar around his neck. The wave continued its progress and struck Simon head-on. He felt his magic threatening to be unraveled…

only for the flow of power to be redirected to the rune on his back. Rune of False Weakness absorbed Disruptive Wave! His preparations had paid off. Sensing an opportunity, Simon feigned the loss of his buffs by disabling Nightveil and collapsed to one knee. Algozoa immediately attempted to exploit this opportunity by lunging at the Overlord, fangs first. A terrible mistake." Darkflare." His spell blasted Algozoa at point-blank range and tore off half his face.

The eruption of darkness smashed into the left part of the Archer's skull, vaporizing bone and exposing the festering brain underneath. A howling whirlwind of captive souls erupted from the wound as new scales moved to heal Algozoa. New flesh grew to replace the old and the demon's teeth morphed into an angry scowl. Simon drained his demonic minions of miasma and attempted to follow up the attack with a second Darkflare, but Algozoa proved swifter.

The archfiend dived into the nearby mud and swam into the ground like a fish would through water. Simon's spell only hit helpless trees. Where is he? Simon looked around and searched for his enemy, yet the mud had grown quieter than a calm pond. I can't sense him! Realizing staying on the ground was dangerous, Simon moved upwards with Darkflight while renewing his Rune of False Weakness. He considered his options.

He couldn't cast Edict of Wounded Earth again until the first one's escape clause was triggered, and that would require him to slay Algozoa, so he had little chance of destroying the Domain. Using Darkbound would only make him a bigger target too. Simon flew into the trees in an attempt to reach the top of the canopy, yet the trunks went on and on forever. By the time he realized it was futile, he had moved so far away from the ground that he could only see darkness below him.

Simon attempted to set the canopy ablaze with Hellfire, but the moist atmosphere smothered his flames before they could spread. Simon looked around for the attack he knew would come. The air was deathly quiet, the unnatural forest around him being devoid of any bird's cry or bug song. Simon closed his eyes and trusted his enhanced Perception to catch a detail he had missed. He heard the distant whistle of an arrow coming straight at him. Simon's eyes snapped open, and his head turned in the projectile's direction.

A flesh missile was targeting him; not from below as he would have expected, but from the upper left. He blasted it from afar with a well-placed Hellthunder, then flew towards the source of the attack. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. He looked around in vain. He only saw trees towering over a void that went on forever. However, he soon sensed another missile coming at him from the other side.

Simon shot it to bits again and moved to the right to avoid the blast, only to hit something sticky and nearly invisible. Threads of a white substance as thin as it was strong. Web. Spiderweb. Simon fought and struggled to free himself, but the more he struggled, the tighter the strands held him. His attempts to burn them away with Hellfire yielded little to no success either. However, they bothered him less than the new arrow of flesh flying in his direction. Simon hastily activated a Chaos Wave.

The blast managed to repel some strands and caused the missile to detonate before it could hit him head-on, but the explosion struck him anyway. It vaporized the remaining webbing, and sent him plummeting through a tree. The Domain's power amplified the pain and damage he received enough to leave cracks in the Overlord armor. Supereffective Manslayer damage! Critical hit! Simon managed to hastily control his trajectory and drew upon more of his demons' lifeforce to heal his injuries.

A direct hit would be lethal due to the Manslayer effect. He has to be close! Simon looked around for the source of the projectiles and still failed to locate Algozoa. Why couldn't he see a forty-feet tall monster lurking nearby? It's not an illusion, or Clear Eye would see through it. Natural camouflage? Simon decided to switch tactics by storing Deathmace in his Inventory and transformed into a raven again.

While it reduced his power and limited what he could do, it would let him avoid the Manslayer effect and sharpen his eyesight with superior bird senses. He squinted at the woods around him, picking up details he had never noticed as a man. The way the corrupted trees around him slightly bent, the edge of a tiny strand, and most importantly, the thing watching him from above. Algozoa's scales melded so well with the trunk he had scaled that Simon had to blink twice to confirm he wasn't hallucinating.

The monster had taken cues from Uyo's famous chameleons and melded with the background. Even his crystal's hue had changed. The bastard was less than two hundred feet away and smirking. This Zodiac Fiend might have been more feral than his siblings, but he was still intelligent enough to feel sadism. Simon blasted him with Hellfire Gaze. The creature dodged by leaping at another tree, his back opening to expel an arrow of flesh from their spine and placing it on its bow-wings for immediate takeoff.

Simon chased after Algozoa before he could take aim, but the monster opened his mouth and spat white slime at him. The projectile swiftly expanded into a vast net of web that nearly caught Simon inside it. He managed to twirl through the cracks as fast as he could and reached Algozoa in the nick of time. Darkbound. The powers of hell rippled through Simon, and his great wings darkened the sky.

The raven he used to be now rivaled the Phoenix itself in size, and his talons caught Algozoa the way an eagle would snatch a lizard. He grabbed the monster's neck and chest, slamming his back against the tree he used as a perch to prevent his arrow of flesh from aiming properly. The projectile still detonated. It blasted the tree apart and struck both fighters, shattering more of Algozoa's soulscales and burning Simon's talons.

The Archer fought back by lacerating Simon's belly with his claws deep enough to cut through flesh. Yet Simon didn't let go. He flew up and tightened his grip on the bastard until Algozoa's blood dripped from his talons.

"I'm not letting you go this time," Simon said, his eyes burning with the fires of hell. His Crown of Pain glowed above his head and its baleful shine offered the wicked no reprieve.

"You don't get to fire that bow again, no matter what." He blasted Algozoa with his lidless gaze at point-blank range. Flames surged from his eyes and wiped the scales off the Archer's skull in an endless flow of screams. Algozoa shrieked and fought back with primal fury, clawing at Simon and flailing his tail in an attempt to free himself. Critical hit! Critical hit! Frost damage! Soul damage! Each blow sent ripples of agony coursing through the avian Overlord's body.

