Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia had good hopes that this would be resolved without a fight. Until she took one, last, fateful step toward the altar. The shackled demon laying on the altar stopped struggling.

She had been in the middle of one of her incomprehensible sentences, one she had repeated at least ten times when a ritual she hadn’t seen activated, it was hidden within the floor’s decorative patterns. The world froze. To Sofia, this wasn’t a new sensation. Kuli had done it and so had Aphenoreth. She was, however, now starting to understand that it wasn’t something as ‘simple’ as ‘time magic’ or ‘space magic’. This was the sign of something much grander. She could SEE it now. This was the effect of the planes collapsing together. Like a superposition of colors and states of existence.

One thing wasn’t frozen however, the bolt. It kept condensing over her staff.

Red runes appeared everywhere on the immobile demon’s body, shining like the sun was burning inside of her. The mana emitted was such that it was washing over the petrification curse and the Darkness. It pushed aside the stone statues, cleared the center of the cathedral of debris. And then the mana stopped. The runes dimmed, but the demon was shaking, vibrating to the rhythm of an inexistent quake.

The angel’s bolt around her staff had absorbed ungodly amounts of mana from the wave; it looked brighter than when she double-casted the actual skill version in the Thrombber mines.

The world regained its usual shape. She exploded.

From the second Sofia had become frozen, she had been trying to summon her blessed shield construct from [Bone dominus]. Any kind of protection would help.

In that one instant while the world unfroze, the golden shield appeared in front of her and all of her other items disappeared into her storage ring, except for the Staff and Spatial anchor bracelet which couldn’t be so easily moved.

Explosion met explosion, and the Buried Cathedral was no more.

Sofia woke up from her death three seconds later, falling. Before she could even open her eyes, she spread her wings and checked her stats.

Health : 5995 / 5995

Stamina : 1995 / 1995

Mana : 5200 / 89000

That’s not a lot of mana.

She also had two runes left.

Sofia finally opened her eyes. The cavern had become a gigantic empty sphere with burning half molten walls. Nothing of anything remained besides her newly reformed body, the blessed marrow construct she caught a glimpse of, floating on a lake of magma, and a black ball floating at the center of the empty space.

[ ̶̟͔͇̋̒͆ ̷͖͍͍͝ ̵̛̜̓̅͘ͅ ̶̡͆̒͑̈́ ̷̢̼͖̩͊̌͆ ̵̝̐ ̸̥̦̭͔̏͘ ̷̢̺͕́̉̊̾ ̷̡̩̞͍͐̀͌̒ ̸̦͖̉͊̿ ̶͍̻̔͝ ̶̬̒͑͜ ̶̯̞̑̅̊͒ͅ ̵̳̺̽̃̓ ̶̬̼͐ ̸̹͕̖̊͛̏ ̷͕̋̏̆ ̶̞̖́̌ - Lv. 299]

No wonder Pareth died.

I lost the storage ring. I can feel the link to it. Inside the magma.

She quickly looked around but found no exit anywhere; and the black ball was starting to deform. As if something was kicking it from the inside. Struggling to get out. And it was getting bigger by the second.

Fight fire with fire.

Sofia squandered what was left of her mana, summoning a big ball of blood high above the blessed shield. For the first time in forever, her mana hit zero.

She felt the skill tug at the corners of her consciousness. She welcomed it.

[Vakariazrehafin of Sorrow]

Sofia’s heart burst out of her chest, still connected by the arteries, still beating; it was all black. Instinctively, she knew what she had to do. There was no questioning the process. She grabbed her heart. And she brought it to her mouth.

Her skin changed. Her missing tail grew. Her demonic leathery gray skin covered the base of her wings. Her vision widened.

Like a monstrous egg hatching, whatever had to come out of the black ball burst-out at the same time.

Sofia instantly understood that whatever had happened to the Son of Dread she had killed with her first ever [Angel’s Bolt], whatever had turned him into the abomination it had become, it had just happened to this Avian Apostle too.

