Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia and the Dragon disappeared from the void, and a lifeless skeleton holding a rotting bone book appeared in their place.

Commendable foolishness. The Lord said to the lifeless pile of bones. He waved a finger: Bookie was restored to his pristine original book form and Pareth’s dead mana heart surged with mana once again.

The skeletons disappeared.

I have not found an answer…

Sofia awoke gasping for air, she immediately recognized where she was: the small room under the lake staircase with the hole leading to the upper stratum. Pareth and Bookie were both sitting against the wall just like she was, sleeping.

Sleeping?

Have they ever slept?!

Sofia put her hand on the commander jacket and lightly shook Pareth’s shoulder. His eye sockets instantly lit up with holy light, and he looked around, seemingly confused.

“Don’t ask me, I don’t know either,” Sofia told him, turning around to wake up Bookie in a similar fashion, but it seemed the noise had roused him awake, and he stretched his bone limbs with a yawn.

“Sofia?” he asked, “How did-” he started, before stopping and jumping upright, he turned to face Sofia and pointed at her with an index finger, his jaw opened and closed, his finger trembling. Sofia could tell he was conflicted about what to say, but he certainly looked more than a bit mad.

Sofia sighed, but she was smiling. Before Bookie could react, she grabbed him and forced him into a big hug, pressing his skull against her chest. “Here, here…”

Bookie could shed no tears but he cried anyway, mumbling incoherent things about Sofia abandoning him and Pareth.

“I understand. I understand. You said the name too, didn’t you?”

How else would they have ended up like this?

“It’s alright, it’s all over now. I’m sorry for going without you. I won’t ever do it again, alright?” Sofia told Bookie while caressing his skull. She also looked at Pareth as she said that.

Bookie kept sobbing in Sofia’s arms, and Pareth just silently nodded, but he did so holding prolonged ‘eye’ contact with Sofia, in a way that was more intense than he normally ever did.

Sofia was embarrassed. She had to admit, in retrospect, that It was stupid to go without them. Even if she wanted to protect them, they would have tried to follow anyway, so being together would have likely been preferable.

That being said, she started to remember the details of what had happened to her, and it was perplexing, because, as far as she could tell, she had died.

A real death, for the first and normally final time, the type you don’t just wake up from thanks to some magic rune.

I didn’t dream all that up, did I?

Someone who had been really silent until now chose this opportunity to make his presence known.

[Congratulations. You have received a quest!]

Is this-?!

[Edrazeketh’s approval]

[Task : Prove your worth as a Marked-one]

[Option one : Exterminate the Phageid during their next attack.]

[Option two : Prime Gluttony before level 350.]

[Option three : Survive for one year straight while branded with a Lord’s simplified rune.]

[Option four : Deal with Emperor Evatoseptot or help negotiate a peace treaty with him.]

[Option five : Kill an ascended before Ascending.]

[Reward : Essence of Edrazeketh]

[Quest cannot be rejected]

[Quest Accepted!]

Ahah… Not a dream, then. Was I resurrected? A Marked one… Does that mean Shaily will have to do something like that as well? I should tell her…

These options though…

Exterminating the Phageid… Everyone including Richard, Sun and Grandma Erredis is worried about them, how could I possibly… If all the other tasks are as hard as this one…

I have no idea what Gluttony even is, but that might be the easiest option since I should be able to do it after the next filter.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Option three feels like a trap, no matter how I look at it, some crazy shit will happen the second I draw one of those simplified runes of my skin, will it not? I know Aphenoreth and Edrazeketh’s so I can try both… Maybe I’ll do that after leveling up.

Never heard of Evatoseptot, but this task might be doable… Depending on who exactly that is and what the peace treaty is about. Negotiations aren’t exactly my strong suit though.

And the last one is just killing a level 500 before reaching 500, isn’t that right? Yeah this one is just impossible I’m pretty sure. The gap between filters is becoming too big. The fortune dwarf was bad enough to fail his level 350 trial which means he probably wasn’t that strong for his level, and I still struggled with a one filter difference despite being the highest achiever ever for the previous two trials…

At this rate I won’t be able to beat even the weakest level 351 when I’m level 300.

