Saintess Summons Skeletons

The journal continued, Sofia translated page after page, in an almost feverish trance. There were only two entries left.

CEL 14th, 31964

I have opened the doors of this laboratory once more. We have committed a grave mistake. The fate we escaped is nothing compared to the fate which awaits us now. I must understand the blood, before it’s too late. It is not eternal youth we have attained. Far from it.

CEL 17th, 31964

I need more blood. Today I will open the coffin again… I pray you forgive me from the afterlife, Esprizia.

“And that’s the last entry…” Sofia mumbled, closing the leather-bound journal.

“This must be chancellor Izzaro’s research journal. To think this guy was a Dragon hiding among humans… It might be hard for me and Pestle to get our revenge after all…”

Sofia took off her helmet, feeling a bit too hot, she scratched her head as she analyzed every word of what she had just read. “Pink mushrooms spreading through the blood…” she said, sighing, “So the Ebb really came from here, it seems. And the deep’s blood can get rid of it somehow. I wonder if we can use that to cleanse Sovuln…”

Sofia turned around, to give the animals floating in tubes a closer look. At first glance they looked just like dead animals, but upon close inspection, it seemed they were a bit too dark for the current lighting, their colors a bit too dull, a bit… Gray.

And everyone drank the blood… Eventually becoming the tethered…

All of this shit started just because the Queen mysteriously died one day. To be causing such a mess… I’m really starting to think it wasn’t just a marked one.

Esprizia Ormoncleth might have just been the real Lord…

But why?!

And not only that, but the chancellor was ‘going crazy’ at one point, a Dragon hearing voices? Coming from the walls? Really?

If that doesn’t sound exactly like Orator starting shit, I don’t know what does…

Then it’s likely that that human lord inquisitor I pretended to be the daughter of was genuinely Aphenoreth…

While a thousand questions were brewing in Sofia’s mind, her newfound conviction that, for some reason, the lords were actually all openly walking around the planet during the lost epoch, parading as powerful humans, brought something back from the depth of her memories.

She remembered her last conversation with ‘The voice’, right before she was catapulted to the Deep.

But I almost pity you. They will abandon you, just like they abandoned me.The voice had told her.“Such is their nature, I have learned. Struggle on, girl. Soon enough, you will beg to join my side,” Sofia repeated from memory.

The voice… Might have just been someone like Izzaro…

Hell…

Out of nowhere, the ground started to shake. The quake was weak, and only lasted a few seconds, but it was surprising. Sofia could see some cracks forming along the walls.

Is Pestle’s rampage causing this place to collapse? Just what I needed.

And I still have another room to check out…

Sofia left the room, quietly checking that there was still no one in the main hall, and going straight to the opposite corridor in this T-shaped underground lab. Sofia half-hoped to find another journal there to learn more about the madness that had unfolded on this moon, but she found nothing of the sort. Instead, she found a laboratory with glass tubes mounted with balls full of shimmering blood again. The difference was, in the tubes were an assortment of different plants instead of animals.

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Most plants had died or were dying, but one survived and Sofia immediately recognized it, it was the same kind of leafless tree she had found in the obelisk, though it was not yet quite as tainted by the deep’s colors. It was a tree with black bark, like charcoal, and though it had no flowers, on its roots grew tiny round and naturally shriveled fruits. There was another short quake while Sofia observed the plants, which she ignored.

Light fruits… It’s no wonder we found them in the tunnel leading to the obelisk, they were growing on that tree’s roots…

And we found such roots even in the first city…

But that also kind of looks like the tree linking all the tethered, does it not? I feel like I’m close to piecing everything together but I’m not quite there yet.

And I still don’t understand this place… This illusion world and the light world in general, how did we get here?

By curiosity, Sofia opened the tiny door on the glass tube containing the black tree, and picked one of the tiny fruits, it lit up in her hand.

No doubt, that’s the exact same thing, just smaller… The light does not do anything right now, though. I kind of want to taste it. No safer place than this fake world to do that, this way I’ll be able to stop Alith from trying herself later, because she is going to want to…

Sofia almost threw the entire thing right into her mouth, but she stopped herself right before that, and decided to try to open the fruit first. She placed it on a nearby desk, and cut it in halves by sliding her sword on it.

Oh.

Oh shit. I almost put that inside of my mouth?

Even in a fake world I’m not sure I want to end like that. Fucking… It’s good that we got rid of them, huh. So that’s how the ebb made it to Veliadren. Some dumbass, someone like me, brought back a fruit from their trip to the hidden moon.

On the desk, the two halves of the fruit were moving around, squirming bright pink tentacle-like extremities letting them crawl on the hardwood surface. The squirming only lasted for a few seconds, before the two halves fell inert again, the pink goo in their inside no longer moving.

Crap, another quake? I need to be fast, I don’t want to still be here if this place collapses. But…

Just to make sure…

Sofia bent over the desk and spat on one half of the fruit. Since the ebb reacted strongly to water, she would know for sure whether it was the same thing or not depending on what happened.

That half of the fruit woke back up. It squirmed around with renewed vigor, tentacles flailing in the air, it jumped off of the desk and started rolling off in the direction of the main room.

I think not.

With a stomp of her boot, Sofia crushed the rolling fruit and its tiny pink tentacles, but instead of the wet sound she expected, she heard sizzling. Fuck, my boots are still wet!

Sofia stepped off from the thing, but contrary to her fear of having fed the ebb even more, she found nothing under her boot except a pile of gray flakes.

What the… Wait, my boots are wet with the blood, which gets rid of the ebb. I get it. It’s weird but I get it, that coincides with what was said in the journal. Still doesn’t this look like…

Sofia bent down, and, with her gloved hands, grabbed some of the gray flakes.

Skin dust.

The animals in the other room must have all been infected with the ebb, then given the blood. This is such a mess.

And the ebb here is not even nearly as bad as the one we have in Sovuln… It kills slowly and is a lot weaker. I guess it had a lot of time to evolve over thirty thousand years…

Another quake started as Sofia was deep in thoughts, stronger than the previous ones, the entire lab shook, and some of the glass tubes started to fall over and break, spilling deep blood all over the ground. One of the glass balls broke right in front of Sofia, spilling its contents. There was not only blood in there, but also a large chunk of flesh.

I need to get out!

Sofia left the room running. The quake stopped, but she decisively left, as the cracks along the walls were a lot deeper now. She ran through the dark corridor, making it to the main hall of the laboratory. She started running up the spiraling stairs. Another quake started. Sofia heard the sound of stone breaking, in the dark, she felt herself start to fall.

With a loud gasp Sofia opened her eyes, adrenaline rushing through her veins. She was, yet again in a familiar bed. In a familiar room.

Someone came with hurried footsteps.

Sofia knew what words were coming before she even heard them.

“Goodness, you’re awake!”

Her throat was too dry to answer, nevertheless, Sofia felt quite good, a light smile on her blurry face. While the nurse left to fetch her some water, Sofia softly caressed the head of the sleeping fairy hiding under her hospital gown.

It was a good run.

Oviron’s spire next.