Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia could more or less guess what had just happened to her, but suddenly being teleported to a random bedroom was certainly not what she had expected the demon king’s summoning to be.

The furniture looks quite luxurious… But it also doesn’t really look lived-in.

Hmm… It looks like Ihuarah just got teleported as well. A few hundred meters away? My mana senses are all scrambled…

Walking up to one of the room’s two tall windows, Sofia pulled the curtains open, revealing an outside that reminded her of Sorrow’s domain. All she could see were black-tiled rooftops drowned in a thick fog some twenty meters below, and dense giant pine trees surrounding the small city, completely blocking the view under an overcast sky.

Not how I imagined the demon city.

Sofia quickly transformed and dressed the part, wrapping her shoulders in Sorrow’s shroud.

Hearing footsteps outside, she opened the door.

Another, very bulky demon she had never seen before was walking straight through a long corridor, just passing by her room. He briefly stopped, having noticed Sofia’s gaze, and nodded to her.

“That way,” he indicated, starting to walk again.

“Thank you.”

Sofia closed her door and followed the demon twice her height through the corridor that could barely accommodate him.

He doesn’t seem to be very talkative…

As they went, more demons emerged from the other rooms, and some calm discussions could be heard breaking the solemn silence of the demon king’s castle. Of the nine other demons in that corridor including the bulky guy, Sofia only recognized the apostle of Lies she had briefly met a few days prior.

Ten rooms, ten Apostles. But the way some came out a bit late… I am the only one who got actually force-summoned?

Hmm… Maybe it’s because I have too many essences…

At the end of the corridor, a man in full plate armor, with not a single bit of skin visible, was waiting in front of a stone wall, standing next to a pedestal topped with a blood-red orb.

The first demon in the line placed a hand on the orb, and the stone wall lit up with ancient-human characters.

‘BETRAYAL’

The stone wall suddenly rose, giving Sofia a brief glance into a wide room, and the back of an empty chair. The demon entered, and the stone wall fell back down with a heavy thud.

Then the next one came, and the same sequence repeated.

‘DEBT’

Again the stone wall rose to reveal an empty chair.

I see…

Soon it was the turn of the bulky guy, why turned out to be ‘Hunger’, and, without surprise, the orb recognized Sofia as ‘Sorrow’.

She sat in the chair, barely feeling the teleportation that took place as she stepped through the boundary behind the stone wall, and got to have a better look at the room she just entered.

She, and all the others, were sitting around a large round black wood table each sitting in front of a statue representing their own recessed. There were about fifty chairs in total, the vast majority of them still empty, some without even a statue of a god behind them, and quite high up above, there seemed to be a second floor with a balcony overlooking the table.

That’s where Ihuarah is. I see… For related guests without a seat. Then before level 300 I might have been sent there too.

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Apostles slowly trickled in, the stone wall appearing and disappearing next to the chairs one after the other.

I wonder who I’m supposed to be next to.

So far the two chairs next to Sofia were empty. The statue of the god on her left she had absolutely no clue about, it looked to be some kind of man with a cross or star-shaped head, but the one on her right somehow reminded her of someone.

Oh shit! Is that Taxes?! That must be it! He looks different but…

Hmm… Is Leverle not here yet? I wonder what statue they have for Death.

Ah! Insomnia is here. Hi!

The apostle of Insomnia waved back attracting a few curious glances from the other demons. The ambiance was a bit strange, as no one was saying anything, but at least they were not in complete silence, hearing bits and pieces of the casual discussions taking place on the second floor.

The stone wall appeared three seats to the right of Sofia’s, and another familiar figure stepped out, the rather friendly apostle of Sickness, Ohoromenmarul. He sat, like everyone else, quickly looked around, and opened his big beak-like face.

“Quite the party we’ve got going here. Are we hosting a funeral?”

It seemed his silly intervention was all the room needed to break the ice and get a few conversations going. Since there was no one too close to Sofia yet, she was in a bit of an awkward position, and just listened in. As one could expect, the Phageid was the one subject on everyone’s lips, and what they all guessed the summon was about.

The room started to get fuller, with more than half of the seats occupied by Apostles with all kinds of heteroclite appearances, but Sofia’s side of the table remained desperately empty. That was until the stone wall appeared right to her left, and the entire room suddenly became silent again.

A tall demon woman with purple skin, wide shoulders, and a body built like a cross-star themed military-uniform entered through the portal with heavy steps. She sat on her chair like a king on his throne, her piercing gaze sweeping across all the Apostles at the table.

“Some demons you all are,” she commented with contempt, “how can you be content staying so weak? Narovarovirmozil!”

The apostle of Filth almost jumped on his chair. “Y- Yes! Lady Suhen?!”

“Get rid of that useless classless. You know which one. You need [Flowing]. Level 100 by next month,” she ordered with no room for rebuttal.

“It will be done!”

“Good.”

Sofia then learned a lot of names, as almost every Apostle got called out by ‘Lady Suhen’, who would give varying advice from skills to forget or fuse, to training methods to follow, or bad habits to correct. No one dared go against or even question her advice, which made Sofia quite curious as to her exact identity, but one thing was clear, she was powerful, and was as feared as she was respected among the demons.

Finally done with the others, she eventually turned to Sofia.

“And you… What a mess. Wait for me after this. You have a lot to work on,” she said.

Although she still sounded quite domineering, she looked down at Sofia with a smile.

“A- Alright. I will.”

Looking pleased with Sofia’s hesitant answer, Lady Suhen leaned back in her chair with crossed arms and closed her eyes.

Just then Mr.Scribe chimed in with a system window.

[Suhentopehrin of Unfairness. Level around 540. The first ever Apostle. I got the information from Ihuarah’s.]

Another old monster to the collection. Wait… You can talk to Ihuarah?

[I can somewhat exchange data with his scribe when we are close. Works with Alith as well. Very limited.]

Good to know.

Unfairness… It’s one of the stronger Recessed if I remember correctly. I suppose it’s not strange the Apostles would have at least one Ascended. Leverle and Suffering’s apostle are both level 499 too.

More and more Apostles had kept entering while Suhen had been dispensing her unsolicited advice, and now only a few seats were still empty. Most were either because those Recessed had no Apostles, or they couldn’t come like Dread’s son who was currently on the ark. The other ones were mostly the remaining seats on Sofia’s side of the table, which remained quite sparse. Perhaps that was by design, as the people in these seats now came one after the other, starting with the apostle of Taxes on Sofia’s right, then Leverle three seats to the left of Suhen, and Suffering’s apostle to his left.

It was clear now that this was the side of the more powerful Recessed, and Sofia couldn’t help but feel a bit out of her depth seated in between all of these people who could kill her with a sneeze.

Only the two seats to Suhen’s left were still empty on that side when she finally opened her eyes and sat properly upright. “Always late, these two…” she complained with a sigh.

The stone wall appeared one more time, directly to Suhen’s left. She clicked her tongue. “Ah, finally.”

Before the person even entered the room, Sofia guessed it was the demon king, because all the divine essence she was carrying was stirring very strangely inside her, and she remembered that the demon king supposedly held the essence of every Recessed.

But the person who stepped out of the wall was instead a perfectly human-looking man in long robes with a glowing mithrium earring and shoulder-length purple hair.

Suhen leaned back in her chair again, legs crossed. “I was starting to think you weren’t coming, Stebron.”