Chương 168: The Sanctuary in the Sky (17)

Storms heralded Vayan's rebirth. While normally only the size of Casval's draconic form, Vayan had now grown to rival Vouivre when not empowered by the Beast Crestone. He had moved to stand on his hind legs, his multicolored feathers and scales turned a bloody crimson, his golden armor now made of spiked steel, and his wings transformed into airship turbines firing pressurized heat streams.

His serpentine tail had turned into a mechanical, coiling dynamo twisting the air around it into a windstorm crackling with lightning. His vulture-like beak let out a mighty shriek that hurt Simon's ears to listen to. The very air pressure had grown unbearably heavier. Vayan, the Storm-Father Level 75 Eidolon of Storms, War, Recklessness, and the Kish Avian/Elemental Auspice: Stormlord: Your Wind affinity is temporarily increased by one stage, and Wind attacks will pierce through Resistance.

Simon knew something was wrong the moment he completed the summoning. The first sign was the fact Vayan's level exceeded his own, which should have been impossible for a Visionary. A summoner whose Eidolon's level exceeded their own could only call on a diminished avatar. The second sign was the enormous psychic strain Vayan's new form put on Simon. Maintaining this Dark Eidolon's mere existence tired him greatly, unlike Carbuncle and Culebre.

He felt like a rabid dog's owner struggling to keep his hands on a strained leash. The third and final sign was that Vayan nearly stomped him and Eole. Simon barely managed to pull his lover out of the way before Vayan's talons fell on them with fearsome strength. The Dark Eidolon went on a savage tantrum, striking the ground again and again.

"Vayan!" Simon shouted.

"Calm yourself!" The Storm-Father answered his words with a roar to the wind, his dynamo-tail unleashing streams of pressurized wind that sliced the land apart and forced Simon to duck out of their way. Vayan showed no sign he had even noticed his summoner, let alone listened to him. Simon couldn't see any hint of intelligence in his white eyes, no trace of the old Sky-Father's reason. A savage fury akin to Thalas' own Primal Regression had taken hold of him. I do not control him, Simon realized in horror.

He won't listen to me. Vayan had warned Simon that the Abyss' power was not malevolent by nature, but always dangerous. Here was the catch to his ability: a Dark Visionary could summon Eidolons whose power exceeded his own, at the cost of losing control of them. However, luck would have it that Nodens was the biggest object in sight, and the berserk Vayan didn't take his despoiling of kish corpses kindly.

The Dark Eidolon immediately rushed at the regenerating archfiend without warning and interrupted his regeneration. Though Nodens remained larger still, he had only absorbed enough corpses to heal his torso, leaving him without an arm and half his face. The Storm-Father tackled him with such ferocity that Nodens was tossed to his back and pinned to the ground. Vayan's talons lacerated the demon's torso so deeply he tore out the grafted flesh and his beak ripped out his throat.

Nodens desperately struggled to push him back with his only remaining arm, yet when he tried to utter a spell, Vayan proved quicker by slashing his face and interrupting his incantation. Even in his berserk state, Vayan was bound to defend the kish people; and though Nodens was stronger, he remained a spellcaster at heart. His size was the main reason he had managed to hold his own in close-combat against the Champions, but he was now confronted with an opponent that could rival him.

One who thrived in savage barbarism. He was a Mage forced into a melee with a Berserker. Light shone at Simon's side, and when it dimmed, three figures stood next to him: a horrified Lady Junon, who immediately rushed to Eole's side to check on her; a wounded Alcyone, who bore terrible wounds on her hands and feet from her prior crucifixion; and Voltobauta, who looked rather healthy after having been chewed out by an archfiend, except for one little detail.

He was as translucent as a ghost, his Noble Crestone floating where his heart should have been.

"A Necromancer is not so easily destroyed," Voltobauta mused upon noticing Simon's surprise.

"Thank the Mana Goddess, you are both alive," Lady Junon rejoiced. Her feet showed burns, likely representing the roots burned away by Nodens' Burning Abyss.

