Saintess Summons Skeletons

“Can I see Saria? Is she here?!” Sofia pressed the sweating dragon for answers.

“Uh… Yes… but not really. You can see her, and she’s here but… Hmm… You see…”

“Get to the point kid.”

Zephir was looking for a way out, but there was none, he reluctantly gave up, “Argh whatever, what are my secrets worth anyway… She’s much further down, come, I’ll explain on the way,”

“What have you done to the girl, Zephir?”

“I’ll explain everything alright. She’s fine, just… Unavailable at the moment.”

Zephir sighed and walked to the door, “This way… Now how to explain this… The system grants some people special classes. Classes of which the concepts originate from the heroes’ worlds. Saria has such a class, and so do a lot of the members of this sect. I seek them out, nurture them, help them grow, try to understand how their classes came to be, how they can be used. The admins have created them, perhaps on a whim, or perhaps with a greater purpose, either way, my goal is to help these people, and hopefully help myself.”

Erredis looked somewhat intrigued, but Sofia was the one to pursue the conversation, “Your class is one of these too?”

Zephir turned back to look at Sofia while he answered, “Yes. And it’s caused me all kinds of issues. But let’s not make this about me. Saria is currently training and helping two of us with their class as well, it’s a whole situation.“

“Then why is she unavailable?” Surely she can stop her training…

“You obviously know about the fake worlds of the trials, right?” Zephir started, “I have never been in one, but essentially, one of our members’ class allows him to, uh… Host such worlds. And Saria is currently in one.”

“Is she stuck inside?!”

“No, no, don’t worry, your sister is safe, as I said. She will be able to come out… When the skill runs out… In 63 days… So if you don’t mind waiting two more months…”

“Can you not cancel the skill?” Erredis chimed in.

“No. It’s dangerous, Joah, who hosts these fake worlds, the condition of his soul is unstable when he does it. It’s getting better the more he uses it, but we absolutely cannot forcefully cancel the skill. He might die, and everyone inside of the fake world would certainly also suffer consequent soul damage.”

“So I can only wait?”

“I never said that.” Zephir refuted as he waited for everyone to step inside the small square room he had led them to.

“What is the alternative then, get inside too?”

Zephir smiled for the first time since the start of the conversation, “Exactly. The fake world is essentially still a system directed place, and it works almost like trials, minus the death penalty… If you die in there, you will be stuck in place where you died, unable to do anything but wait until the skill runs out.” Done with his explanation, he closed the door to the small room, which started a slow descent in the depths of the mountain.

“I will enter it.”

“I will not stop you, in fact, I would like you to, your level is adequate to get inside, but neither me nor the guardian can follow you, and the fake world is currently in the form of a massive dungeon, Saria is at the end.”

Erredis perked up, “Oh! So that’s why they call her Boss. Will the skill end if she is defeated?”

“You guessed it.” Zephir confirmed, “This particular fake world was built around her own class, to help her train. Speaking of which… May I make a selfish request, miss Sofia?”

“Zephir. I can call you that, right? You saved Saria from that island, did you not?”

“You went there… I did, yes. Searched for you, too, at her request. I looked everywhere, refugee camps, orphanages, slums, odd shacks in the woods, even the whole volcanic jungle, but I could not find any trace of you. Not even with the help of divination and tracking magic… Saria… She was devastated. Your coming back will be a great shock to her.”

“So what is your request? I am still shaken by all this myself, but it seems you were Saria’s benefactor this entire time, so you have my eternal gratitude. Truly. I will listen to any request you may have.” Sofia declared with a deep formal bow.

“Then, please, fight her. Hide your identity and give it your all. I can tell that you are very powerful for your level. Saria has had trouble pushing her skills past their level limit, and fighting the same members of our sect again and again is not doing it for her anymore. We have set up this fake world so that she fights off waves of monsters, but due to her class’ specificity, I believe this to not be of a great help either. What she needs is a true fight against an unknown ‘player’. You can reveal your identity right after. Saria can handle herself, I have no say in what she does. But just for this small time where you are an unknown challenger, please give her a good fight, because there is no way she would ever fight you seriously after she learns who you are… She might not even be able to stand for a while…”

“This… Will I not just be blocked inside of the fake world with no way to speak to her if she beats me?”

“Well… Yes. As I said, it is a bit of a selfish request.” Zephir confirmed, sounding downcast.

“Then just win?” Erredis deadpanned. “Am I right? Just win and you’re both out, your sister also gets the benefits. Easy enough. I’ll be on the outside making sure there are no shenanigans involved.”

The elevator stopped.

It’s not even that much of a selfish request… What he really wants is for me to help train Saria… I don’t really want to wait more but… He does make some good arguments if everything he says is true. Erredis seems to see no issues either…

“I’ll think about it… I’ll- I’ll decide when I get there.”

“I will not blame you if you cannot wait. I know I probably couldn’t, in a similar situation… And I know Saria, she probably wouldn’t either.” Zephir admitted. “If she knew you were alive, she would have dropped everything to find you. In fact, you are much calmer than she would be.”

“I have had some time to accept the fact that she was still alive. I passed out when I first learned about it in the tower…”

“You learned about it in the tower? Right, I never heard your side of the story, you can share that with everyone in the inner disciples if you want, I’m sure everyone would be interested. You can join us if you want… Or rather, welcome, because I have no doubts Saria will want you to stay.”

“I-... One thing at a time…”

“Right, right… My apologies, either way, you are free to do as you please here. Now, let us go see your sister.”

Zephir led Sofia and Erredis to a door covered in runes which he activated and opened. Behind was a long room bathed in blue light, a few people in white were roaming around with weird objects and notepads, they were monitoring big glass columns containing people floating around in a clear liquid. At the very far end of the room was one young boy sitting on a huge mechanical chair, with a metallic contraption strapped on his head, linked to countless cables leading into the ceiling. The place immediately reminded Sofia of the boss’ room in Zangdar’s castle. Her eyes scanned the people in the columns one by one, they all wore the same kind of dark, skin-adhering attire, which looked a bit like the anti-ebb armor from Nicet.

Sofia’s eyes stopped on a column near the end of the room. A slender and tall woman floated inside. Her face was serene, her eyes closed, her long golden locks were peacefully undulating behind her.

Saria!

Sofia ran to the container, paying no mind to the bewildered people in white.

[Boss - Lv.249]