Sofia's attention was immediately drawn to the monstrous avian, towering over her at ten meters tall. Its body was covered in layers of purple flesh that looked molten and constricting. The creature's massive feet were adorned with talons the size of war-picks. Its wings were a sight to behold, with no feathers in sight, only soft and fleshy yellow protrusions resembling long flower petals.

But what truly captivated Sofia was the creature's head, or lack thereof. Where its neck should have been, there was only a gaping hole. Instead, the tiny head was perched on two black outgrowths that sprouted from its shoulders like elongated collarbones. The faceless head boasted only one feature - a stubby black beak that stood out against the creature's vibrant purple skin.

Sofia snuck a peek at her stats.

Health : 179 280 / 179 280

Stamina : 179 280 / 179 280

Mana : 0 / 179 280

Higher than it used to. Double in fact. Does it double each filter?

She still had the same name, level and class, her skills were still there, she just had no mana. Not waiting for the other Demon to have the first move, Sofia plunged down to get her shield. She still had two runes, so the regeneration from the blessing wouldn’t help her but it would repair her armor, and she really needed that because it usually required mana.

During the plunge she reviewed what tools she still had at her disposal. The wings are still there, work perfectly, armor can’t repair yet, can’t take the bones out of the storage without mana either. [Bone dominus] should work if I can touch that thing’s bones… If it even has any. But the blessed greatshield will help. The staff should be out there somewhere too but it won’t help. [Way of the Fool]’s thinking speed is doing its best work right now, and [Sanctity] is probably the best thing I have going for me.

Nothing much in terms of active spells.

Back to the basics.

I only have five minutes before the skill ends and leaves me as a weakened and manaless human.

Red magma splashed around as she grabbed the greatshield in passing and flew right back up. A shame I can’t change the form after it’s a blessed construct without it losing the blessing.

The Avian Demon let out a piercing screech as it fully unfurled its wings. Sofia soared through the air, her tail whipping behind her as she ascended to meet the monstrous Avian Demon, unfazed by its immense size. The two demons clashed mid-air, each striking with incredible speed and strength.

Their physical strength was equally matched. As they fought, they flew up and up, trying to take the advantage on each other.

The petal-looking wings of the Avian were sharper than mithril blades, they left gashes even on the blessed greatshield Sofia hid behind. Its talons struck with the strength of a falling tree. Sofia parried however she could, raising her shield, kicking away the talons. The flying Avian tried to get under the shield with a high-knee but Sofia intercepted the blow with the bottom rim of the shield. She used that force to launch herself back in an aerial backflip. Her tail violently slammed in between the Avian’s legs, projecting the Demon up and deep into the ceiling of the spherical cavern.

Sofia dodged with minimal movements the rain of stone and debris that fell around her as the Demon forced its way out of the stone. She was already flying up, delivering a heavy punch to her struggling enemy. The fist was caught by the creature’s talons and promptly torn off.

Sofia felt no pain anyway; she still had the greatshield, two legs and a tail, enough to fight. She didn’t think full thoughts anymore. She was only focused on dodging, weaving her way around the attacks of the Avian Demon’s long legs and occasional wing swipes, waiting for another opportunity. She could only stay below now. The talons raked on her shield, it was starting to get heavily damaged and the regeneration couldn’t keep up with the pace of the fight. The Demon’s other leg came and Sofia caught the flaw in the strike, kicking away the clawed foot, obliterating the bones inside.

Wanting to end this as fast as possible, she threw the shield like a projectile at the monster’s face while she flew in between its legs. The Demon’s wings cut the shield into two, but Sofia had made her way to its back. The following tail hit was devastating, raking off the Avian’s flesh and leaving a huge bloody gash across its back.

With a single wing-beat, the Avian turned around to face Sofia, then, spreading its wings and legs like a starfish, it screeched again. The cry this time was charged with mana. Sofia’s vision and mana senses were currently the best they had ever been. She understood that this was a curse rapidly closing in on her.

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