Viscera and tendons flew, and enough blood was shed to fill a raincloud. Algozoa furiously dug his way to Simon's heart, only for new walls of flesh to block his way before he could make any progress. Simon held on and didn't release his foe. No matter the pain of wounds constantly opening and closing, no matter the chill of the souls passing through him, he would not let go. He continued to blast Algozoa without fail and tightened his talon's grip to better rip him in half.

He ensured the Zodiac Fiend spilled his guts on the branches. He showered the Archer with his own poisonous blood for good measure with each feather he lost. He bled his own Frightwall minions dry to heal his wounds as soon as Algozoa inflicted them, answering each bite with a brutal peck. He felt his demonic servants die through their brands one after another, yet Simon did not relent. It was a battle of attrition. Whoever would exhaust the other's supply first would win. Victory or death were the only outcomes.

And unfortunately for Algozoa, an Overlord's power knew no equal. The Archer's wounds stopped regenerating at a certain point, either because he had run out of souls to transfer the Anti-Heal effect to, or because Simon's acidic blood began to interfere with the process. No new scales appeared to replace the old ones Simon burned away, and Hellfire Gaze cleansed the bone off the Zodiac Fiend's brain. The creature stopped struggling and his Domain began to collapse on itself, yet Simon would not stop.

Only when Algozoa was no more than an emerald crystal pebble sitting atop a pile of ashes under a burning sky did Simon relent. The dry wind of his Edict of Wounded Earth continued to blow, perhaps because it didn't treat the Zodiac Fiend's defeat as 'death' so long as the crystal remained intact, but the battle was over. Simon returned to reality amidst the embers and flames, waiting for it. He drank the sweet nectar of experience that rewarded his victory, and yet… Yet it didn't come.

No rush of power filled his bones and empowered his soul. No level-up echoed the flap of his wings, nor filled the gaping hole in his heart with satisfaction. The reason for it was at his side, basking in his hard-won victory. The System had been unkind enough to split the experience two ways.

"My congratulations, Your Majesty." Agrat's voice brimmed with what could pass for respect, even desire. The ashen winds did not bother her.

"To think you could defeat a member of the Zodiac… the tales of your power weren't exaggerated."

"Your assistance was precious, Agrat," Simon replied upon regaining his normal size and shape. Nearly all of his minions had expired in order to heal his wounds, though he had plenty of miasma left to finish the job.

"I hope you got a level out of it."

"We demons do not gain levels, but I feel I learned a great deal." She smiled at him.

"We are both feeling gratitude." As she knew he would.

"Good work deserves a reward," Simon replied as he studied her with Clear Eye to ensure she wasn't an illusion. Party System also properly showcased her location.

"I will return your loyalty by teaching you one of my most prized spells." He pointed a finger at her face before she could react and sprung his trap.

"Eole's Darkflare." Darkness erupted from Agrat's skull and pulverized her head off her shoulders, alongside most of her torso. Her severed hand dropped her book to the ground and her legs collapsed under her. There was no warning, no chance to dodge, just a straight-up execution. And that satisfied his hunger. Level 74 Overlord Perk: Lord of the Demon Castle VII (Active): You can cause Frightwall to levitate and fly into the sky, though you must sit on the Crimson Throne to direct its movements. How sweet.

Protecting those poor people in his fortress from the likes of Lotan would be a whole lot easier now.

"Nice ring," Simon commented as he studied Agrat's corpse. Although she had returned to the miasma from which she first sprang, she had left a few accessories for him to collect, including her book.

"That's the thing with my items, though. They all carry a curse." In this case, Ring of Eternal Darkness protected the user from Darkness damage… unless Simon used a password—named after a certain beloved companion—that caused the ring to inflict the wearer with Invert and then turn that immunity into vulnerability. A pity he had to do that. This wasn't an unexpected outcome, but still a shameful one.

Simon hardly paid his returning watcher any kind of attention as he stored Agrat's remaining objects in his Inventory. His minion floated nearby and studied the demoness' leftovers with confusion, its eyestalks holding charred feathers.

"I don't understand," it admitted.

"What is there to understand?" Simon replied as he studied Agrat's book. The enchantments woven into it meant he would have to be careful not to trigger a trap once he studied it, but he was glad the fiend's knowledge wouldn't perish with her.

"You hold the proof of her treachery." Simon had sent the watcher to retrace their steps after he grew suspicious of Agrat, and though his Edict of Wounded Earth had destroyed most of the evidence, the demon had found feathers left behind by the demoness back when they flew to the bunker in raven form. She had intentionally left a small trail for Algozoa to follow.

"But why would she turn around and help Your Majesty fight the Archer?"

"Because she knew I could feel the emotion your kind does not." Simon stored the book and moved to grab Algozoa's crystal." Gratitude." Algozoa would have had no reason to suspect the two ravens were anything other than mere birds without help, since he couldn't bypass Anathemic Secrecy. This confrontation only happened because Agrat had arranged it, likely to ensure Simon would value her assistance and reward her properly. Or perhaps she hoped they would bond like humans did side by side in battle.

Simon couldn't be sure and he didn't care about her motives. He was through with traitors.

The watcher let out a noise that could pass for amusement.

"Do you, Your Majesty?"

"Yes, I do." Otherwise he would have stuck Agrat in his torture demiplane rather than kill her; he would settle on simply enslaving her on the spot in the next reign. No point in wasting her talents.

"Back to your Ring of Demonbinding, now. The road ahead is still long." He had a horned friend to visit.