Chapter 530: Let thy sorrow flourish

“Nothing is ever accomplished without leaving something behind,” Cinthia read out loud for Sofia and Ihuarah.

“Not what I expected,” Sofia commented, “but it is fitting, and always true. No matter what, you’re always spending time, at the very least.”

“This wisdom is to be used for the next part, I would suppose,” Ihuarah deduced, “let us get to it.”

“I’m just debating whether I want to continue like this or revert to having my apostle spells,” Sofia said, looking down at the hole below her.

Ihuarah laughed, “Perhaps we ought to leave our spells behind, for now, don’t you think?”

“Well... No reason to rush things, though, give me time to carve an unlife rune, at least.”

“Something big is probably coming relatively soon,” Cinthia commented as her eyes were fixated on her invisible chat window, “More of them are starting to watch. We have ten already.”

“I would have thought the corridor walking simulator would have killed viewership,” Everelle said, “Maybe we’re finally getting some real action? It’s been so long since I’ve needed to use my signature skill, this is kinda getting me excited!”

“You never told us what it was,” Cinthia remarqued.

“Iwa knows, but well. You’ll get to see at some point,” Everelle said with a shrug.

“Right, you said before that I had no chance against you, what about now?” Sofia asked Everelle.

“Hmmm... From what I know, it would definitely be a close fight. You definitely have the advantage in terms of rare equipment and skills, but I also have had a few boring hundred years to train by myself on Fenrir, and not to toot my own horn, but I’m no weakling. So... Hard to be sure. We might be evenly matched,” Everelle admitted.

“Are you counting my summons in your calculations?”

“I counted Bookie and Pareth fighting with you, yes. Not Iwa and Alith, even if they are, you know.”

“Yeah yeah fair, that’s how I would have done it too. So you think that big white-eyed sunless of yours could contend with Pareth as he is now?”

“Would be a stalemate, in my opinion,” Everelle answered, “but it’s pointless to go too far on hypotheticals, we might as well just fight and see for ourselves, right?”

“I’m sure that would get a lot of viewers,” Cinthia said from the side, “Got two more while you were chatting, too, so we might really get a fight sooner rather than later...”

“Let’s do that when we’re back from this trip, then,” Sofia offered.

“It’s a deal!”

Jumping down the hole led the group to a small room with a closed door and an old metallic central pedestal.

“More ancient human language...” Sofia commented as she read the inscriptions on the pedestal. There was a handprint on top of the thing with a few words below.

“Let go of what you know,” Ihuarah read without difficulty.

“Hmm... So mom’s message definitely was about this room, no doubt. Let go of what we know... Does it expect me to forget a skill? One of the Apostle skills, maybe?”

“Forgetting a spell... It might be that simple, but it might not. Let me try something.”

Ihuarah placed a hand on the handprint, and Sofia could feel an exchange of mana between the shade and the metallic structure. “It is just that,” he finally declared, “this will forcefully erase whatever spell pathway you lead the magic from this pedestal to. Devices like these used to be rather commonplace, but now the system makes such a thing pointless. Ah, it should be able to erase even those locked skills, but I would advise against it unless said skill is purely detrimental to you, as it would leave permanent scars.”

“So I really need to forget a skill to open the door...”

“I may do that in your place, if you wish, Lady Sofia,” Ihuarah offered, “However, I doubt it would work for anything but us two.”

“Makes sense. I’ll do it, no need to sacrifice yourself for me,” Sofia decisively told Ihuarah, “I’m getting the artifact, so this is only right. Any other time I might try to cheat my way out of having to pay something like this by breaking the door or something, but I get the feeling that this is exactly why Sorrow took the time to have Cinthia send us the message earlier...”

Sofia placed her hand on the pedestal, and she felt a surge of destructive magic coming toward her from within the metallic structure. After spending a few seconds making sure she could control the flow of said magic, she sent it toward a thin but quite widespread mana pathway, the one from her racial skill [Pillar of Creation]. According to Astelia, this skill was the Lumian equivalent of the Vampire curse, a necessary downside to the race’s overall power.

The destructive mana entered said mana pathways only to be pushed back by Sofia’s own mana without her even being able to control it. No damage was done, she could tell.

Figured it would be like this.

Sofia opened up her skill list.

