Saintess Summons Skeletons

One of the first things Sofia tried to do as the dust settled following the Phageid attack was checking out Alith and Astelia’s situation, only to receive an error message.

[Error - could not connect spectator]

[The Ark is currently operating on a different timescale. Please try again later.]

Sitting on the floor, she stared at the error message.

Did they slow time down for them so that they would not notice any interruption? I suppose that’s for the best… Now that I think about it, it’s the one trial tower with not one but four Seraphs, it should be very safe.

My city in comparison…

I need to thank all those who helped. The Kleptra and Fairy in particular, without them… Ugh…

It was an unlucky timing, but I really can’t rely on the ascended being around for city defense.

Sighing in frustration, Sofia tried to stand, but she felt sick before she could even get up right, and let herself fall back down, lying down on the cool floor of her castle’s highest tower between two work-in-progress statues of Aphenoreth and Yvraveteth.

“The avatar form’s backlash really turns me into the actual carpet one every time…”

She had pushed through the after effects for a good half an hour to deal with the resurrection effort, but that only made it worse, which was why she had retreated to her secret alone spot, leaving the immediate logistical issues to the city’s other leader.

“I’ll directly ask Valeure about the large scale ritual shield she’s using for Hooasow. I need to quickly expand the bone foundations to the outer city. Then, castle walls, more Skelems… And since the Alphageid likes to come down right above the city, maybe I could… I need to look more into those mana-battery enchantments…”

While Sofia was getting lost in her plans to make the city safer, a bone book fell on her belly. Bookie’s skeleton form followed soon after, looking distraught.

“Sofia! Sofia! The moon!”

“The moon?”

“It’s on fire!!!”

“What…”

“It’s burning! Burning! Like a second sun!” Bookie panickedly added.

Sofia did not even bother to sit up, and summoned the graveyard Nymphs to grab her and Bookie up to the roof through the ceiling.

Outside, the air was warm and heavy with the scent of the Phageid’s blood. Up in the sky, there were indeed ‘two suns’. The moon was completely engulfed in what looked like a sea of blue fire.

“No wonder she isn’t back yet, grandma must be busy.”

“I like the moon!” Bookie exclaimed, “I don’t want it to be all burnt…”

Sofia grabbed Bookie to give him a hug. “Don’t worry. Moon and Grandma are both very powerful, I’m sure they have the situation under control…” she reassured him, looking at the burning moon with unease.

A tall figure holding a spear appeared above Sofia, standing on the pointy top of the spire. “So that’s where you were… I was starting to worry. It’s not looking good up there, huh.”

“Oh, Speed. Glad to see you’re also alright. How were things on your side?”

“Bad. The attack was absolutely massive,” Speed answered, also lying down on the tilted tiled roof not too far from her, “Five Alphageid and a titan. It’s the first time I’ve seen Water fight seriously.”

“A Phageid titan? Never heard of those,” Sofia continued, her eyes fixated on the moon.

“It’s as the name makes it sound. They make the Alphageid look cute in comparison. Water couldn’t kill it.”

“... The next eclipse is going to be brutal, isn’t it?”

“It’s looking that way. The good thing is everyone was already preparing for it, they’ll manage. We only need to worry about our own little bubbles.”

“I really chose the worst time to build a city, huh.”

“Ahah… Your bubble is just a bit bigger than it used to.”

“That’s one way to put it… Any idea at all what’s up with the moon?”

Speed shook his head, “not a clue. I would go check it out myself but that might not be the brightest idea.”

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“Yeah, please don’t. We’ll know soon enough anyway. Seen any other interesting things on the way?”

“Hmm… There was some kind of barrier around the Leviathan’s territory. I’m assuming it’s to protect this continent and the Exidion Empire from a flood. The Alphageid came down everywhere there is a lot of mana so some unlucky ones must have ended up above it.”

“It’s crazy to think that thing is technically our ally.”

Speed vaguely nodded in agreement. “Wait until you get a glimpse at the other two…”

“There’s three of them?!” Bookie chimed in, shocked at the revelation.

“They’re not at all the same, but yeah… ‘The Leviathan’ usually refers to this one, though.”

Somehow Sofia found the idea of having two more of those terrifying beings just hanging around protecting the world by simply being there was more comforting than anything else. “What a mess of a planet.”

