Sofia was still recovering on the cold ground when Pareth brought back a limp middle aged woman in a priests garb. She had watched the whole scene through the skeletons vision, it had been a strange, almost otherworldly interaction. The priestess hadnt said anything, she hadnt fled, seeing the skeleton approach she had only used weak personal protection skills such as [Bubble of Prayers]. That had done nothing to stop Pareth, he crushed the immaterial shield with his bare hand and grabbed the woman, who went limp like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Is she playing dead to sneak attack when Im near or sothing?
To be safe, she had Pareth do the handling, dropping her on the ground and checking her vitals.
Still alive, steady heartbeat Whats going on? Open her eyes.
Pareths large bone fingers held the womans eyes open, the pupils were unfocused and didnt move. Its almost like shes asleep
Sofia had a strong urge to kill her right now and move on. But she held back, she wanted to understand what was going on and why everyone she killed showed up as monsters. She felt the whole fight hadnt been very organic. The paladins hadnt scread as they died, hadnt faltered, hadnt fled in face of the overwhelming defeat. It was unsettlingly un-human behavior.
Break one of her fingers.
She used [Heal Undead] but the finger didnt recover. Potion? She threw a potion for Pareth to force feed her. That still works
Wait, I never tried to use [Identify]... No result
Next she focused on the priestess mana. It looked normal if quite depleted. No its Shes connected to sothing.
It was a faint link from the priestess head going northeast, this looked similar to the state Alith had been in during the trial. Is my enemy An Archangel?!
The priestess on the ground spasd suddenly and spat blood. She died.
Sofia didn't even get a kill ssage this ti, nothing.
What the hell is going on?! She got up to personally go check on the dead woman when a slew of system ssages stopped her in her tracks.
[WARNING, SYSTEM CORRUPTION DETECTED]
[ENTERING ERGENCY STATE]
[Due to internal errors, you have been disconnected for your safety, you are now in Scribe Only mode]
[To avoid operating slowdown, please keep at least 10 000 mana available at all tis]
[Anomalies may arise]
[You will be reconnected when possible, until then many sub-systems will be unavailable]
This This looks much worse than I had expected.
Is there a link with the trial towers safety being compromised which got us teleported to the safe house?
There were too many things happening all at once, Sofia had trouble making sense of it all in the mont. She stood up, finally having recuperated enough, and made way to the flaming Orphanage.
The bolts explosion had set it afla, and perhaps it was better that way. Still she went back inside, Pareth's light opened the way through the burning and crumbling building.
She entered through the hole they had made, doing her best to cover her nose and hold back her tears. She wanted to bla the crying on the irritating smoke from the fire but the wrenching of her heart told a different story. She counted the dead bodies of the boys in their beds. All there.
With a heavy mind, she made her way to the girls room, stepping over the two fallen paladins in the way. Six, Seven A bed is empty! Chino isnt here!
One survivor was better than none. Through the sorrow, she couldnt help but get her hopes up. She only wished she wouldnt find her rotting corpse in another room. She had to speed up, the whole orphanage would soon collapse.
She ran through the orphanage, checking every room. Everyone had been killed in their bed, probably during the night. No one had seen a thing coming. The matrons, Clarice, the director. All murdered in their sleep.
Sofia hurriedly left the building as it completely collapsed in flas. She had two things in her hands. An old, worn and torn grimoire, and a silver ring. Clarices heritage
She knew how important the engraved ring had been to the woman, it had been in her family for generations. Sofia had felt terrible ripping it off of her cold rotting hand, but it would have felt way worse letting the fire take it.
Without thinking, she stored the grimoire and sat in the dirt.
Clutching the small silver ring, too narrow for her own fingers, she watched the orphanage burn through the night until nothing was left.
Next she moved to the village. No one had co to check out the commotion going on with the fight and the orphanage. Verenha was the sa. All a bunch of slit throats in bed. No one had been spared by the Church.
How has no one found this until now? Maybe they killed anyone that ca nearby.
One by one, Sofia set every last house on fire.
At least Chino might still be alive
This was her last hope. The only person she hadnt found. Maybe she had been adopted prior to the massacre, or she happened to be out of town for whatever reason, maybe Chino was prone to nightly escapades like herself? Sofia had a hard ti imagining the cute introverted eight year old going out like that at night, but then again, she had been the sa. Either way, there was a chance she was alive.
