Chapter 485: Heaven’s call

Chapter 485: Heaven’s call

In the main hall of the castle, Bookie summoned a single Kidjikkik Guardian. “Do we need to shackle him, Sofia?” Bookie asked, looking up at the tall worm skeleton he had just summoned.

“No need, this one is quite weak, you should know.”

“I know, but curses are a bit scary...”

“Don’t worry about it, just let him do whatever, don’t give any orders, alright? Let's proceed with the test, Pareth, light!”

Pareth summoned a bright shield of light and held it up above his head. Giving him a nod, Sofia used [Aberrant sunlight] for the first time.

The skill came with very little information but it really felt quite instinctive, Sofia pointed a finger at the skeleton and activated the skill, when she felt the magic formation pull on her mana, she let about one thousand out to begin with.

A small puff of mana left Sofia’s finger like a weak fart of cursed mana, almost invisible to the naked eye, which slowly floated in the direction of the Kidjikkik.

Before it could collide, Sofia ordered the Kidjikkik to sidestep, and the curse pathetically missed, and dispersed after it hit the back wall of the hall.

“Were you able to see it?” Sofia asked.

“I felt the mana move but I didn’t see anything,” Bookie reported, while Pareth held out his right thumb and index close to each other in response.

“You did see it a bit, Pareth? Even with the augmented eye I had a hard time. Well, let’s try with more mana now. The skill doesn’t have any cooldown, it feels like. It’s almost like just a filter to convert my mana to cursed mana,” she explained while she aimed her right index at the Kidjikkik skeleton again.

It’s quite complex but the cast is still instantaneous, just like Summon Blood. I wonder if I just created another theoretical anomaly.

This time, Sofia fired a packet of ten thousand mana. It was not the same. It fired like a cannonball, quite easily visible even to the naked eye as it flew through the hall, as if she had invoked a ball of translucent-white jumbled noodles and thrown it at the skeleton’s face.

The ball of cursed mana hit the skeleton and, instead of exploding and disappearing like when the first shot hit the wall, the cursed mana was absorbed into the skeleton’s bones entirely like water sucked in by a dry cloth.

Carefully observing with her mana vision, Sofia saw the curse latch onto the Kidjikkik’s mana, and rapidly turn it into cursed mana structures.

It spreads fast!

“I lost control!” Bookie exclaimed, shocked, when the curse had spread to about half of the Kidjikkik’s mana.

The skeleton’s head snapped to a different position, its eye sockets locked onto Pareth’s shield.

Stop looking. Turn around.

Despite Sofia’s orders, which she could tell reached the skeleton, the skeleton kept looking. Quickly, as the curse spread more, the Kidjikkik shambled forward, taking a few steps toward Pareth with its many legs. All the legs not touching the ground were reaching out for Pareth’s shield. As the curse finally spread to every last bit of the skeleton’s mana, it broke into a sprint, jumping and throwing itself a Pareth’s shield.

CHAINS! Do not touch him! Sofia mentally warned Pareth.

Pareth jumped back and his chains of light shot from the floor, latching tightly onto the airborne skeleton’s spine, and yanking it to the floor. Even bound to the hall’s floor, the Kidjikkik kept struggling like a mindless insect to try to grab Pareth’s shield.

Oh, that’s slightly unsettling, I guess.

She tried to look away, but no matter how hard she tried, her eyes just happened to keep turning in Pareth’s direction. She turned her head away, only to feel it start turning back slowly without her being able to really do anything about it. She could see the curse spreading out inside of her body, and quickly starting to convert more of her mana. The cursed mana latched onto her nerves of light, her muscles, her soul, and it forced them to move. To move toward the light.

Despite her sight being locked in on Pareth’s shield, she could still manage to stand still, and she could still observe her surroundings with her mana sight, but even that started to falter, as her attention kept being distracted by the light.

She could not even close her eyes if she tried.

Then, when about a quarter of her mana was infected, she started hearing a voice, her voice. Like sweet whispers right into the deepest parts of her ears, like her internal voice decided to stop broadcasting her own thoughts, and instead, started worshiping the light.

The light!

We need... The light!

Oh, NOW this is disturbing COME TO THE LIGHT!

The blissful light! It will be our salva-

Stop!

Sofia ejected all of her mana at once, spreading a thin wave of slightly visible mana through the castle, washing over everything. Free of cursed mana, the voices and the strange attraction stopped instantly.

Worrying that her expelled cursed mana might have infected Bookie and Pareth, she fought against the intense dizziness and nausea from the mana loss and looked at their mana, thankfully finding them curse-free.

“I still think this is scary,” Bookie shily chimed in.

Sofia cleared her throat. “I agree. Great spell to have, though. And according to Zerei, we can build tolerance to specific curse patterns through repeated exposure, so all of us can slowly work on that until we have nothing to worry about!”

“Hnn! What about the other skill, Sofia?”

“It’s still not ready, but I can actually feel my mana circuits moving a bit, the shock from the sudden expulsion made them a bit sensitive. That’s an interesting find... Anyway, any second now, I think.”

It took ten more minutes for the passive skill to arrive, during which Sofia started creating new bone furniture for the main hall, since she and Alith had pilfered most of the original appliances the last time before they left.

Finally the new passive went live, the mana already making its way into the newly formed pathways.

[Sixth melody]: Olden tales tell of a Goddess of music and arts long gone from this world, but their craft is not entirely gone. Lock a portion of your maximum mana to play different movements of Remia’s sixth great symphony in a large area around you.

More total mana expands the music’s reach.

Expand description for a detailed movement breakdown.