Saintess Summons Skeletons

The throwables are ready.

Sofia was already taking a liking to the engineer skeleton. She could just give him a bunch of bones and random crap from her storage ring and he would make useful items out of it in a few minutes. It seemed the items made like this were limited to non-magical but this was already great. Right now she was playing with her eight shade-dust-balls. Now I just have to throw it at the thing and itll be covered in dust. Then I blast it with the light.

Her training with [Heal undead] had reached an interesting threshold. She could now cast it pretty much anywhere and in any direction no matter the available space. But if she did, it was locked as a 10m large beam of light. Though it wasnt as good as she hoped, it was good enough for the purpose of the quest. She had done some testing and thanks to the lack of mana in the temple, the rot wouldnt survive long after being applied. A flash of the light would apply enough rot to eat through about a centimeter of the temples walls. As long as she didnt overuse it in a single area or hit the mechanical elven structures that kept the whole thing afloat above the sun, she would be alright. She wanted to believe that, at least, because with barely more than 600 hours left to finish the quest, she couldnt spend forever customizing the [Heal Undead] spell.

And if a single flash is not enough to kill the parasite, I lure it or chase it to somewhere else that the rot hasnt damaged yet and blast it again. Rinse and repeat until it dies. Then again for every parasite in the temple.

Surely I can get that done in 600 hours. The temple is big but not that big. And there was only one of these things outside, perhaps the inside will be mostly empty too. That would be nice

I need to make sure of where the trajectory correction module and the Emergency Power Supplyare, spreading rot on those would be my last mistake. But for now, lets go out.

Sofia phased out of the safe room and instantly summoned the four vampire skeletons out of her book. These were her pick for the chasing and luring of the parasite, they had proved to be extremely fast and agile, which was exactly what she needed right now. They would stay at a reasonable distance from her and each other when possible, with her as the center of the formation. Sofias safety was their first priority, then luring the parasite of the Deep came second. She also had her three runes up, as she did every time she stepped out of the mana isolation zone.

The walk out of the northern section was silent as usual. Sofia was tense, ready to fire off a beam of light at the slightest sign of a vampire getting attacked, but nothing came to find them. On the way out, they passed near the abandoned rat skeleton, the iridescent liquid was still around it, untouched. Sofia tentatively took the skeleton book out, but it did not want to eat the rat again.

The opening leading to the outside walkway came into view, the first vampire skeleton was about to step outside when it suddenly turned back and tackled Sofia. There was a second of shock but she was quick to process that the skeleton was protecting her, their loyalty was never in question. She trusted the skeleton, in the time it took her to fall, she concentrated to resist the influence of [Way of the fool] which would prevent her from being tackled to the ground, activated the [Erredian Rot], and sent a ray of light from the place the skeleton had been standing directed toward her.

I cant hit the footbridge no matter what!

Sofia saw a swarm of the small parasites fly over her and the skeleton vampire which was pinning her down. They were not covered in rot. Fuck.

Pareth appeared, he was the one holding onto seven out of the eight dust balls. He threw one at the vampire standing at the back. The vampire struck the ball right as the swarm reached its level. Sofia activated the light again. The swarm was consumed by the rot before it could even turn back, showering the corridor and the vampire in its iridescent blood.

Sofia felt the world slow down for an instant, wondering what would happen of the tainted vampire.

At first sight, nothing.

Since it was like this, she re-focused on more immediate matters like the one Pareth had been dealing with, making sure she was safe. Although a Vampire had immediately gone to check outside after Sofia killed the swarm, it came back without a sign of finding anything.

The parasite is getting crafty. Its no longer just ambushing me but sending its goons at me directly from a distance. And that was without a doubt an entire swarm, not just part of it.

I know you cant do that too often, parasite.

You messed up.

Pareth come back for now . Wet skeleton, you go first, the other three, keep an eye on him, just in case. We run through the outside fast. We need to find the parasite before it can recover and send a swarm again.

Sofia brought out the book of skeletons again, and summoned the group of 100 rats.

Twenty five in each inverted pyramid, dont go inside of the big one, just scout the outside, fast.

Just to be certain she wasnt getting bamboozled, she even sent a quarter of the rats to check on the north pyramid she was just leaving. It wasnt too long until the rats found traces of the parasite. It was on the rooftop of the main pyramid, the exact place where she had met with Aphenoreth before.

Itll take three good minutes to run there. I cant wait that long, this thing can fly too I could jump up there if not for the increased gravity.

No choice, come back out Pareth, get ready to throw the balls, were going all-out.

The runes on Sofias torso lit up under her armor, then her wings lit up as well She was already at less than half her total mana, if she wanted to be able to use the rot, along with the third stage of [Runeforged Overlord], she could only afford for the entire confrontation to last a few seconds.

The only issue in this plan was that if the parasite didnt choose to become physical to attack, she wouldnt be able to cover it with the shade dust, but she had an idea for that as well, though it was a risky gamble.

With who knew how many more parasites and possibly a giant whale to kill in a very short time, she couldnt keep taking as little risks as she had been until then. Now was the time for real progress.

Due to the third tier of [Runeforged Overlord], Sofia and her skeletons all gained a mountain of stats as well as Omnidirectional free flight. Lack of air and mana be damned, I can fly too!

Sofia, Pareth, the four Vampire, and a bunch of rats all flew straight to the top of the main inverted pyramid of the temple. The parasite was there, its wings still deploying while it ran away in the opposite direction. She started channeling the [Graveyard of the righteous] as she flew up.

Theres nowhere you can go!

Sofia was many times faster than the parasite. She flew over it, dumping tons of bones out of her armors storage on her way. Stopping at the maximum range of [Bone dominus], she controlled the bones to close around the parasite like a bone coffin. The graveyard skeletons all started emerging from the ground around it, clawing at and into it. If the parasite was anywhere in the physical or spiritual plane, they would catch it.

Sofia could clearly feel the parasite push back against the bones, it was at least partially in the physical plane already, some of the graveyard skeletons managed to grab its legs.

The parasite forcefully cracked the bones from the inside. It fought back, destroying some of the graveyard skeletons, and freeing itself of the bone coffin, darting out of it like a magical bolt. It had even severed some of its legs to escape the grasp of the skeletons it couldnt get rid of in that short instant. Fully deploying its wings, it took off.

Only to be squarely hit on its globulous body by a small bone ball full of shade dust as soon as it was about to take flight.

Sofia hit it with a ray of light. Then she hit it with another, angled in another direction, to make sure the rot wouldnt touch the same part of the roof twice. She did this in all directions until the rot drew a perfect circle around the parasite. Flickering [Heal Undead] so many times only took a second. This was her fastest spell-casting to date. The parasite was thoroughly covered in a thick, veiny, pulsating layer of rot. It couldnt fly anymore.

The parasite struggled. It reminded Sofia of the ebb-covered leaf going mad inside Nicets glass ball. Then the struggling stopped. Is it dead?