Chapter 264: The Sofia Way

Chapter 264: The Sofia Way

Sofia had to stop herself from phasing down into the unknown room.

Her blood boiled but her brain battered her with the image of the orphanage and the paladins. The murder list. The Templar dying at her hand in incomprehension.

The situation was different but the root of the problem was the same, she had to keep her calm in situations like these. Tone down her emotions not to make a fatal mistake. To avoid doing things she would regret, were she still able to.

She was going to avenge her dog for sure, but putting her own life at risk for that was not the way. Anywhere else and against a different enemy, she might have just activated her demon form and shredded everything around, then and there. She even had an unlife rune on, the risk would have been acceptable. But both the unstable nature of the temple and the danger the Deep Parasites posed couldnt be underestimated.

This time, especially, the dogs page had disappeared extremely fast, much too fast for it top be the regular parasites to send their swarm to corrupt it. Whatever was down there could do the same thing almost instantly.

That, and the trajectory corrector machine in the room where Sofia was standing was the only thing keeping the temple from going diving into the sun.

Ill send one of the graveyard guys.

One of the graveyard skeletons made its way down the thick floor and pocket its skull out of the ceiling on the floor under. Sofia felt it get shattered not half a second later.The initial instance of this chapter being available happened at N0v3l.Bin.

Physical attack. Couldnt parasite the skeleton because it was entirely a mana construct, as expected.

Next two, different sides, synchronous timing.

The two skeletons were smashed at the same time.

Multiple targets, even far away. Can likely hit anywhere in the 20m sided cube the room is, could be multiple ennemies. Next, five of you, one each corner, one near the middle.

The graveyard skeletons were a renewable resource, as long as the graveyard stood and she had mana, Sofia could make as many as she wanted. They had no identity, no individuality, no fear. Their two main weaknesses were that they could never get out of the ground further than their torso, and couldnt deal any damage.

Any direct damage. Maybe its time to take advantage of that somehow.

The skeleton in the middle died first by a tenth of a second, the four in the corners died at the same time.

Attacks coming from the middle of the room. Could be physical projectile or extensible limbs; likely a single entity.

Fifty of you, all sides of the room at the same time.

Unsurprisingly, all skeletons died in a matter of seconds after poking their skulls out of the walls, but not quite all at the same time.

Sofia felt that she was about done with her preparations, with only a few details to go through, when she had a realization.

Wait. I could have done that from the beginning? I need to try.

Sofia jumped from the roof of the western pyramid to the central one. The gravity had become weaker after she reactivated the main power supply, likely due to the life support module, so she could now jump that far, even if she still couldnt fly. Calling upon the powers of the righteous graveyard that was now more a wall-skip than anything else, she rushed to the trajectory module room.

Finding a good spot near the core of the machinery, she created a bone platforme and placed the engine for the mana isolation field there. She turned it on, adjusting the zone until it encompassed almost the entire module without spilling on the adjacent rooms. Then she jumped out of the zone and offloaded some of her mana at it.

Its not going in!

This was no permanent solution, as maintaining the zone required mana, some of which would inevitably end up messing with the module, but it would probably be a few hours until it got to that point. Most importantly, it protected the module from any exterior bursts of mana she might use from, say for example, the room right under this one.

Thats it then, no more preparation. I use everything, then this fucker of the deep dies a painful death.

Pareth, you sit out of this one. Too dangerous. You can pop in and out to cast the chains or the shields if Im in too much danger, but not if that takes you more than half a second total. And only appear in the corners of the room. We cant risk you getting parasited, understood?

After the time required to inscribe the three runes, Sofia summoned her book. With the mana and space were working with The high-priest and templars is the best I can summon for the highest returns. Thats only 80 000 out of my 180 000 mana, Ill have to waste the rest with [Runeforged Overlord]. A true waste, but bookie only has so much fog

The sacrificial skeletons appeared, ready to give up their mana.

I can still squeeze out a bit more. The plant mage hero has a nice mana pool that should be perfect with the fog thats left. Nice to see him useful for once.

Some of Sofias remaining mana was used to take out a bunch of fake skeletons out of her storage, and the excess was dilapidated with the third tier of [Runeforged Overlord].

As her mana hit zero, she grasped onto that feeling, deep in her soul, itching her brain. Once again, her heart popped out of her chest, blackened and beating with an otherworldly force. She was not even slightly distressed by the process anymore, grabbing it, she took a hearty bite, and reveled in her regained power. The tail, the claws, the expanded vision, everything in place. She grabbed her staff with her left hand, and gave the order for all the fog skeletons to disappear.

[Heat death] made her absorb almost half of their mana. Her mana pool now unlocked, no longer stuck at zero, she took a deep breath, inhaling all that was left over still diluting in the air. She wouldnt let any bit of her precious skeletons go to waste.

Health : 358 560 / 358 560

Stamina : 358 560 / 358 560

Mana : 180 478 / 358 560

She stretched, cracked her neck, and let her bone armor grow around her body.

Four minutes and forty-five seconds until the demon form runs out.