Chapter 563: Innocence

Chapter 563: Innocence

Sofia didn't even realize that she let herself fall asleep.

She woke up to sounds of melodious humming and splashing water. The source of which was of course the only other person here, Velania, sitting next to her on the border of the lake, her feet rhythmically going in and out of the water as she hummed an unfamiliar tune.

For a bit, Sofia decided to stay just like this. However, it was hard to fool the senses of someone so high-level, Velania noticed as soon as she finished her song.

“Ah! Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you up...”

Sofia sat up, taking a deep breath of the ambient mana. Velania had changed her clothes, she was wearing a pure white sundress that seemed to sparkle in the light. It left her right arm fully exposed, showing the burn scars that ran down her entire body.

“It’s nothing,” Sofia waved her concerns away, “I didn’t even mean to fall asleep in the first place...”

“I can relate to that,” Velania answered with a giggle, “You look nice like this,” she commented on Sofia’s demon form, “a shame to cover it up.”

“Maybe you’re right. I just feel safer with my armor on,” Sofia said without thinking, instinctively reaching out for the piece of armor still laying in the grass between Velania and herself. Oh crap. Her hand stopped just above the dragon-scale armguard.

“Was it Romuald who told you?” Velania asked, her voice calm and her eyes lost in the distance, “How much do you know?”

Sofia sighed, “Death’s hound gave me a message from Sorrow the first time you lost consciousness,” she admitted, “It didn’t say much, just not to mention a certain topic around you...”

It was Velania’s turn to sigh, “I see. I appreciate your concern, but I shouldn’t be bothering other people with my own issues...” she said, her right hand fiddling with her hair without much energy.

“It’s nothing. If you consider Sorrow your aunt then we’re family, aren’t we?”

“There’s family and there’s family. Wouldn’t you say?” Velania answered with an air of melancholy.

Sofia had to think about it for a bit, “Yes and no? My sister Saria is the only close blood-relative I have left, and I love her with all my currently nonexistent heart, but I love the rest of my new family also. There might be a difference between the two but that doesn’t make them any less important. Or did you not mean it when you called Sorrow Auntie?”

“I did!” Velania answered in a heartbeat, rightfully annoyed, before she sighed again, her eyes unfocusing as she stared at the lightstone above. “You’re right... How shameful... I should be the wiser one...”

Sofia couldn’t contain a hearty laugh. “I’m just a bumbling idiot who loves skeletons a bit too much, I simply happen to have a looooot of experience with having an adoptive family.”

“You shouldn’t insult yourself like this,” Velania retorted, “I’m glad you seem pretty smart. Much smarter than I was at your age... You’re going to need it for the Escalation game. I’ll be sad if you lose.”

“Right, we need to do this. I’m ready whenever.”

“Don’t you want a helper?” Velania asked curiously.

“Not if having one more person around is going to make you stress out more.”

“I will be alright,” Velania answered, resolutely clenching her fist. “J- Just... Mind telling me what they are like first?”

“Hmmm... Everelle is... Special. Do you know about summoned heroes?”

Sofia took Velania’s following silence for a no.

That got a concerned look out of Sofia and Everelle both, but Velania just kept going at her own pace.

“T- The rules, then... It’s really pretty simple, especially now with the system, Romulad was able to improve the design and... Well, so. Escalation is a game where the first to die loses.

There are two ways to die, either you die because of what happens in the arena, or you die if you get five curse marks,” Velania explained, marking a pause as if she was trying to remember the rest of the rules.

“I’ll never not be surprised that the fairies in this world are so savage compared to the ones we had in fiction...” Everelle commented.

“I’m more surprised that you had Fairies and Flying lizards in your fictions but no Kleptras,” Sofia quipped back, avoiding the D word for Velania’s sake.

“We don’t really like insects,” Everell answered with a shrug.

Velania continued without paying any mind to their interruption, “The game goes like this, when it’s your turn, you put your hand on the ball and say a word, then it appears in the arena. For example, if I were to say water, something like this might happen,” she said, as the floor of the room was suddenly covered in a thin layer of water.

“What if you don’t know what the word I’m saying means?” Everelle asked.

“The artifact will be pulling the information from your memory if necessary, so it should work,” Velania explained. “So that’s the basic principle, we take turns making things appear, and try to kill each other with it, but we are forbidden from attacking each other directly, we can only use the words, and in an indirect way. If I say sword, for example, I won’t be able to pick it up to attack you. But you can use your magic to defend yourself from the arena.”

“How does it work since we’re two on the same team, we get two turns?” Sofia asked.

“No, you are functionally one challenger, so you share the curse marks, though if one of you dies from the arena, the other can keep going. The other limitation is, since you are a guest, Everelle, you can only give three words throughout the game.”

“Three words... Well, I can work with that. I’ll give you three words you won’t forget.”

Velania smiled, “This will be fun!” She paused for a second. “Alright, we have almost all the rules, except for the actual escalation part. The game always starts with the word ‘Hydrogen’, because it is the cheapest and only stable thing you can make with mana. Although a lot will appear, the mana cost will be counted for one unit, so for Hydrogen it’s probably like 0.1 mana or something like that? When I learned the game we didn’t have such precise measurements, but the artifact knows. Like if you say water it will count the mana for one drop, if you say ocean, since it’s a wider concept, it will count the mana for the minimum amount of water to make the ocean you envision in your head. Then the other person has to say a word that costs more but not more than double the cost, within a time limit of sixty seconds. And we just take turns like that! That’s it!”

“What if the word we say costs less than the previous one or more than double?” Sofia asked.

“That’s how you get a curse mark!” Velania answered, before she made the water in the arena disappear. “You also get one if you fail to provide a word in the sixty seconds, in both cases it becomes the other side’s turn again. That’s all the rules. Any questions?”

“Can we make living things appear?” Everelle asked.

“Not a specific person or creature, but anything that exists or has existed. You can ask for a human but not for a Velania,” Velania answered, nodding to herself. Sofia thought that she seemed pretty excited to play. “Fairy custom is that the challenger gets the first round,” she finished.

“Wait,” Everelle said, raising a hand. “Now that we know all the rules, can I have a quick talk with Sofia in private before the game begins?”

“Of course,” Velania approved right away.

After a short conversation with Everlle, she and Sofia came back.

Sofia confirmed with Velania that she was also ready to start, then she walked up to the pedestal, put her hand on the crystal ball artifact, getting a feel of the reality-bending amount of mana compressed inside.

“Hydrogen!”