Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia’s plan was very bare-bones, since she couldn’t completely copy the real spell; she would have to snatch it the good old fashioned way. And so, she climbed, up the [Alphageid]’s body, or the trunk as she decided to call it. Her sharp demon claws barely managed to lodge themselves in the crystal, she had to use her full force to get a decent grip and project herself up higher. The angel would certainly aim at the creature’s part that he had already been attacking all this time. It was near the very top, close to the crack in space in which the rest of the creature was still hidden.

She assumed that the giant Phageid was capable of creating new roots out of any part of its body to strike her down like it did for the angel. So she kept [Regret] fired up and ready to go, the tiniest whir of her will and her skill would send her somewhere safer. As she kept climbing, nothing of that sort happened. Instead, when she got up to about half her goal’s height, the [Alphageid]’s eyes opened. An infinite number of randomly disposed jet black eyes of different sizes opened on its whole body.

Sofia felt disgusted that she had touched one, it had opened right as she was clawing the crystal and her hand had plunged straight into the black eyeball. At least it doesn’t seem to mind it… The eyelids hadn’t even closed back to protect the eye or anything. Guess it has no time to worry about me now. Not with what the Angel's preparing.

Some black eyes lit up, they shone in an eerie black light. It was then that it started, the Phageid’s counter attack. No longer content with throwing crystal roots at its problem, it was shooting concentrated rays of black light at the 'defenseless' Angel. Each eye could fire up like that for two or three seconds before popping. It wasn't hard to imagine how destructive these mana beams must be. But she couldn't see it, for they all missed their mark, pointlessly shooting at the void in the sky.

The Angel was too good at evading. Much like the Archangel whose form had been flickering in and out of existence in multiple places at once, the Angel’s defense was simply to not get hit. No matter how many rays the monster fired, whenever it looked that they would connect, the Angel was no longer there. This all happened so fast, it was as though he existed everywhere and nowhere at the same time. As if whenever he was about to get hit, his form had actually never been there to begin with.

It was both exhilarating and baffling to watch. Sofia wished she could stop and marvel at the display of power. Instead she had to keep climbing, and to be vigilant about avoiding the vicinity of the open eyes. Her pace had slowed down but she didn’t let up. She couldn’t. The Angel’s charged attack had never stopped growing in size as he kept evading the black rays, to call it a lightning bolt, still, would be akin to calling dragon’s breath a fresh breeze. It was so bright and long, an ultimate spear, with the power of a thousand suns. A scorching energy that could empty the seas and erase the mountains.

The [Alphageid]’s trunk had started vibrating, back down in the city, the roots had regained their vigor, and were scavenging the city in a renewed frenzy to completely squeeze it dry of its last living souls.

Sofia had reached right about where she estimated the Angel’s attack would land. It’s now or never.

The Angel’s bolt expanded one last time, the mana then collapsed on itself, and the attack was launched. It flashed in a direct trajectory toward the monster.

Sofia was already mid air, she tried her best to be near the attack’s path, facing the Phageid, she held her hand up as if to catch the spell. But her prediction of the trajectory was wrong, she wouldn’t be able to even graze it, she was dozens of meters away from the actual attack’s path.

The Angel wasn’t the only one in this battle who could disappear and be somewhere as if they had been there all along. Sofia, as a demon, had a very similar ability.

[Regret]

Just as the attack passed her, she appeared right under it, her raised right hand firmly clutching the [Angel’s bolt].

A torrent of power this overwhelming couldn’t be stopped by a mere demon. It didn’t even slow under her grasp. She was the one to be moved, disintegrated. She was reduced to a shapeless primordial mana mist under the might of this energy that she had observed from too close.

Health : 0 / 71690

Stamina : 0 / 71690

Mana : 0 / 71690

 

Sofia never saw the attack’s apocalyptic aftermath.

But one entity did see. It had watched this demon with curiosity until then. Baffled by its actions. As it helplessly watched the fleeing breeder Phageid escaping through the cracks of spacetime, it spied, still showing in the area backlog, the last system notice that this demon couldn’t have seen.

[Trial completion : Commit to your thievery before the true solstice’s end (Completed)]

The flickering form of the angel turned corporeal, he laughed, a maddening cackle shaking the fabric of this fake realm, the Angel roared in crescendo.

There was nobody to hear him but he bellowed out loud.

“I am an imprint?! You can’t do this to me! My original will avenge me! Don’t think you can escape my wrath, Vakeraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…!” his scream died down as this trial’s reality faded away, never to exist again.

 

Sofia woke up.

“I’M ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!” she shouted in ecstasy. Followed by violent coughing and dry heaving towards the end. That had to have been the loudest scream of her life.

Where am I though?

She wasn’t on the tower’s floor buried under a pile of sand as she had expected, she was in a comfortable single bed. It was dark and somewhat cold, she felt around with her hands, finding an uneven log wall on her left. A dreadful thought emerged from the back of her mind.

Is the trial not over?

She touched her chest and was relieved to find her familiar features instead of a round gaping hole.

Thank god… wait no… oh, whatever… Woah, I’m not in my right mind right now. I’d be able to see in the dark if I was still a demon. But if I’m back in the real world then where the hell is this?!

Sofia raised her right hand. If there was no light she just had to make some. She wasn’t mid-air to cast her spell but she was confident she still could. After all, she had already done it from the bottom of a lake, and without the system’s help.

Arcs of blue electricity formed in her grasp, revealing the scenery of a tidy single room log cottage. Two things attracted her attention, the tightly closed window shutters, and the small figure sleeping in a second bed. Everything else was unremarkable furniture.

She canceled her skill, restoring the room’s darkness.

Much better than a pile of sand.

Standing up, she fumbled around to open the wooden blinds. The frisky breeze of mountainous air from the outside greeted her when she managed to push them open, blowing her smooth golden locks away from her face. Outside was a green mountain plateau, surrounded by a lush forest of giant pines. It occurred to her that she wasn’t wearing her fireproof shirt and makeshift skirt anymore, instead sporting a slightly too small two piece white cotton pajama set and woolen socks. She turned around to check out the other bed.

Alith?

It was indeed the same banshee, sleeping soundly in the bed, wearing a similar sized, and hence comically too large pajama set.

Still breathing. Was she the one to move us here? … No way.

She wouldn't even be able to enter the saint’s tower to get her. Not to mention carrying me over the ocean and up a random mountain somewhere.

Well. She sat on the bed next to Alith. Am I level 100 yet?

Name : Sofia Aphenoreth

Age : 20

Class : [Saintomancer]

Level : 99

Health : 495 / 495

Stamina : 495 / 495

Mana : 44000 / 44000(-10000)

Seems not. No system log either… Really? What’s going on? And what about Alith?

[Hero - Lv.99]

She couldn't have failed, right? She must still be in there.

Taking a second look at the cottage, there was a small kitchen corner, a bathing cask, a dresser, a central table and some everyday items neatly stacked in the corners. There wasn’t much on the table, save for a three branch candelabra and an envelope tucked under its base.

The envelope was blank with no seal and no sender, inside was a single sheet of perfectly smooth paper, the likes of which Sofia had never seen. Blocky rows of unnaturally clean black characters spelled a short message.