Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia was still recovering on the cold ground when Pareth brought back a limp middle aged woman in a priest’s garb. She had watched the whole scene through the skeleton’s vision, it had been a strange, almost otherworldly interaction. The priestess hadn’t said anything, she hadn’t fled, seeing the skeleton approach she had only used weak personal protection skills such as [Bubble of Prayers]. That had done nothing to stop Pareth, he crushed the immaterial shield with his bare hand and grabbed the woman, who went limp like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Is she playing dead to sneak attack me when I’m near or something?

To be safe, she had Pareth do the handling, dropping her on the ground and checking her vitals.

Still alive, steady heartbeat… What’s going on? Open her eyes.

Pareth’s large bone fingers held the woman’s eyes open, the pupils were unfocused and didn’t move. It’s almost like she’s asleep…

Sofia had a strong urge to kill her right now and move on. But she held back, she wanted to understand what was going on and why everyone she killed showed up as monsters. She felt the whole fight hadn’t been very organic. The paladins hadn’t screamed as they died, hadn’t faltered, hadn’t fled in face of the overwhelming defeat. It was unsettlingly un-human behavior.

Break one of her fingers.

She used [Heal Undead] but the finger didn’t recover. Potion? She threw a potion for Pareth to force feed her. That still works…

Wait, I never tried to use [Identify]... No result…

It was a faint link from the priestess’ head going northeast, this looked similar to the state Alith had been in during the trial. ”Is my enemy… An Archangel?!”

The priestess on the ground spasmed suddenly and spat blood. She died.

Sofia didn't even get a kill message this time, nothing.

What the hell is going on?! She got up to personally go check on the dead woman when a slew of system messages stopped her in her tracks.

[WARNING, SYSTEM CORRUPTION DETECTED]

[ENTERING EMERGENCY STATE]

[Due to internal errors, you have been disconnected for your safety, you are now in Scribe Only mode]

[To avoid operating slowdown, please keep at least 10 000 mana available at all times]

[Anomalies may arise]

[You will be reconnected when possible, until then many sub-systems will be unavailable]

This… This looks much worse than I had expected.

Is there a link with the trial tower’s safety being compromised which got us teleported to the safe house?

There were too many things happening all at once, Sofia had trouble making sense of it all in the moment. She stood up, finally having recuperated enough, and made way to the flaming Orphanage.

The bolt’s explosion had set it aflame, and perhaps it was better that way. Still she went back inside, Pareth's light opened the way through the burning and crumbling building.

She entered through the hole they had made, doing her best to cover her nose and hold back her tears. She wanted to blame the crying on the irritating smoke from the fire but the wrenching of her heart told a different story. She counted the dead bodies of the boys in their beds. All there.

With a heavy mind, she made her way to the girls’ room, stepping over the two fallen paladins in the way. Six, Seven… A bed is empty! Chino isn’t here!

One survivor was better than none. Through the sorrow, she couldn’t help but get her hopes up. She only wished she wouldn’t find her rotting corpse in another room. She had to speed up, the whole orphanage would soon collapse.

She ran through the orphanage, checking every room. Everyone had been killed in their bed, probably during the night. No one had seen a thing coming. The matrons, Clarice, the director. All murdered in their sleep.

Sofia hurriedly left the building as it completely collapsed in flames. She had two things in her hands. An old, worn and torn grimoire, and a silver ring. Clarice’s heritage…

She knew how important the engraved ring had been to the woman, it had been in her family for generations. Sofia had felt terrible ripping it off of her cold rotting hand, but it would have felt way worse letting the fire take it.

Without thinking, she stored the grimoire and sat in the dirt.

Clutching the small silver ring, too narrow for her own fingers, she watched the orphanage burn through the night until nothing was left.

Next she moved to the village. No one had come to check out the commotion going on with the fight and the orphanage. Verenha was the same. All a bunch of slit throats in bed. No one had been spared by the Church.

How has no one found this until now? Maybe they killed anyone that came nearby.

One by one, Sofia set every last house on fire.

At least Chino might still be alive…

This was her last hope. The only person she hadn’t found. Maybe she had been adopted prior to the massacre, or she happened to be out of town for whatever reason, maybe Chino was prone to nightly escapades like herself? Sofia had a hard time imagining the cute introverted eight year old going out like that at night, but then again, she had been the same. Either way, there was a chance she was alive.

