Saintess Summons Skeletons

“Huuu, would you look at that? Vakariazrehafin of Sorrow in the flesh. We here were starting to think you would never show up,” an eerily tall and thin creature with a beak-like head reacted when Sofia entered the private Apostles room, which was free to access for all apostles, their tickets covered by the demon king. He stood leaning against a wall facing the room’s screen.

“To say that I have been busy would be an understatement. Nice to meet you, Son of Sickness, I assume?” Sofia guessed.

Oh, that one looks a bit like the statue I have… Lies, then?

“Ohoromenmarul of Sickness, yes,” the beak-faced thing answered, before pointing at another one of the few demons on the room with a long clawed finger, “That silent one is Lies’,” he started, ”This disgusting one is Filth’s–” he continued, pointing at another, that seemed to be more liquid than solid.

“Greetings”, the oozing apostle chimed in with what seemed to be a nod, although it was hard to discern.

“-- that dangerous thing sleeping on the sofa would be Insomnia’s,” Ohoromenmarul continued, “and lastly, I believe I need not introduce our resident avian.”

“A pleasure to meet you all,” Sofia greeted with a nod, “I expected there to be more people around.”

“It’s still early,” Zerei responded, leaning the wrong way against the back of a seat, “more will come later, yes.”

“One of ours is up this time again, so it will be quite crowded, even. But most do not bother to watch the early rounds.”

“This room must have seen a lot of use recently then. How is the new Son of Dread?” Sofia asked, “the competition is tough this time.”

“Azra is very competent,” Ohoromenmarul answered, “Dread got quite lucky, is the general consensus. Although many would argue that it can hardly compare to Lady Sorrow’s recent successes… Nevertheless, as tall a hurdle as Moon’s oracle and the lady of Arege might be, I am inclined to think he has his chances at clawing out a first place.”

“No no, I tell you again, Ohoro, Alith is the real danger here. Do not let her tower rank fool you,” Zerei argued, “You will see.”

“They should be at about the same level, actually?” Sofia said, “Astelia tends to win their training bouts nine out of ten times, but Alith is a better alchemist than she is a fighter, which is saying a lot.”

“We shall see, we shall see, fierce competition is good, either way. Victory is but a luxury.”

The more or less womanly apostle of lies moved slightly in her seat, the thin veil of flesh hiding her face fluttering slightly as she spoke with a sultry voice, “My vote goes to the Odon,” she said.

“The Swordmaster?” Ohoro reacted, “I think Sun’s performance from last time will be hard to top, quite honestly. Should he do well, though, it will definitely draw more eyes to him. That one sorely lacks a proper sponsor. Good financing and guidance would do him more good than one of those master items even would, I reckon. ”

“Both would be best,” the Apostle of Filth commented, “I will bet on the lady of Arege. Her wealth is beyond compare, as far as the Ark goes. The power of money cannot be underestimated.”

As everyone started to debate on who was more likely to win which event for the incoming first wave, the one Apostle who had not participated yet stirred in her sleep, loudly falling from the couch, and stretching out on the ground with a long yawn.

“You lot… So noisy…” she said, still sounding half-asleep, “I need some tea…”

“Oh, sorry I was talking a bit loudly…” Sofia apologized.

“Don’t worry… Don’t worry…” the sleepy apostle answered, “I’ve been sleeping too much anyway…” she continued, visibly struggling to keep her head upright.

Her body looked quite similar to Sofia’s demon form in terms of colors and materials, with a similar mix or tough hide, scales and random horn-like protrusions all over, but with a more petite build and no tail. The only fully different part was the head, which had thin fleshy tentacles for hair. Unlike all the other Apostles present, her face was almost human, if a bit too smooth save for her deep-set eyes, and not too scary as long as she kept her mouth shut.

Now I wonder if Sorrow copied Insomnia or the other way around. We’d almost look like sisters if not for the head and tail.

Or maybe it’s just common for Apostles to share basic features? Ohoro’s body does look a bit like a bird Lerverle…

“She only ever manages to sleep here for some odd reason,” Ohoro commented, “So if you come here you’ll see her often,” he told Sofia before his body visibly stiffened out of nowhere, “Hey! Hey! Stop that! Huuuu, sorry, my kid is bothering me, I will be back later.”

Saying this, Ohoro’s body in the toybox flickered and disappeared.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Hmm. Anyone wants some tea?” the Apostle of insomnia asked, before visibly sipping from an ‘invisible’ cup as her body in the toybox followed her movement in real life. “It’s a Vasperian moonflowers blend.”

“Sure, yes,” Zerei answered right away, while the apostle of Filth also answered positively and the apostle of lies nodded in response.

