Saintess Summons Skeletons

A strange, calm sense of foreboding filled the air under the sunny blood-red sky.

Without warning, the world dimmed. Unlike Sofia’s use of [Extinguish], light still existed, just not the sun’s. This sudden blackness lasted all of about a second, before everything returned to normal. Sunlight, the blue sky, the fresh winter breeze. There was just a little extra. Countless dark dots, much higher in the sky than Valeure’s floating ruins already were, absolutely everywhere.

Sofia gulped. She understood.

The Phageid.

Her gaze switched to Pareth. He was still in Ser’Extra. Like her, he looked up at the sky. The situation was the same.

Fuck…

And that’s one of the ‘small’ attacks?

Suddenly, it made a lot more sense why Richard and the elves were always so busy dealing with them. Just from what she could see right now? The number of Phageid had to be counted in billions.

Pareth. I’ll be safe. Work with Bookie. Summon the Kidjikkik and try to prevent people from doing anything stupid, especially in the outer city. Make them stay safe inside as much as possible.

Soon, a lonely figure clad in black armor rose up in the sky, the reason why Sofia was not particularly worried for her own safety compared to her city’s.

At the same time, Valeure landed next to Sofia.

“You’re not going to help?” Sofia asked the wind saintess, not taking her eyes off of the lonely figure ascending toward the incoming invaders that were starting to enter the atmosphere, flashing brightly as they caught fire on their way in.

“As amusing as it would be, I would only be a hindrance,” Valeure answered, standing next to Sofia, looking in the same direction as her. “I’m only going to intercept stragglers that somehow make it past her. You should stay put.”

Sofia nodded, “I’m not even in a good state to fight. Are the ‘small’ attacks always like this?”

“It’s the first time they appear directly so close to us. But the numbers look average. I’m not seeing a big one yet. Must have appeared closer to the southern tower. Things are going to get messy.”

“The southern… Oh… Zgat is still in charge of our first trial tower?” Sofia asked.

“You’ll know soon enough…” Valeure answered, visibly sweating at the thought.

“What about Richard?”

“If Richy’s not already here then his territory must be under attack too. But no need to worry. Even without him or any of us here, the human continent still has enough defenses. Especially now that you lured more people here. In fact that might be why we were targeted so directly this time. These fuckers seek mana.”

This is maybe my fault for luring the ascended here?

I wonder what the situation is in the flying fortress.

Up above, Erredis had stopped, which was why Sofia and Valeure had gotten time to chat. She simply waited, a hand on her hip, her halberd resting on her shoulder. Like everyone else, she seemed to be looking up at the descending infinite army of Phageid.

Sofia noticed something strange. Mana was usually subject to gravity, although normally falling quite slowly like a thin mist, but it was rare for it to ever go straight up. But now it did. Ever her own overflowing mana, as soon as it left her body, straight up it went, instead of the usual diffusion all around her.

Erredis’ mana was usually well concealed. Whereas Zoth, Rebb and Eltiel had been three shining pillars in mana senses in her city, Erredis usually barely showed up to the mana sight at all. Yet now it flashed, all of a sudden, even to the naked eye, a turbulent vortex of mana gathering around her. She did not speak loudly, yet everyone could hear her.

“Every. Single. Time.”

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“Following my mana. Again.”

“You want it?”

“Fine...”

“TAKE IT!”

As her voice erupted, Erredis swung her halberd forward with one clean motion.

With the crisp, unnatural sound of the planes being ripped apart, a singular black line appeared following the direction of her swing, splitting the sky in two. There was a brief moment of silence, like the world holding its breath.

The line burst open, like an all-encompassing black eye opening, covering the entire horizon before snapping shut with a deafening thunderclap.

Next to Sofia, Valeure scratched her nape, her hands a bit shaky. “It looks like… No stragglers, then...”

Not a trace of the billions of Phageid remained, not even a rain of carbon dust.

“Honestly… It’s a wonder they still attack when we have that kind of power on our side…” Sofia commented. She looked through Pareth’s eyes once again, finding the sky free from invaders over Ser’Extra as well, although whether it was a result of Erredis’ attack or someone else’s intervention was unclear.

“They’re just too stupid to stop. Animals, acting on instinct. Even the stronger ones do not seem too intelligent,” Valeur said, as Erredis landed back next to them.

“Kids, you might want to brace for impact,” she told them as her boots touched the ground.

Valeure frowned lightly, it was not everyday someone as old as her got called a kid, but compared to an old dragon she could indeed be called that.

“Is another wave coming?” Sofia asked.

To which Erredis answered with a single word, “Zgat.”

As if on cue, the sky shook. The clouds, too low to have been affected by Erredis’ strike, were all chased away, as if pushed to the horizon by an invisible hand, as a dull thud echoed from a distant place far beyond the horizon line.

Again Sofia looked through Pareth’s eyes, and it seemed that the surface was spared from that shockwave somehow, it only rumbled as a muffled sound from the heavens above.

There were a few more similar distant bangs in close succession, then nothing. Calm had returned over the human continent.

“Ah, that was fast. Truly a crazed beast, that Klep,” Erredis commented, “I wonder how he intends to deal with the tsunami.”

“The what?!”

Erredis gave Sofia’s back a gentle pat, “Don’t worry, sweetie. Your city’s safe, that Klep works with the system after all, annoying as they are, they wouldn’t let the continent be destroyed. Worst case I can handle it, but I shouldn’t be needed here, the wave is just a few kilometers tall it seems like, wouldn’t even reach us up here.”

Ah, yes. Just a few kilometers tall…

SAID NO ONE EVER?!

Despite her inner thoughts, Sofia trusted Erredis so she opted to wait, following Valeure to the outside of the arena and looking down at the land.

The ocean was gone, and an angel could be seen teleporting around the coast with dozens of human and dwarven boats flying in a neat row behind him.

“Oh… You can do that?” Erredis mumbled, “Looks like you guys won’t get to see the wave, too bad.”

Sofia looked at her with eyes full of confusion.

“They summoned some sort of counter wave, and they just cancelled each other. I had no idea that was even possible,” Erredis explained, looking mildly interested, “Anyway, that’s that dealt with. We should be fine for a few months now. Back to work!”

Erredis grabbed Valeure by the tail and flew away with her before Sofia even said anything. She just sat at the edge of the flying coliseum and watched the ocean slowly come back, and watched the angel place back the boats and ships safely into the water.

Just another day on Veliadren… I always knew it was like this. The ebb looked just as crazy when I was a child…

How long until the next big attack, I wonder?

And if this scale is just the expendable phageid that they can afford to lose in small bouts, how big must their true forces really be? And why even launch ‘small’ attacks in the first place? To thin out their numbers? Scouts? I really don’t get it.

But this definitely comforts me in the idea that they’re hiding in the deep and coming through that Eddarinian gateway…

Wait… They opened the gateway in the sky…

Can I–?!

Sofia checked the cloud of her quantic transposition possibilities.

My light should have gone through their gateway no matter how fast it opened and closed, it’s lightspeed!

She closely observed the cloud of stars, all the positions she could transpose to, but she couldn’t find anything wrong anywhere.

No… All just the physical plane.

It’s because it’s too low level, I bet… I haven’t unlocked ‘transposition to all planes from all planes’ yet… I mean how am I supposed to? That’s training part 3! I’m not even done with part 1! And part 2 already requires going to the deep!!!

I really need to ask Nex for his way in… Maybe I can catch him when I go watch the trial.