Saintess Summons Skeletons

It felt like time stopped as the bolt met the blade. Sofia and Saria were so close. Closer than they had ever been for the last fifteen years. Then the bolt exploded.

Sofia was blinded by the explosion. In her hands, she felt the scepter snap, and following it, her own body was cut in half diagonally. The wall behind was also torn open, there was nothing but stone behind. There was no stopping the polearm’s spatial cut, but inside the explosion, Sofia felt Saria being blown away. And I’m not dead. She focused on using [Bone dominus] to reconnect her armor, before half of her body fell away. She couldn’t heal for now but it would be faster for the rune to resurrect her later if everything was still there. The two halves of the scepter snapped back together as the light of the bolt’s explosion faded.

Saria had been blown away quite far, but she was already standing back up, blood dripping from under her mask. Her magical armor was quickly patching up its holes.

The armor is weaker against magic than physical attacks. Sofia noted. Her health was already under twenty percent and dwindling, both her legs and her left arm were no longer connected to her body. But from the outside, she looked unharmed.

For a second, Saria stared at the monster of bones that had just blown her up all the while being seemingly unaffected by her attack.

During this same second, Sofia was struggling to cast [Spine of the Black Sun] as she was quickly losing all her blood inside of her armor. The bone whip appeared just in time for her to strike the ghostly monster birds of Saria that were done dealing with the salamanders and rushed at her instead. The ghosts turned around at the last second, running in all directions except towards her. Right, undead. Nice!

Sofia was calculating her next move, grabbing one of the remaining skulls of the choir and letting herself fall to the ground, but Saria did something unexpected. She unsummoned her weapon. This sounded like an alarm bell to Sofia. Her Sister wasn’t the kind to give up, if she was letting her weapon go…

As Sofia feared, Saria raised both hands, and two overlapping red circles of light appeared in the arena. The skull she received in the face with a bang, which exploded in a burst of flesh and blood, did not stop her channeling either. Anti-healing. Useless.

Going underground would probably not save Sofia. Do I cancel one?

As Saria’s spell activated. Sofia dumped as many bones out of her storage as she could around her just as she landed.

This wasn’t to defend herself, but to disguise her imminent death.

Saria’s magic erupted. First came a veil of water, like heavy rain, then the second circle’s magic resolved. The fire burst. As the large quantities of fire and water met, the entire arena exploded.

Sofia’s death had only been a matter of time anyway, so to be able to make Saria spend so much mana for a single of her unlife runes was a good tradeoff. Still, as she died, Sofia focused on pulling all the bones toward her with [Bone dominus]. When the steam explosion cleared out a bit later, Saria was also badly damaged by her own attack. She looked weak, tired.

Sofia could see this through Pareth’s eyes who had just reappeared out to cover her exit from the resurrection. His arms were almost usable again.

Seeing Pareth, Saria immediately started casting her two skills again. The red circles appeared once more. All around, the boss arena was crumbling, steel plates fell from the ceiling, everything seemed about to collapse at any moment. Then Sofia, freshly resurrected by her rune, and quickly repairing her armor starting from the outside, stood up from within the pile of bones.

To Saria, it looked like nothing she tried ever did more than prevent her opponent from moving a few seconds. Thanks to Sofia’s care, her armor looked just as undamaged and clean as it did before the fight. This seemed to shock her sister. “How…”, she mumbled. She took a step back. Intimidated or worried, either way she canceled her skills, suffering some backlash, and started channeling a new skill.

Something else?!

This time the mana enveloped Saria’s body, as if she were about to summon another armor.

[Gravity well]! Sofia ordered, hoping to interfere with the channeling, and Pareth executed. The skill attracted the bones and the room’s debris, but it barely started pulling on Saria when another shockwave freed her from the skill’s attraction.

This again! So annoying!