It’s different if it’s a monster, but even then…

As Sofia’s thoughts stilled for a second, foreign images started flooding her mind.

From a very low viewpoint, she saw the distorted and blurry image of Edrazeketh standing up and slowly walking toward her.

What in the name of all that is sane…

In the corner of her field of view, she could see herself. Or rather, what was left of her, just an effigy of eternal light.

How can I see this?

Edrazeketh came and picked up a few things, including the one Sofia was currently seeing the point of view of, which is when she understood.

The Dagger? I’m seeing the dagger’s memories?!

Gluttony. Sofia heardthe Lord say in the recording with an extremely distorted voice as he observed the ring. Nostalgic.

Is that my ring?!

Sofia got an urge to take off her dragon-scale armguard to check the ring right away, but she also couldn’t peel her eyes off from the blurry memories being superimposed on her vision.

This one is much favored. The annihilator continued.

It feels like I’m seeing something I really shouldn’t be allowed to.

Marked… Have the pickings begun?

The pickings… So Shaily being marked too… I REALLY need to share this with her. What are we being picked for?!!!

Sofia then watched Edrazeketh resurrect her and effortlessly restore all of her things.

… Is there anything a Lord cannot do?

Mr.Scribe tried to stop him from doing something but that was a lost cause…

A Scion?

HOLY SHIT, WHAT?!

IS THAT THE DRAGON ADMIN?

Take this quest, Scribe. There is much to do. The recording ended there.

Just as this was over, her system log opened by itself, showing her a few messages that added some context.

He was reading our memory… What is it that a Marked-one is marked for? I have to find out… Is that related to the last function of the mark that the system couldn’t decipher?

Sofia then exchanged a few words with Mr.Scribe, who expressed that this was all he knew, and that the dagger had sent this recording to him by itself and without any explanation as he was writing a script of what he remembered to show Sofia.

After that, she took her time to relay the entire situation to Pareth and Bookie.

“I want to see Gluttony!” was Bookie’s immediate reaction to the end of the story.

“Right, I want to see too,” Sofia agreed, starting to take off her armguard. She found the ring on her finger, where the ring of Zar normally was, it was now like a small loop of semi-solid mana more than anything else, it had a weak whit-ish blue glow, and felt just like a regular ring.

It changed from absorbing all that mana at once, it seems… Can we Identify that?

It took Mr.Scribe a few seconds to come with results.

[Gluttony] : A ring from the lost Epoch, given to mortals by the Annihilator.

Its purpose was to give mortals a way to get rid of the tainted remains of dead gods corrupting the land.

It had regressed to a weaker form due to a lack of use.

Must be primed to unlock advanced functions (0/ 5 divine remains absorbed).

Basic functions

Advanced function (Requires Priming)

Restriction: Cannot be worn by gods.

“Are we going to try priming it?” Bookie asked after reading the description.

“Maybe? I was not even aware that dead gods left anything behind…”

At that moment, Sofia felt a mental pull from the ring. For the second time that day, foreign images flooded her mind. She was given a location, first from extremely far away in space, showing her the entire planet and its surroundings, then progressively getting closer image by image, ending on an image of a fallen statue blocking closed doors.

After committing the information to memory, Sofia looked at her options to complete Edrazeketh’s quest again. Priming the ring was something she was going to want to do anyway, considering the advanced functions, so she might as well do two things at once.

“Well then… After we level up… Let’s go hunt some dead gods.”

“Hunt dead gods!” Bookie repeated, throwing his hands up, “Ah, but Sofia, how do we level up? If the Dragon admin is back can’t he fix our levels?”

“Ahah, I think he’s probably a bit busy with other things, Life is probably on his back to try to save Anna already, we’re really not the priority. And honestly, at this point I might as well just use Mr.Scribe’s method. He worked very hard on it and it’s supposed to be better than regular leveling as well… He just needs to rework it a bit now that the ring no longer absorbs mana… Anyway, let’s get up those stairs, the others must be waiting for us. And… Let’s maybe not mention this whole thing to anyone for now, alright?”