"But Vayan…"

"I… I can't control him in this state… Lady Junon," Simon admitted. Merely stringing words together was a struggle from the mere exhaustion of maintaining Vayan.

"His power exceeds mine…"

"He's handling himself quite well," Voltobauta noted as Vayan continued to savage Nodens. The two exchanged bites like beasts trying to eat each other alive, though the archfiend was clearly trying to force the Dark Eidolon back long enough to cast a spell. Can he win? Simon wondered as he struggled to focus. Vayan wielded immense power in his new form, but he showed neither strategy nor forethought in his attacks; only bestial, berserk savagery.

Moreover, the miasma fumes pouring out of his body told Simon his new summon was burning itself out. He's going to disappear soon.

"I don't think… he can win…," Simon admitted, wincing from the psychic backlash of keeping Vayan in his current state.

"Can't… maintain connection for long…"

"Then we have to act now, while Nodens is on his last legs and unable to recover," Alcyone decided, runes on her skin flaring and causing spheres of holy light to swirl around her.

"Volto, use The Last Dance on me." Whatever she asked for left the Necromancer aghast.

"You won't live to see the sunrise if I do that!"

"We have to finish him now, and none of us will survive the hour!" Alcyone insisted as she cast multiple runic buffs on her blade.

"Do it now!" Voltobauta hesitated, then waved a spectral hand at her. Simon's heart skipped a beat when a familiar spectral five appeared over Alcyone's head, marking her with a death sentence.

"No…" Simon muttered in horror." Why?"

"Because it's what I do, and one life is cheaper than thousands," Alcyone replied. Her body radiated power.

"Let's go, Volto."

"I confess my combat prowess is significantly diminished in my current form," Voltobauta admitted with uncharacteristic quietness, "Would someone kindly lend me a body?"

"I can provide." Simon rasped as he opened his Inventory and released three, twelve-foot tall steel golems he had hoped to deploy against Nodens.

"Take your… pick."

"Much obliged." Voltobauta's ghost entered one of the golems and animated it, the Necromancer Crestone embedding into the machine's chest and immediately manifesting his Class outfit over its metallic frame. The possessed construct immediately began to levitate in the air.

"Can you restrain him, Lady Junon?"

"I can." The dryad pressed her hands against the ground.

"Simon, please lend your strength to Vayan a little longer." Simon clenched his jaw and focused in an attempt to stabilize the flow of miasma pouring through the Storm-Father, while Alcyone, Voltobauta, and the two remaining golems charged at their enemy. Alas, Simon's efforts were of little effect. Nodens had managed to cast Torment Chains again, the bindings and shackles coiling around Vayan's neck and limbs to pull him back and allow the archfiend to free himself.

It didn't take long for Nodens to start turning the tables on his attacker and begin strangling him with his remaining arm. Roots suddenly surged out of the ground and grabbed Nodens' hands, tail, and neck from behind, pulling him away from Vayan. The archfiend shrieked and cast his bleeding mist magic again, his blood turning into acidic fumes that rotted away both Vayan's scales and Lady Junon's roots. Scars formed on the dryad's legs as she clenched her jaw in pain, but she held firm.

The enraged Vayan roared, his breath unleashing a devastating gust that blew away the mist and nearly knocked Nodens back before a chain bound his beak shut. Voltobauta exploited the opportunity by flying over Nodens and casting a spell that reminded Simon of Ectoplasmer… except he fired dozens of specters in quick succession. The soul projectiles hit Nodens on the head and broke his concentration.

The two lesser golems might as well be rats biting a lion's tail, but they did their part, grabbing and keeping Nodens' second mouth closed. It was Alcyone who did the most damage as she lunged at the archfiend at phenomenal speed, hopping her way up across his torso while slashing him with her fake Mana Sword. She struck with power twice, perhaps thrice greater than what she commanded during the last bout, even as the number above her head continued to count down.

