Saintess Summons Skeletons

The group ran down the collapsed dragon’s back and into the destroyed city, and Sofia started lagging behind.

She had been pushing herself until now, but with the weakness of her regular human body, the exhaustion she had been ignoring during the climb was now catching up to her. Breathing heavily, she was starting to see double. She mumbled something about needing to catch her breath, but Pareth would have none of that. He swept her off her feet and carried her through the ruins, running steadily all the toward the Palace.

Alith and Bookie actually met them midway, Alith holding a thin golden crown in her only remaining hand, while Bookie was holding her from the side, helping her stand. Pareth let Sofia down.

“That was impressive,” Alith said first, “got the crown. Pretty sure it’s the one; same one she was wearing in that painting.”

“Sure looks like it… What happened to your arm?” Sofia asked, as there was nothing left of Alith’s left arm but a short tourniqueted stump dripping with blood that stained Bookie’s clothes.

“Some short old knight fought back a bit more fiercely than I anticipated… Had to sacrifice my arm to protect Bookie,” Alith explained, she was still clear headed but it was obvious from her voice that she was in great pain.

“I got him with my crossbow!” Bookie chimed in, “But Alith’s arm got sworded… Her potions could not heal it so I had to help her cut it off to stop the bleeding…”

“And you still walked all the way here?” Sofia asked Alith, “You should have just waited in the Palace…”

“I feel like I’m right about to pass out, honestly,” Alith answered through gritted teeth, “but all I have to do is not die, right? The sooner we’re out-”

“Heyyyyyyy!” Someone called out from a distance, Sofia turned to see the thin frame of a goddess in white coming running.

“Ah, here’s our savior coming,” Sofia said with a smile.

Remia ran up to the group, stopping against a pile of rubble at the end to catch her breath, “You- You did it! First try!” she said, astonished.

Sofia answered with a deep bow, “In no small part thanks to you. Thank you, Remia.”

The others copied her motion, ragged that they were, even Pestle bowed to the goddess.

After a moment of silence, a single teardrop fell to Remia’s feet. She let out a short nervous laugh.

“You shouldn’t thank me, you know. I- … I would have been a bit happy if you failed…”

Sofia rose from her bow, looking down at the short crying goddess. “Yet you helped us anyway, to the point that you're starting to fade… You’re translucent… Are you going to be alright?”

“Ahah… It’s nothing… Just a few regular resets and I will be back to normal… If you use my music a lot out there, it might even be faster than that…”

“We will,” Alith answered, “Right?”

“Right,” Sofia confirmed. “I will spread the music around if I have to. And I will find a way to get you out of here. You have my word.”

“Mine as well,” Alith added.

“Us too!” Bookie continued, speaking for himself and the other skeletons, “We will get you out so that everyone everywhere can hear your music!”

Tears flowed freely down the sobbing goddess’ blurry face. In the distance, a loud, low sound came from the direction of the fallen dragon, he seemed to have hit the bottom of the lake. That was followed by a piercing roar.

“You- You need to leave! Fast!” Remia immediately reacted.

Sofia and Alith looked at each other, and Alith threw the crown to Pareth. “Go first, make sure it’s safe,” she told him.

Pareth grabbed the crown, tuning to Sofia.

“You heard her. We follow right after, don’t worry.”

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Pareth nodded, turned to Remia, bowed to her one last time, and placed the crown on top of his head. Nothing happened for a few seconds. Sofia felt her heart drop.

Is it not working?!

Then it happened. As if he’d never been there, Pareth disappeared, flickered out of existence. Without a wearer, the crown fell to the ground. Alith was next, as she was on the verge of passing out, followed by Bookie, whose exit made Pestle also disappear.

Only Sofia was left with Remia, she watched with awe the giant dragon’s angular head slowly rising out of the lake, water cascading off its scales like waterfalls. She played with the thin golden crown in her hands.

In the end I still don’t know. A marked one, or a lord’s crown?

“Remia,” she said, her eyes staring right into the dragon’s, while she brought the crown up to her head. “Today we owe you our life, so, I would like to reiterate.” She marked a short pause, taking a deep breath in, “I swear in my name, I, Sofia Aphenoreth, will get you out of here, whether it takes me a year or a thousand. So… No matter how lonely it gets… Please wait for us.”

“That's all I’ve been doing…” Remia answered, her voice full of melancholy.

Sofia finally placed the crown atop her head.

“I hope I can hear more of your music when I see you again.”

“That would be my pleasure, Sofia.”

Like the roar of the dragon in the distance, the world faded to black. Sofia lost her five senses, she was feeling light, like floating in an endless void. It’s like I got sucked in by a black hole again.

Slowly, she felt a familiar feeling welling up in her chest – mana.

How I missed that feeling… Mr. Scribe! Scribe! Can you hear me?! Are you back?!

The black void suddenly disappeared, as if being slapped back into her own body, Sofia opened her eyes under an unfamiliar roof. The first thing she saw was a familiar semi-transparent blue box.

[I have never left]

You have no idea how happy I am to hear that.

[Sentiment shared]

Inevitably, her mind drifted back to Remia who she had just left behind.

One more reason to get stronger fast. If even the admin couldn’t get here out of there, it’s probably not something I will be able to do at my current level, no matter how good my skills...

“Sofia,” Bookie whispered, finally noticing she was awake, “Get up! But no noise!” he told her, waving his small hands above her eyes. “Monsters outside!”

Sofia slowly sat up, looking around her, she was on the floor in a relatively small round prayer room. Everything looked pristine, so it was clearly in the light world, and she could indeed see the shimmering colors of deep creatures crawling on the other side of the room’s stained glass windows. They were in a small bubble of the light world, so her mana senses did not extend very far. “Where’s everyone else?” she asked.

“Pestle is sleeping in her page,” Bookie answered, “Alith and brother Pareth have gone to check the next room,” he then said, pointing at the only door leading out of the prayer room.

Are we really in the palace?

The dragon would have pulled us into this prayer room, through this narrow door?

“Let’s join them,” Sofia told Bookie as she stood up, “want to call Pestle out?”

“No,” Bookie answered, shaking his skull, “she was out too long, her page is damaged… She needs to rest for a while.”

“Understood. Then summon the dwarf.”

“Are you sure, Sofia?” Bookie asked, a hint of worry in his voice, but still opening his book at the right page. Summoning the fortune dwarf for most of his mist and five million of Sofia 5.3 million mana would leave them both almost out of this fight if something happened.

“All the more reason to summon our strongest asset now,” Sofia explained, "gives us time to regenerate, we have no idea what we’ll find here, so we have to be ready.”

“Understood.”

Bookie ripped out the page himself, and the dwarf appeared in the light world, looking exactly like Sofia remembered him from when he was alive, except for the blurry face.

“We’ll be a bit safer like this,” Sofia said, nodding in satisfaction, “Let’s join the others.”

The mood change was jarring as Sofia and Bookie walked out the prayer room’s door, into one of the palace’s long halls, the air became stale and the temperature dropped.

The palace in the real world was in a poor state. A thick layer of gray dust covered everything, and the city’s giant tree’s black and golden roots pierced the walls and the ground. They had saved this ruin of a building from collapse, but had also destroyed most things within.

Right, the tree grows from within the palace.

Or rather… Chancellor Izzaro.

And these roots… They’re all growing ebb fruits…

It seems like I still have all my things… I’m uninjured as well…

Pareth and Alith were each slowly exploring in an opposite direction, carefully looking behind every root, and through every door. Sofia shone a bit of light into the corridor, and they both turned around, which filled her with a sense of great relief.

I can finally see everyone’s faces again.