[Known Skills]

False Lord Skills (1 / 1)

♢ [Singularity edict] ♢

Active Skills (9 / 9)

[Angel’s bolt - Piercing]

[Call elemental Sprite]

Since this is a pre-system machine, I’m guessing forgetting one of the wildcast spells should also work.

So what to do...

I see five options.

[Spine of the Black Sun] has been underwhelming as it requires me to be close to the target, so it definitely needs some work, at least. Not sure that warrants a delete, though. Especially now that I can sustain it for basically no cost, it’s just a free magical weapon.

[Saintess’ madness] has been useful a few times, but even with the level two options to choose one variant in advance, it’s still only good once per fight. And it requires me to sacrifice a skeleton. It’s not a bad skill at all but it’s not the best either.

[Summon Self] is nice to have, but the thirty seconds cooldown time and the short range make it just another tool in the tool box. In terms of fighting, often just flying away from an attack is the better move. It was a pain to learn, though, and is my only teleportation skill.

[Radiance] is... All it does really is boost the healing of the bone dominus blessed constructs. It’s really not that impressive in terms of overall utility, but also... Doubled healing is pretty good, I can’t argue with that.

And last on the list is [Call elemental Sprite], It’s really not all that useful at all in most situations. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually used the sprites for something other than a convenient light source... But I’ve kind of grown attached to the glowing balls... I don’t really want to get rid of them.

“I’m getting rid of [Saintess’ madness],” Sofia finally said after a bit, placing her hand on the pedestal again.

She led the destructive mana to the skill’s pathways, and in just a few seconds, it was completely destroyed. The process felt a bit like getting scratched from the inside, it was strange but not unbearable. Without any fanfare, the skill simply disappeared from Sofia’s status window, and the ‘Remaining possible skill slots’ count went back up from two to three.

The door opened as soon as the skill was gone, revealing another similar room with another pedestal, on which, this time, was a small golden bowl.

I don’t like where this is going...

Ihuarah was quick to enter the new room and to read the inscriptions on the pedestal, “Let go of what you value,” he said.

Everyone entered the room, and they expectantly looked at Sofia.

“We don’t expect that it will open if I give it a few bones and gold coins?” Sofia tried.

“After it forced you to forget a skill before?” Everelle said, “no chance. But it probably won’t hurt to try. Unless you get a single shot at opening the door, but that would be bad dungeon design, though.”

“I’ll make a serious offer, then,” Sofia said after some reflection, and she piled a small stack of orichalcum ingot in the bowl.

“Taxes says you’re being cheap,” Cinthia remarqued with a giggle.

“... There aren’t so many truly precious things I’m willing to part with,” Sofia answered in a low voice.

She tried a few more things, but frustratingly, for anything she was fine with leaving behind the door stubbornly stayed closed.

Finally she gave up, and threw the [Lead the Dead] Mithrium ring in the bowl.

The pedestal instantly retracted into the ground, swallowing the Mithrium ring into the entrails of Sorrow’s palace, and the door opened without a sound.

“The only bit of Mithrium I had...”

“It would not be a surprise for the divine artifact to be made of Mithrium or something of similar value,” Ihuarah commented, “this is but a temporary loss. I fear you might yet have to give up something else, however...”

“Of course...”

The next room was more of the same, a pedestal with an inscription, but on top was the sculpture of an open hand with sharp claws just like Sofia’s.

“Let go of your regrets,” Ihuarah translated.

“Hum... This one is not quite as obvious...” Everelle commented.

“It isn’t,” Sofia agreed, “but maybe...”

Sofia extended a hand, she linked fingers with the hand on top of the pedestal, and suddenly her surroundings became dark.

Familiar feeling. Another illusion. Pareth is still right next to me so I haven’t moved.

It’s eerily silent here...

What’s going to happen? Do I need to do something?

After a few more seconds of silence, blurry shapes started appearing, slowly, they formed a distant yet familiar scenery. Something straight out of Sofia’s faintest and oldest memories. Sofia’s perception warped in strange ways, she started to see and feel things that she knew were fake but looked and felt painfully real. Wooden ceiling, heavy purple curtains blocking the sun from entering the dusty room. Someone she couldn’t see rocked the crib Sofia was half-asleep in, singing her a sweet lullaby.