Voltobauta's magic had literally traded her life for power. The balls of light surrounded her swirled and struck Nodens with holy power, each of them leaving a small hole in his already seared flesh. The wounds the Adventurer inflicted did not heal, and she had now reached his throat for a fatal blow." Fire Amp!" Nodens cast in a final attempt to defeat his foes." Burning Abyss!" The archfiend set himself and the world alight. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Vayan, Alcyone, the golems, and roots alike were all immolated in unholy hellfire. Voltobauta alone managed to fly out of the spell's range, while everyone else was caught in the blaze. Junon screamed in agony as her roots—and one of her legs—turned to ashes, while the golems melted back into puddles of metal.

Vayan shrieked as the flames roasted him alive, and his pain rippled back to Simon through the connection they shared. He could feel the Dark Eidolon's suffering, the bitter kiss of the flames devouring him and Nodens. Must break… connection… Simon thought with a scrambled brain, the backlash becoming unbearable. He recalled Vayan's warning that an Eidolon's demise could harm or even kill him. Dis… miss! He ended the bond connecting him to the Storm-Father, causing Vayan to collapse back into raw miasma.

His former self teleporting back to Simon's side, weakened and dying. But no flames could stop Alcyone. Imbuing her sword with frost magic until it turned into a claymore of ice, she leaped at Nodens' skull with all of her strength and struck true even as she had become a living torch. She swung her blade and beheaded the demon in a final swing. The blow was so strong it sent Nodens' skull rolling off the pyre his body had become.

Oceans of miasma poured out of his neck, blasted Alcyone back, and began to cannibalize the archfiend's own beheaded corpse. Voltobauta braved that evil smoke and the flames to grab his ally before she could crash onto the ground below.

"Vayan…" A wounded Lady Junon whispered as she touched the Sky-Father, who lay on his side with mana particles leaving his wounded body.

"Vayan, listen to me." Forcing himself back to his feet, Simon left them behind as he forced himself to walk past the ashes. Nodens' domain remained active, so it wasn't over yet, but he would end things here and now. You have left Alcyone's party. Simon's heart hardened as he realized what that message meant. He walked up to what remained of Nodens' skull; a mere fragment of his face already dissipating into the miasma that created this avatar.

Only the Goatfish crystal remained pristine and undamaged, its light glowing with malevolence.

"Defeated by a human… again?!" The bitter anger in Nodens' voice brought Simon a measure of satisfaction." All those centuries of rehearsal cannot have been for nothing!"

"I told you your comeback tour was cancelled." Simon grabbed the crystal and tore it out of the skull, causing it to collapse back into smoke.

"Cancel your Abyssal Domain and lift the curse you placed on Belzemine, and I might yet let you live."

"The elf? Are you pleading for an elf?!" A mocking, scornful laughter answered him.

"My Torturous Polymorph spell is permanent, Deceiver! I cannot remove the effect once it is applied!" Simon scowled in fury and frustration. He was pretty sure Nodens was lying and that his magic could be undone, even if the demon couldn't do it himself.

"If I had known cursing one of your pawns would pain you so, I would have tormented more," Nodens declared with all of his spite and malevolence.

"And suffer she shall, oh yes! Her flayed nerves will drive her mad with pain for the rest of her short existence! She would scream if she had a mouth! Scream!"

"This crystal is your unyielding spirit incarnate, to the point I can't store it in my Inventory. Not even the Noble Heroes could damage it. So tell me, if I were to devour it right here and now…" Simon glared at the crystal and peered at the vile spirit it housed.

"Where are you going to go?" Nodens' silence was an answer in itself.

"Is there anywhere for dead demons to go at all? The Abyss? Abraxas' bosom? Or will everything just… end?" Simon gripped the crystal with all the strength of his hatred.

"Let's find out, shall we?" He could feel it in his bones. The undeniable superiority that came from besting Nodens at his strongest, under the glow of the comet that gave him life in the first place. That was why his Devourer Title required him to best him then; so Abraxas could witness, without the shadow of the doubt, that the Overlord was the superior symbol of terror who would suffer no competition.