“Isn’t that right? It’s crazy but it’s great.”

“Wait until you find out about the Deep titans,” Sofia added with a smirk.

“Excuse me, the WHAT, now?!”

“Oop- I can’t say more, I’m afraid. You know, the Deep, all that.”

“...”

After Speed left and the after effects of the avatar form faded away, Sofia got right back to work. The city itself had suffered extremely little structural damage thanks to the hard work of Carpet One maintaining a huge shield for the entire duration of the attack, but the same couldn’t be said for the nearby territory, especially the surrounding farms and fields meant to sustain the city.

The Phageid crash-landing everywhere had caused a lot of damage, and even now more than an hour after the attack ended, there were still stray Phageid out and about, with battles unfolding everywhere.

Sofia flew high above the city, surveying the surroundings.

“What a disaster… They’re absolutely everywhere…”

The only area relatively clean of Phageid was the strip of land between the city and the spirit forest, as Saria had been cleaning up that side with Everelle for the last hour. The forest itself was probably also fine, especially since Er’Vord had jumped right into it after the Alphageid got chased away, but Sofia didn’t worry about the forest anyway, knowing very well the kinds of monsters that were in there.

Bookie. It’s time for the real cleanup. Get me ALL the Kidjikkik out there.

Send a hundred squads of two guardians and three soldiers each to hunt the Phageid down. Have the workers repair the damaged farms and houses. The diggers are to fill up the craters the phageid made when they landed and patch up the damaged roads. Start by limiting them to the area in my far aura before extending further.

As for me…

Sofia summoned the graveyard Nymphs again. Let’s see how much we can patch up the damaged crops.

Thanks to everyone’s rebuilding efforts, the city and its immediate surroundings were back to relative normalcy by the time night fell. There still was a gigantic pile of Phageid and Kelptran remains standing not far from the city like an open-air landfill to deal with, and Kidjikkik skeletons that roamed the fields in search of sneaky lesser Phageid. Aside from these issues, the mood was strange. Some people celebrated the ‘victory’ over the Phageid, but nobody dared to be too enthusiastic. For many, it was their first time even encountering the strange mana-hungry aliens, and because of the system’s ‘INVASION TEMPORARILY REPELLED’ message, many worried about a follow up attack. But the biggest factor in everyone’s mood was perhaps the still burning moon, now brightly lighting up the night sky, completely shattering any hope of normalcy being back to the world.

And in all of this, the one with the strangest mood was Sofia herself. The burning moon was one thing, as closely linked as she was with Moon’s oracle and saintess, it disturbed her more than the others, but it was Mr.Scribe who had brought even more perplexing news, in the form of an updated Divinity status.

[Divinity status - Sofia Aphenoreth]

– Saintess of technically nobody:

(VIP) (Safeguards : On) (Link Status : None - Connection aborted by Admin)

Planar connection:

Superphysical - Yes

Mana FOG - Yes ♢

Subspiritual - Yes

Margin - Yes

Deep - Still almost definitely Yes

Collected Essence - EV :

Aphenoreth - #DIV/0

Creation (2) - 6.66

Death (5) - 25

Domination (2) - 3.38

Dread - 4.32

Edrazeketh - #DIV/0

Life - 4.56

Looming - 0.006

Love - 4.7

Moon (2) - 9.82

Ormoncleth - #DIV/0

Rejection - 1.77

Scripture - 2.39

Sorrow (3) - 14.1

Taxes - 4.39

Suffering (2) - 9.86

Sun (5) - 25

Victory - 4.33

Scripture got stronger again. And most importantly… Unless I am messing up the math here… Looming grew by a hundred and twenty thousand times since I last checked.

Not good news, not good news at all.

And the fucking fire up there is actively draining Moon’s EV. She’s actually fallen under Suffering…

Dread is also getting majorly stronger… That has to be the biggest change I’ve seen so far aside from Looming.

Nex better be getting my next trial ready for the SECOND I’m done with the mana debt.

Hmm? What in the deep are mom’s essences doing?

Uh… It feels a bit strange calling her that now… Ah, whatever…

I should go have Ihuarah check this ou–

To Sofia’s surprise, the essences of Sorrow she held abruptly left her body. An instant later, she was reunited with them, forcefully teleported.

Alright then… Where in the fuck is this?