That left Sofia feeling a bit awkward. “Not that I am against it but…”

“Ah, are you concerned about delivery?” the Apostle of insomnia asked Sofia, seeing her uneasy expression.

“Yes… Unless I misunderstand?”

“No, don’t worry, are you in your city right now?” she asked.

“Yes?”

“Then I can get it to you in a few minutes.”

That was the origin of a new urban legend, strange tales of an elusive level 400 Zombie carrier pigeon that could sometimes be seen roaming the streets of Ser’Extra, in an endless search for small bugs and food scraps.

[First wave events:

Hunting competition - Drake Invaders - 682Dungeon Time Attack - Sea-lost adventure - 2522Commander Masters - Dwarves versus Elves - 847Armed to the teeth - Craftsmen showdown - 112]“What are the numbers?” Mornn asked.

“Spectator count, I’m guessing,” Sofia said, watching the numbers gradually climbing up.

“That’s right,” Saria confirmed, “It’s not like you can’t switch mid-way through but people like to watch things live.”

It was currently only the three of them and Pareth in their spectator room, as someone had just contacted Speed for an urgent delivery and Zerei had moved to an Avian community room.

“Well… Let’s watch the time attack too. Asty is sure to pick that,” Sofia decided.

“Not gonna watch Alith?” Mornn asked.

“We’ll switch to her after, the Dungeon Time Attack will be over quite fast anyway, so we won’t miss much.”

Mornn leaned against her sword, “Right… I remember your negative time. Do you think she beats you there?”

“Hmm… Probably not, we mostly got our score because we were able to be in multiple places at once, basically. But we’ll see.”

Astelia changed her equipment as she listened to the Andarian Seraph explain the event’s rules. Since it was mostly a contest of speed, she felt that her armor wouldn’t be needed, and swapped her usual swords for her underwater combat catalyst, which was a silver circlet with a large blue gem embedded on the forehead.

Afterwards, she slowly stretched as she watched the other contestants take the plunge one after the other. The Andarian mage was also there, throwing her worried glances, but ultimately not approaching her.

Did Sofia also take this one?

That Ezerid guy cannot have been easy to beat…

But underwater fights are one of my strong suits!

Let’s do this!

Astelia took a deep breath, and plunged feet first into the cold waters of Gamma-b-13.

What followed was a carnage of a violence rarely seen this early in the competition, or on the Ark as a whole. As every spectator soon learned, very few things were more terrifying deep under water than a powerful space mage.

As soon as Astelia arrived in the dungeon, her mana spread far and wide, and she lost no time teleporting to the largest clusters of moving mana. Her solution to find the dungeon’s boss monster was simple: kill everything.

She appeared in the middle of a large school of monstrous fish each twice her size. She used her powers to amplify the gravity around her, and teleported away to another cluster of monsters. By teleporting without switching with the matter at her point of arrival, she not only created a strong shockwave wherever she appeared, but also left behind a large cavitation bubble that further clustered all the nearby monsters together, before the increased gravity made the water pressure too much to withstand for anything nearby.

The underwater creatures of the dungeon were crushed by the immense pressure, splattered together into disgusting meatballs that spewed out their guts and blood, polluting the water with explosions of gore.

It was a practiced technique. The small vampire’s silvery crown flashed every time she teleported, further and further down the dungeon.

[You have defeated Elite monster 1/3 ‘Anthropomorphous Eel King - Level 299EX’ ten seconds have been subtracted from your timer.]

She smiled at the notification, she had failed to notice that a monster she killed was special, it had died after her departure, crushed instantly, like all the others. Killing everything was her plan anyway.

I took her under fifteen seconds to get to the bottom of the dungeon, her mana running low as she reflexively triggered her gravity attack and it failed to kill her target for the very first time.

Target found.

She teleported around the boss room a few times, avoiding the giant serpent, carefully analysing the mana flows in its long body.

After a few seconds, she felt confident, and stopped teleporting around.

Now it turns at this angle and…

Astelia snapped, all of her remaining mana gathering at her fingertips in the shape of Moon’s divine rune.

Her index traced a diagonal line in front of her, bubbles escaping her mouth as she calmly spoke underwater.

“[Waxing crescent]”

A curved ray of moonlight shot through the water. Splitting the monster and it’s mana core cleanly in half. With whatever poor bits of mana Astelia had regenerated during her cast, she used her [Directionless Hegemony] specialization to pull the curved blade embedded in the dead monsters’s mouth directly to her hand.

[You have defeated ‘Guardian of the blade’ - Level 349 (349 - timer minutes)]

[EVENT: Dungeon Time Attack - Sea-lost adventure, COMPLETE!]

[Timer : -00:12.059]

Even during Sofia’s trial, rarely had the spectator rooms ever been so silent.