"Please, don't…" Nodens' voice broke with an all-too human emotion: fear.

"No, please! Brother, I beg of you!" Devour Crestone?

"Please don–" Simon mercilessly shattered the crystal. Cataclysmic amounts of miasma poured out of it, which he inhaled like smoke, drinking Nodens' spirit and delighting in his final wail. He dined on his screams and pain, consuming all that he was and would ever be. Memories flooded his mind in a jumbled, chaotic flow.

The picture of an eye looking from the earth below and giving him shape and purpose; flashes of gore and blood, of delightful screams joining with his music; the gleam of a great star promising him endless fun in return for servitude, which he granted; a glimpse of uncultured humans, elves, and mortals gathering to stop him from fulfilling his grandest performance yet; the annoying voice of Mardok taunting him from inside his prison through human lips; and finally, the last and greatest terror men called death.

Nodens' Domain collapsed as Simon returned to reality. A fiery halo soon appeared above his head, a phantasmal crown of fire floating over his helmet. It burned with wicked, smokeless flames whose glow crackled with spectral pictures of screaming damned souls. You have obtained the Crown of Sin Perk. This replaces Devour Crestone IV. Crown of Sin (Active): You can equip an unholy halo fueled by the malice of a defeated Zodiac Fiend.

You may gain an additional Crown each time you consume a Zodiac Fiend's crystal at full power, but you can only equip one at once. Crown of Pain (Active): The Goatfish's Crown. Wounds you inflict will immediately result in a permanent Anti-Heal and Bleed effect. Additionally, you can attempt to forcefully banish a single target that you touch to a private pocket dimension of eternal torture, where they will endure unspeakable torments.

The captive will remain there until you successfully use this ability on someone else, at which point the new captive will switch places with the old one. Then came the flow of sweet experience, bringing him to the heights of bliss and pleasure. Level 66 Overlord Perk: Darkbound III (Active): You can draw upon the power of Hell to assume a gargantuan size, gaining immense reach and strength at the cost of diminished agility. Your current equipment will grow to match your size.

Level 67 Overlord Perk: Anathemic Secrecy IV (Active): Deceit is in your flesh. You can polymorph into anyone whose soul gem you ingest, becoming a perfect copy of the individual. Though you do not copy the individuals' Class, Perks, knowledge, or supernatural abilities, the mimicry is otherwise perfect, and all forms of magical detection or divination will mistake you for the original. You can end the effect by spitting out the gem at will.

Dozens of experienced Class users had participated in this battle, splitting the experience between the survivors, yet Simon received enough to gain two levels; and he could tell the third was just around the corner. The System had apparently treated Nodens' comet-empowered form as a separate entity, though Simon could tell he received a slight penalty. The experience he received from slaying him in Cocagne must have been subtracted.

However, all that feeling of triumph and gleeful joy came crashing down the moment Simon looked around. The entire Sanctuary's fighting force had been decimated, from Tybalt and Zeal to Anaximander. Vayan was dissipating back into mana while Lady Junon mourned, his avatar destroyed by the strain of his own immense Dark Eidolon power. Belzemine had been reduced to a blob of flesh, and Eole… Fighting against the strain and fatigue, Simon ran back to Eole.

The fleshy blob Belzemine had turned into somehow managed to slowly roll its way back to her like an overweight slug, whining and squirming at her side. Lady Junon must have pulled her to safety during the battle. Simon dispelled his Overlord outfit and cast Megaheal on Eole with a prayer. Now that Nodens' Domain had collapsed, his prayer magic managed to close her head wound. The sound of her breath gave Simon a measure of relief, as did the sight of her eyes opening.

"Simon?" Eole's arms greedily grabbed his neck the moment she woke up.

"Thank the gods, you're… you're alive."

"We've won," Simon reassured her.

"Nodens is gone. He's gone forever."

"We've… we've won?" Eole gasped upon noticing the mass of flesh at their side. She immediately recognized her upon seeing one of her eyes, which had been left intact so she could better cry.