Whoever orchestrated this would pay a thousand tis over.
Assuming I have to face the entire Church
A few hundred priests, most of them under level 10, insignificant. About three hundred paladins, and who knows how many guards. If todays battle is any indication, they can never kill without a huge coordinated ambush. Then theres the Templars, cant be that they have many, theres only three temples. So maybe twenty to thirty of them at most? And I took down three.
Templars were the true ergency shield of the church, their not really secret main force; they rarely ever actually did anything except training, as far as Sofia knew. But every so often the villagers would hear of the Templars going out to slay so big foe or another. But very few people could attest to that. In the stories they fought Dragons and Trolls, Necromancers and Rogue Unicorns. Now this all feels like fiction. No way these guys could take down a Troll, unless these three were the weakest of the lot.
Now that she had a better grasp on levels, she thought there was no way the Trolls described in the books she read were under level 400, if their depiction were accurate.
What else? The Magisteriums already down. Four High-Priests, no idea how strong exactly. And then the real challenge. The Heroes and the Oracle.
I can maybe rally the heroes to my cause? Seems a bit far fetched. But Orvod is alive. Perhaps with his help Itll be terrible if he sides with the Oracle though What about the King? A lot of citizens were murdered for no reason. If the royal knights were on my side Or the Vampires? Kuli? Valeure? I can start by trying to contact Alith
The odds were stacked against her no matter how she looked at it. Whether anyone would agree to help her was a gamble. And though she fancied herself the hunter, it was clear with what had happened that day, she was the hunted.
[Congratulations. You have received a quest!]
What?
Sofia had never heard of anything like a system quest, and she was supposedly in scribe only mode now, which made it all the more weird. She focused on the ssage and new ones followed.
[The Orators approval : Defeat Scripture]
[Rewards : Second upgrade to [Blessing of the Deep]; special active skill [Eye of the Orator]; surprise item reward; more surprises!]
[Restrictions : No allies allowed (during quest related fights) aside from summoned skeletons]
[Penalty for failure : [Blessing of the Deep] will not get any further upgrades]
[Will you accept? Yes/No]
Is this real?
The orator? Is that another Lord of the Deep? Why this? Why now?!
And what do you an, defeat Scripture? Its a God were talking about isnt it? A GOD! Help or no help thats impossible!
Sofia was shocked to be answered by her own voice. I give no impossible task.
Then a crow that had been sitting on a nearby branch turned to look at her, When one isnt up to the task, they shall give up. The bird squeaked and flew away. One of the dead paladins on the ground got up like a zombie despite the large hole in his chest, Are you worthy of the na you bear? Sofia Aphenoreth.
The paladin fell back down and nothing could be heard anymore except for the howling of the fire as the whole village burned to the ground.
...
Sofia let herself lay on the ground too.
What a day
It was morning. Sofia had spent the whole night on the cold dirt. When all fires had died down, she got up. Deploying her wings, she flew up and observed what remained of Verenha and the orphanage.
The only penalty for failure is what not getting the rewards leads to, isnt it? Alright. Dont get your hopes up, Orator, I dont see any way I could go against a God. But whatever. They really want to accept, going so far as to co in person to taunt
Scripture is the Churchs god, right? I dont even have his blessing but I have the Deeps instead.
That a Lord would give this quest NOW I dont think is benign.
She looked once more at the charred town.
If the god of Scriptures is responsible for all this shit then
No allies? Skeletons are all I need.
I accept.
[Quest Accepted!]
[Ti limit : 100 years]
[Reach level 130 to claim your advance rewards!]
An advance reward? I see, 'more surprises!' I would have lost even that if I gave up before trying. 130 is a re few paladins away. I know just the place.
Sofia landed again to store Pareth and give her last farewell to the lost souls here. No one deserved this fate. A voice in the back of her mind scread that it was all her fault but that was sothing she had developed a deep rooted resistance to. She had known enough sorrow. She also dumped all the dead Paladins and Templars in a corner of her ring.
Deploying her wings a second ti, she departed, heading west.
The garrisons at the border with Sovuln hosted so paladins in their ranks.
Not for long.
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