Saintess Summons Skeletons

Paying no mind to her heavily damaged body, Sofia threw herself at the tides of rot, clawing through its pulsating flesh until she reached her sister. She still had some mana, so despite being covered in rot, she was fine, Pareth’s [Greater Heal] had performed as it should. Sofia quickly dumped bones out of her storage, and as her rot wouldn’t consume them, used them to dig Saria out of the rot, encasing her in a protective layer of bone, with just a bit of air around her head.

The barrier around the platform was growing thinner by the second as the rot consumed its fuel. And before Sofia knew it, she along with Pareth’s skull and Saria were back to the bottom of the ocean.

Sofia rushed to bring everyone to the surface.

Quickly making a small ‘boat’ with her stored bones, she let Saria out of the bone encasing. She lay unconscious on the boat, still wearing her Dragon mask. The sun was just finishing to disappear beyond the horizon.

Pareth’s bones were regenerating quickly, imbalancing the boat, he was probably going to notice and return to the bone storage, but before that, Sofia could feel something through the connection of their souls. Usually she was the one communicating, but in a rare event, she was on the receiving end.

From the unblinking, unmoving skull, there was no message, no order, no words, just a feeling. Happiness.

Sofia smiled. Pareth returned to the bone storage.

Slowly, Sofia stood up on the bone boat. She walked up to Saria’s side. She was breathing peacefully. Pareth’s heal was potent enough that Sofia did not have to worry about anything. Saria was simply asleep, her mana was recovering and flowing as it should, her heartbeat was calm and steady.

You’re so thin, sister. Are you still not eating properly?

After covering her sister with a thin sheet of interwoven bone scales, Sofia laid down next to her, she gazed at the slowly moving light and fuzzy clouds in the darkening sky. Before she knew it, the gentle rolling of the waves and Saria’s peaceful breathing lulled her to sleep.

Sofia opened her eyes, she felt a bit cold, naked on her boat. Her demon transformation had long ended and her stats were all back to full. It was night, Saria was still sleeping next to her.

This feels unreal.

No, it is unreal.

She sat up, fashioning some rigid clothes for herself with some bones. Better than nothing. Saria at least has her mask.

Something softly tapped Sofia in the back of the head.

Startled, she turned around. It was her scepter floating behind her. Alright, guess I am not completely naked either, welcome back. Sofia thought as she gave a gentle tap back to the staff, leaving it there for now. Her attention returned to Saria.

With all the care in the world, she pried the dragon mask from her face and put it to the side.

Sofia couldn’t control the smile on her face. Leaning over Saria, she slowly parted her hair. A drop fell on Saria’s face. Then another one. Saria moved, stretched with muted moans, she slowly opened her eyes.

“Zeph?” the still half-asleep girl asked, sounding lost.

As her mind recalled the previous events, Saria was startled to find an unknown face looming above hers. Without thinking she tried to sit up, colliding with the person above. Sofia recoiled from the unexpected blow, and Saria soon recovered, awkwardly distancing herself on the boat, and covering her chest with the bone sheet. “W- WHO ARE Y-” she started to scream at the stranger, suddenly stopping, her mouth agape.

Sofia wasn’t moving. Unable to stop either her smile or tears, she was simply holding up something for Saria to see. Something that had been almost her entire motivation to focus on training her sculpting with [Bone dominus]. It was a small but intricately detailed, delicate hairpin, in the shape of a particular flower that only grew in the backreaches of Sovuln’s west coast. The most precious possession of their late mother, one they had traded for food in their most desperate days of starvation.

"Saria," Sofia whispered, her voice trembling with emotion, “I’m back.” She wanted to say more, a thousand words battled in her head, impaired by the violent shaking and tears.

Saria's eyes widened as she took in Sofia's face, her features softened by the dim glow of the lines under her skin. Her initial shock and fear began to ebb away, replaced by a mixture of disbelief and wonder.

