Saintess Summons Skeletons

The three remaining shrouds looked perfectly identical. They were made of what looked like fine dark-purple silk, embroidered with gold threads.

The embroideries were elegant and simple, their thin golden threads drawing a repeating pattern out of Sorrow’s rune that covered almost the entire shrouds, with a margin the width of a hand from the borders, which were themselves thinly decorated with a darker, almost black lining with very fine flowery patterns that could only be seen from up close.

Sitting on the floor, Sofia and Ihuarah observed the three shrouds flying in a circle for almost two hours, trying a few different things without producing any results.

Sofia broke the silence with a sigh. “I really can’t see or feel any difference…”

“I hate to admit this, but neither do I…” Ihuarah replied, “Do you maybe want to try the spiritual plane again?” he asked without much enthusiasm.

“A fourth time? I would rather just find a way to get to the Recessed plane again, at least I might be able to follow the essence.”

“If only it were that easy… I am normally able to see Divine essence carried by mortals, but down here in the forbidden layer I might as well call myself blind.”

“Can you usually see the essence in this?” Sofia asked, bringing out her dagger.

“Of course. This one makes it hard to even see the other ones, if I have to describe it, it is like… A cold sun.”

“A cold sun? Interesting… How do you describe mom’s?”

“Warm and lonely,” he answered without hesitation, a smile in his voice. “Not to worry, it is but a matter of time before you learn to see them too. This is something all Apostles are naturally built for, after all.”

“Is this something you can like… Turn on and off?”

“It is simply an evolution of mana senses, in a way. You use them in a slightly different way, allowing you to see not the essence directly, but their effect on the surrounding mana.”

“Hmm,” Sofia nodded, “and how about the essences from the Deep, what do they look like?”

“Holes,” Ihuarah answered, “like a disturbing lack of anything, so perfect that it can only be artificial. Your entire head is like that ever since your racial evolution. If you wanted to hide your divine essence, pushing it all to your head might be a good idea. Although, and I meant to warn you of this earlier when I noticed it but never got the opportunity, but your mana heart is the same. It makes it easy to spot, that is a very bad thing.”

“Good to know. I can work with that. As for my head… Well, it probably has to do with the eye,” she said, taking off the small bone protection she usually kept on it as it protruded out of the top of her head slightly in demon form, and she did not need everyone to see Aphenoreth’s rune.

A gentle golden light spread from the uncovered eye, illuminating the room and the shrouds.

“I still have no idea how to use it,” she added, “I am relatively sure that it is for one of my racial skills, but I’ve not managed to make anything happen. Supposedly the demon king can help with that…” ＲἈℕȪʙËŚ

Ihuarah stroked his short pitch-black beard, “Hmm… Truth be told I would not be surprised were he to show up right here and now. The headless one is such a person.”

“You were expecting someone?” an unknown voice called out from the entrance.

Ihuarah was quick to get into a fighting stance, his magic flaring up despite the dangers of the environment.

Sofia stayed on the ground, observing the newcomer taking a few steps into the room. She was silently communicating to Pareth and Bookie that they should be ready to come and fight at a moment’s notice.

“Who are you? How did you reach this place?” Ihuarah asked in a booming voice. Sofia had never heard him so serious.

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The man stopped, he was quite tall, probably as much as Sun’s saintess, had pointy ears like an elf or a vampire, blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, a single dark red horn sprouting out from his right temple, and hid his face with a brown mask. The mask in particular was quite eerie, with six holes in a circle and a seventh one in their center, all spewing out a bright red light.

“I just walked in,” he answered Ihuarah’s query, “how else?”

“Don’t play dumb,” Ihuarah continued.

The man clicked his tongue. “Aaaah, this is what I get. So much for being a god or some shit, no respect from anyone. All I do is run errands…” he complained, “Speed’s delivery services,” he finally explained, “I’ve got a letter here for uh… Vakri-... Vakar… Anyway, that’s you, no?” he said, looking past Ihuarah at Sofia.