"Bel… zemine? Is… is that you?" All the elf could do was to blink." Cleanse," Simon cast on Belzemine after completing his Prayer chant, to no avail. Not even the Light Megalith's miracles could save her. Applying the Brand of Envy might help her sidestep the curse by polymorphing into someone else, but he wouldn't be able to remove it and it would undo all their efforts to help her break out of the past Overlords' control...

"I'll find a way to cure you. You have my word." The blob he had once called his friend stared at him with tearful eyes. It broke Simon's heart to see her like this, after she worked so hard to heal from her mental scars. Eole bit her lip, then hugged Belzemine with all of her love and compassion. The polymorphed elf stopped crying, at least for now. Voltobauta flew back to them with a charred corpse in his arms.

Simon only had to take a look at Alcyone's current state to tell that she had passed away from her wounds before the Domain could collapse. It might have been a kindness to Voltobauta, who wouldn't live with the guilt of his own ability killing his friend. The Adventurer had defeated Nodens at the cost of her life… and another would soon follow her example.

"Did… we win?" Vayan rasped on his deathbed. His wings had dissipated back into raw mana, alongside the tips of his talons. His body was falling apart at the seams, in spite of Lady Junon's grim attempts to infuse him with her own. All she could buy him was a bit of time.

"Since I gained seven levels at once, I assume we did," Voltobauta replied through his golem body, his gaze turning to Alcyone.

"For all the good it did."

"Yes, Sky-Father," Eole reassured Vayan, her hand holding her arm.

"We defeated Nodens."

"That is… good…" Vayan let out a breath of relief.

"Everyone is… finally safe… I can leave at peace…"

"You will be back soon," Lady Junon promised him.

"The people's faith will give you life again, Vayan."

"They… will need guidance more than ever…" Vayan's eyes turned to Simon.

"Will you… watch over them?" Simon nodded grimly. He could not deny the eidolon's last request.

"I shall."

"Thank you…" Vayan closed his eyes.

"I am glad… you came to us, Simon." The Sky-Father returned to the mana that gave him shape and life, until the day he could recreate an avatar for himself. He seemed happy to go, and Simon couldn't find it in himself to feel the same. He had miscalculated. All those months of training a small army, and the number of survivors could be counted on one hand. The Sanctuary had lived to see another sunrise at the cost of nearly every person Simon and Eole cared for.

"Father, brother…" Tears rained down Eole's cheeks, and though Simon hugged her, his presence didn't stop her from crying on his shoulder.

"Why… why?"

"This is all my fault," Lady Junon lamented.

"It was my duty to keep Nodens sealed, and I wasted so much time we could have spent preparing. I planted the seeds from which this slaughter grew."

"I'm not sure it would have changed anything," Simon replied, partly to comfort her, partly because it was true. Seeing a Zodiac Fiend at full power reminded him why dealing with them required twenty-two Noble Heroes the first time around. Yet Lady Junon was too remorseful to listen.

"This remains a failure of my judgment. Had you not warned us, all of my children would be dead as we speak."

"But they're alive, and we won," Voltobauta replied.

"We have saved the Worldtree and the entire planet from a global disaster. We fought like heroes and saved the world." He let Alcyone's body rest on the same spot where Vayan vanished.

"To say otherwise would be an insult to those who gave their lives for us."

"He is not wrong, Lady Junon," Eole replied, albeit with a voice laced with sorrow.

"In spite of all our losses and sacrifices… we have destroyed an evil not even the Noble Heroes could eliminate for good." She took a deep breath.

"No one will ever have to wage this battle again." … she's right, Simon realized, his eyes widening. For the first time in history, a Zodiac Fiend's crystal has been shattered. Not even the Noble Heroes could do it, having settled on sealing away their enemies when their destruction proved impossible. The Overlord Class had once again showcased its superiority to them with this victory. Simon had no idea if Nodens would eventually reform the way Noble Crestones did, or if he was gone for good…

but this opened the distant possibility of a future where the Zodiac Parade could be averted for all future generations. Simon could save the world.