"Sofia?" Saria's voice quivered as she spoke her sister's name, this time with a hint of recognition. Memories flooded back, and tears welled up in her own eyes. "Sofia, is it really you?" She reached out tentatively, her fingers trembling, as if to touch Sofia's face, as if to make sure this was not another painful dream.

Sofia nodded, she wiped her tears with her fists, “I’ve grown a lot b- but, It’s really me. I found you, big sis.”

Saria's hand reached Sofia's cheek, and she let out a choked sob. The two sisters, separated for fifteen years by a cruel twist of fate, now reunited on a small boat in the middle of the night. They held each other's gaze, sharing a moment of profound emotion that transcended words.

Saria let down her hand, her gaze turned distant.

“You’re really real? Right? In the Sect? Right? Not a figment of Joah’s imagination? Please… Please tell me…”

The world stopped. The fabric of space unraveled, the sky sundered by otherworldly light.

Sofia heard the sound of broken glass.

Her eyes were open yet they were closed.

A loud bang and the sound of multiple people shouting shook her back to reality. She opened her eyes inside of the stasis chamber in which she floated. The glass of the chamber was cracked. Behind it, a madwoman in a black skinsuit, still covered in glistening liquid and with bloodshot eyes, her wet hair sticking to her face, prepared another punch.

The door of the stasis chamber exploded, unleashing a wave of stasis fluid in the already flooded room.

Saria leaped in, hugging the still groggy Sofia with both arms. “You’re real!” she elatedly whispered between loud sobs. “You’re real…” She repeated several times like she couldn’t believe her own words.

Struggling to fight the unnatural drowsiness, Sofia weakly hugged her sister back, “I am.” Saria’s heartfelt embrace was too strong, it was hurting her, but she didn’t want the moment to end.

In the other stasis chambers, the inner disciples were also waking up. At the very end of the room, Joah was cursing and holding his head. Zephir just barged in running through the door, while all the people in white were panicking, trying to manage the sudden chaos.

Behind Zephir, Erredis strolled in, amidst the ambient chaos, she nonchalantly called out to Sofia, “See, told you you just had to win. Good job girl!”

Sofia chuckled at the loud and confident voice of the dragon. She caressed Saria’s hair, “You didn’t have to make such a mess, I won’t disappear.”

“You’re the mess!” Saria answered, hugging her even tighter.

Amidst the mess and the cacophony of voices in the chamber, Sofia and Saria held onto each other tightly. Zephir had joined the people in white, running from one stasis chamber to the other, making sure everyone was fine.

Joah, still nursing a headache, stood up and stumbled towards them, his expression a mix of relief and confusion. "What in the world is going on? You good, boss? Why’d you sever the connec…" he stopped his word midway realizing what was going on. “NO WAY!” he yelled before clutching his head in pain, reeling.

Saria finally loosened her grip, wiping away tears of joy. "I can't believe you're really here, Sofia. I thought you were…"

Sofia grabbed Saria’s hands. They were a bit smaller than her own. “I survived, like you. I also thought… But then I saw your name in the tower.”

Saria’s expression blanked for a second. “The tower…”, “THE TOWER?!”, “THE BONES!”, “You-!”

Sofia put a finger over Saria’s mouth, she winked. “You fought well, number two.”

“But how?!”

“It’s a long story. Shouldn’t we get out of here first?”

Saria seemed to finally realize the state of her surroundings, she acquiesced meekly, starting to turn around.

And everything became silent.

Behind Saria was a lanky man in a brown suit. The black eyes on his perfectly neutral face betrayed no emotion. Unbeknownst to all but Sofia herself, he observed them. Raising a finger, he poked Saria’s cheek, and disappeared. Time seemed to start flowing again.

“Uh?” Saria suddenly stopped in her movements, after a second, she turned back to look Sofia in the eyes. An uncertain expression on her face, she asked, “Aphenoreth?”

There was a loud bang. Zephir had been handling the commands of one of the stasis chambers. That brought the number of broken ones up to three.

Sofia laughed nervously.

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