“Speed?” Sofia and Ihuarah both repeated, incredulous.

“Yeah? That’s what I said. Got hearing problems? What, never seen a god who wasn’t a jobless slob? Well now you have. So what’s it gonna be? Are you taking that letter or not?”

Wait, a letter for me, could it be-

“Speed is much too weak to enter the physical realm,” Ihuarah replied, not trusting a word of the masked man.

“Well shit I didn’t come here to be insulted like this. So what if I’m weak? Any of us essence blobs can come here if we accept enough restrictions. Matter of fact, I’m here. And you could effortlessly paint the walls with my insides if you ever managed to land a hit. Speed’s all I got, but I’ve got it,” he explained with a shrug, “So I repeat myself, will you take the damn letter?!”

Ihuarah was going to talk again but Sofia answered first. “I’ll take it.”

“Finally!” the man said, appearing in front of Sofia before Ihuarah could even react, “Please send some of your mana into this orb to confirm the delivery, about ten thousand should be enough,” he said, shoving a rune-covered golden ball in front of Sofia’s face.

Sofia nodded and sent some mana into the orb, which then disappeared and was replaced by the closed envelope the man had been holding in his other hand. Perhaps because Sofia was being too slow, the envelope disappeared from the man’s hand to reappear in Sofia’s. “There we go, job’s done, see y-”

“Wait!” Sofia called out, cutting the man mid sentence. “You’re really Speed, right?”

“For the third time, yes… Seriously this is annoy-”

“Here,” Sofia cut the man again, presenting a small red rock the color of the man’s horn to him. This was the ‘Wasted mana heart of Speed’ she had found in the Kijdikkik city.

Speed made a surprised sound, the red rock appearing in his hand, which he brought up close to his mask, before it appeared back in Sofia’s hand. “Thanks for being considerate enough to bring this up, but it’s got nothing to do with me, this thing.”

“W- Wait, really? How…”

“Speed died,” Speed answered, “Previous one, I mean. No idea why. The other gods seem to think he killed himself. Not my problem either way. I’ve only been a thing for like… Twenty-something years? Youngest and fastest god, that’s me!” he said, pointing at himself with a thumb, “Anyway, gotta go, see ya later shadow dude and demon hottie!” With these last words, he disappeared, as if erased from existence, the only trace of him even coming being the blank sealed envelope in Sofia’s hand.

His departure was followed by a long and awkward silence. The three shrouds were still flying behind Sofia, she checked that her things were all still there, and they all were.

“D- Did a God just stop by to deliver mail?” Sofia finally asked.

“I… It seems so…” Ihuarah answered, just as stunned as Sofia was by the event.

“This…” Sofia said, looking at the blank envelope from every angle, “Cinthia said the Demon king would send me a letter… I didn’t expect…”

“Oh, is that so?! This would certainly explain the outrageous delivery method… And as expected, the timing is…”

“I should open it, right?”

“Well, the artifact is not going to disappear.”

“Let’s see,” Sofia idly said as she slid a nail under the blank wax seal. The envelope contained a single page of paper. There was a single line of text on it, handwritten in black ink. “To read this letter, acquire the shroud first. Be smart, think like an Apostle,” Sofia read out loud.

And here I thought he might be helpful!

“That does sound like the headless one I have met…” Ihuarah commented with a sigh.

“What is even the point of sending this now? This line… This means he purposely meant for it to arrive before I finish the trial…”

“He may be trying to give you some extra motivation, perhaps?”

“As if I needed that! What I need is information not motivation… Think like an Apostle,” Sofia repeated as she observed the three shrouds, “this is a clue, right? What could he mean by…”

“Did you notice something?” Ihuarah asked, seeing Sofia freeze.

“Iwa… We were both tricked,” Sofia mumbled, turning her head, a large grin spread on her face, “I think I know what to do.”