Whoever orchestrated this would pay a thousand times over.

Assuming I have to face the entire Church…

A few hundred priests, most of them under level 10, insignificant. About three hundred paladins, and who knows how many guards. If today’s battle is any indication, they can never kill me without a huge coordinated ambush. Then there’s the Templars, can’t be that they have many, there’s only three temples. So maybe twenty to thirty of them at most? And I took down three.

Templars were the true emergency shield of the church, their ‘not really secret’ main force; they rarely ever actually did anything except training, as far as Sofia knew. But every so often the villagers would hear of the Templars going out to slay some big foe or another. But very few people could attest to that. In the stories they fought Dragons and Trolls, Necromancers and Rogue Unicorns. Now this all feels like fiction. No way these guys could take down a Troll, unless these three were the weakest of the lot.

Now that she had a better grasp on levels, she thought there was no way the Trolls described in the books she read were under level 400, if their depiction were accurate.

What else? The Magisterium’s already down. Four High-Priests, no idea how strong exactly. And then the real challenge. The Heroes and the Oracle.

I can maybe rally the heroes to my cause? Seems a bit far fetched. But Orvod is alive. Perhaps with his help… It’ll be terrible if he sides with the Oracle though… What about the King? A lot of citizens were murdered for no reason. If the royal knights were on my side… Or the Vampires? Kuli? Valeure? I can start by trying to contact Alith…

The odds were stacked against her no matter how she looked at it. Whether anyone would agree to help her was a gamble. And though she fancied herself the hunter, it was clear with what had happened that day, she was the hunted.

[Congratulations. You have received a quest!]

What?

Sofia had never heard of anything like a system quest, and she was supposedly in ‘scribe only mode’ now, which made it all the more weird. She focused on the message and new ones followed.

[The Orator’s approval : Defeat Scripture]

[Rewards : Second upgrade to [Blessing of the Deep]; special active skill [Eye of the Orator]; surprise item reward; more surprises!]

[Restrictions : No allies allowed (during quest related fights) aside from summoned skeletons]

[Penalty for failure : [Blessing of the Deep] will not get any further upgrades]

[Will you accept? Yes/No]

Is this real?

The orator? Is that another Lord of the Deep? Why this? Why now?!

And what do you mean, defeat Scripture? It’s a God we’re talking about isn’t it? A GOD! Help or no help that’s impossible!

Sofia was shocked to be answered by her own voice. “I give no impossible task.”

Then a crow that had been sitting on a nearby branch turned to look at her, “When one isn’t up to the task, they shall give up.” The bird squeaked and flew away. One of the dead paladins on the ground got up like a zombie despite the large hole in his chest, “Are you worthy of the name you bear? Sofia Aphenoreth.”

The paladin fell back down and nothing could be heard anymore except for the howling of the fire as the whole village burned to the ground.

“...”

Sofia let herself lay on the ground too.

“What a day…”

It was morning. Sofia had spent the whole night on the cold dirt. When all fires had died down, she got up. Deploying her wings, she flew up and observed what remained of Verenha and the orphanage.

The only penalty for failure is what not getting the rewards leads to, isn’t it? Alright. Don’t get your hopes up, Orator, I don’t see any way I could go against a God. But whatever. They really want me to accept, going so far as to come in person to taunt me…

Scripture is the Church’s god, right? I don’t even have his blessing but I have the Deep’s instead.

That a Lord would give me this quest NOW I don’t think is benign.

She looked once more at the charred town.

If the god of Scriptures is responsible for all this shit then…

No allies? Skeletons are all I need.

I accept.

[Quest Accepted!]

[Time limit : 100 years]

[Reach level 130 to claim your advance rewards!]

An advance reward? I see, 'more surprises!' I would have lost even that if I gave up before trying. 130 is a mere few paladins away. I know just the place.

Sofia landed again to store Pareth and give her last farewell to the lost souls here. No one deserved this fate. A voice in the back of her mind screamed that it was all her fault but that was something she had developed a deep rooted resistance to. She had known enough sorrow. She also dumped all the dead Paladins and Templars in a corner of her ring.

Deploying her wings a second time, she departed, heading west.

The garrisons at the border with Sovuln hosted some paladins in their ranks.

Not for long.

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