Chapter 203: What is Victory?

Chapter 203: What is Victory?

[Way of the fool] prevented Sofia from falling off of the platform as she was blown away from the God. She quickly stabilized herself with her wings. She took no damage but it gave the God the space it needed to heal much faster. The things she had taken out of her storage had been pushed to the opposite end of the platform by the shout. They had been sent far, but were still on the platform because they went in a direction where the edge was further away.

With no mana, she couldnt [Identify] the items she had just stolen, not that it mattered. These were a Gods items. Sofia wore the crown and readied the sword.

The effects of the crown were immediately obvious, in her Demon form, Sofia had incredible control over her body and strength, and the crown had instantly bolstered that. That means Hes also gotten weaker!

That was quite timely, because with no runes left, Sofia was internally debating whether she should give up now and not risk a real death. But this could make a difference, she was stronger, and the God was weaker.

The ghostly Orchestra had been stifled by the attacks and the roars, but it now started playing again. Their music took darker tones as it accompanied the Gods transformation. The Orcs body twisted and turned, inflating like it was about to burst, it no longer looked like anything coherent and it got weirder by the second as it absorbed more and more mana.

Sofia flew to the thing as fast as she could, she struck Victory using his own sword, leaving a big open wound in the twisting abomination. She turned around only to see the hole carved by the sword be filled by a large, soulless eye. Since the transforming God wasnt hitting back, she landed and unleashed a storm of sword strikes, cutting off as much matter from the thing as she could. It was like trying to cut an infinitely growing bush, no matter how much dead twisted flesh piled up around her, the flesh cocoon the God had become didnt stop expanding, and every wound turned into yet another unblinking eye.

I hate Gods.

Whoever labeled the Recessed plane as hell got it all wrong!

She cut and cut again trying to prevent Victory from becoming whatever it tried to become. She clearly got the feeling that what she was doing was working, even if only a little.

The sword broke.

Sofia cursed. She did not want to touch whatever that thing was, her instincts told her it was dangerous. She flew back, the maximum time for her transformation was five minutes, the fight needed to end fast.

The Gods form imploded, it collapsed inwards all at once, giving birth to an impossibly thin but tall humanoid figure covered in a myriad of small eyes constantly shrinking and replaced by new ones.

The thing raised an arm, it extended and bent around to reach Sofia like a flying snake. Without any idea what she could even do, or if it was safe to let this thing touch her by striking back, she evaded. She found that this was not unlike evading the Alphageids roots. This eye tentacle was much faster than the Alphageids roots had been in the first trial, but there was only one, and she could fly.

Because things could never be simple, the God raised his other arm. After a few seconds, one of the tentacles grabbed Sofias left wing. She saw in horror the eyes spread along her wings bones; she broke the wing off. No touching, then.

Now with only one wing, Sofia had to run around the platform to avoid the repeated grabs of the long eye tentacles, while the thin main body of the God did not move from its spot.

What can I even do?!

I have no mana, no ranged attacks, no weapons I think this is my loss. The mithril dagger is in the pile of stuff I took out but I do not think it will help

How is this Victory? Its more like a walking curse!

Finally, she reached the bottom of the tower, with no arms, about a tenth of her health left, even less stamina, no mana, and only a golden crown to show for it. The High-Priest skeleton slowed her fall to a crawl and instantly showered her in healing spells, and the Templars caught her, one of them even bringing a large woolen cape it had gotten from who knows where to cover her with.

Sofia could only wait, she tried to hide in a corner for the time being, she really didnt know what to do.

I couldnt do it This difficulty is ridiculous. I dont think anyone at level 199 can do it. Were talking about defeating a God here. Well, a level 199 incarnation of a God, but still.

Also the scepter is still up there in my right hand, and Aphenoreths glove too, and my two rings

I lost all my bones, Alpha Ogre Pareth is dead, most of my valuables are still on the ground up there, my Orichalcum armor is utterly destroyed and so is the Orichalcum egg.

What a complete loss.

Defeat, uh?

What a fitting floor name

Sofia was replaying the fight in her head, trying to see what she did wrong, what could have gone better, trying to understand what she could have done. Whether or not there was a way.

She felt that her fight couldnt have gone much better. If anything, she could have taken Pareth out the second she came out of the stairs to hopefully have [Sanctified grounds] activate a bit earlier. But she knew it wouldnt have helped after the Gods transformation.

Whats done is done Ill do better next time. I might still be first place even, wouldnt be too bad. The rewards from 99 floors are sure to be good Also I have the crown. So its not a complete loss; the way Victory spoke about it made it look like it was meant to be the reward so I just kinda took it. Its just A disappointing ending.

Ill Identify the crown when I have mana. I know what it does though, it gives strength, I could feel that clearly.

Sofia was petrified by the sound of a new system notification. She dreaded looking at it.

[Objectives completed!]

[The second trial has ended, congratulations on rank: 1! You will be contacted by an administrator or high-operator shortly, please wait.]

Did DID I WIN?!

I cant believe it either, but as far as the spire is concerned You did, Sen answered as he seamlessly appeared next to Sofia as if he had always been there. You sure did Ah Where do we even start? Obviously the incarnation of Victory is still alive, but

Youre a headache from start to finish, miss Aphenoreth. A massive one. But Im glad to have been your examiner. I will teleport you back to the top and explain things in detail, ready?