In a desperate attempt, Sofia sent her fastest zap of electricity from a quick-cast angel’s bolt. Perhaps it might have done something if Saria’s armor was conductive, but it wasn’t. Saria’s magic started to activate, and she immediately recognized the ways the mana flowed around and into her body. It was her turn to be shocked.

Demon?!

Sofia brought out Bookie, and ripped off both the sandworm and the ten female stone Ogres pages. Totalling 200 000 mana, this was squeezing out every last drop of the books' fog. As the skeletons appeared, she dug holes through her plastron and helmet, and wasted the last bits of her mana to shine a bright light on Saria and covered her with as much Erredian Rot as possible. Sofia’s mana hit zero right as she saw Saria’s body expand and grow from under the rot.

I can transform too, Sis!

Sofia’s black heart shot out of her chest, catching it and bringing it to her face, she bit into it.

The demon transformation commenced. Pareth stood between the two metamorphosing sisters, his hands just regrown, he summoned two shields of light. Sofia silently observed Saria change through Pareth’s eyes. Her body was quickly growing, enough that her head pierced through the thick film of rot she was covered in, she screamed as her size changed, and the scream turned into a maddening roar.

This was not a demon form. This was a Dragon form.

Saria had grown to become a five-meter tall, four-winged blue Dragon. She looked down. Breathing a stream of fire and steam at herself; she cleansed her body of the rot. Although she was nothing compared to Erredis, a Dragon was a Dragon. For the first time in the fight, Sofia felt that maybe she would have to really spend the next two months dead, in this room.

What was a Dragon? Sofia knew, now. They were beings capable of controlling the mana of the planet itself. She could tell that the Dragon breath Saria just used had cost her no mana at all. And she was the next target.

As soon as her transformation ended, Sofia immediately dispelled all the stone Ogre skeletons and absorbed their mana through [Heat Death]. It refilled her reserves by almost two hundred thousand mana, but she still couldn’t naturally regenerate due to her two remaining runes.

Health : 530 668 / 530 668

Stamina : 530 668 / 530 668

Mana : 199 200 / 358 560

The stream of steam and flames followed the movement of Saria’s saurian head. Pareth jumped to one side and Sofia to the other. She trimmed down her armor as she moved, the bulk was not what she needed anymore.

The dragon breath missed them both, but the arena was impacted again. It finally crumbled.

Tons of steel and rock fell indiscriminately, Sofia, Pareth, and Saria were all instantly buried, deep under seafloor.

What now? Pareth also didn’t lose any health, he’s buried like me.

Inside a prison of stone, Sofia felt the world shake. She extended her mana senses. Saria was digging in her direction, and fast. Mere stone couldn’t stop Dragon claws.

I broke out of a mountain in this form once.

I can dig faster!

Flexing her muscles, Sofia cleared some breathing room by cracking the rocks around her, and she punched up. She was going to keep digging like this trying to reach the ocean. An underwater battle would likely be to her advantage. She simply forgot there was no need for digging. The Sandworm pierced through the stone as if it was sand, and Sofia only needed to grab its ribs as it brought her up to the surface.

It was not long until Sofia’s surroundings transitioned from rock to sand, and from sand to the ocean. Pareth finally teleported to join her.

Saria will catch up any second.

As the adrenaline fell ever so slightly in this instant of respite, Sofia took a second to digest the memory of her sister’s terrifying scream as she transformed. It sounded horrifyingly painful, she had never heard Saria scream like this, not even under the slavers’ whip.

Feeling the tremors of Saria digging up, Sofia needed to move. She grabbed the sandworm and flew up to the surface. There was nothing but water everywhere Sofia looked. It was dusk; the sun slowly descended in the horizon painting the sky orange.

Is this really a fake world?

There wasn’t so much time to contemplate the question. Sofia felt Saria’s mana fast approaching.

Flying up as fast as she could, she filled the sandworm with mana.

A hundred and fifty thousand will do.

Sofia attentively observed the magic as it formed, she brandished the giant skeletal sandworm high in the sky..

Today’s [Saintess’ madness] forecast is: “Light!”