Saintess Summons Skeletons

It turned out that Cinthia's chat was completely clueless as to what was happening, but Hatred wished Sofia good luck either way and Death sent one of his usual random faces. Sorrow was not present for some reason, leading Sofia to think she might be looking after Ihuarah at the moment.

Led by Beryl, Sofia and Astelia entered Beligenus’ office in the highest tower of the academy. The headmaster was already there, behind his desk and fiddling with some kind of elaborate mithrium contraption which held in place small dragon scales fragments each engraved with a different piece of ritual circle which could be moved around. He looked up from his contraption and welcomed the two young teachers.

“You come early. Sit, I will explain. Beryl, you may go and activate the defenses with Saint Tartaros,” the old Dragon in Exidian form told them.

Beryl left with a nod, while Sofia and Astelia silently sat opposite to the headmaster.

“As you might have guessed, you two will not be taking part in this weekend’s event. Your target has shown itself, the pawn of Scripture. He has already started sabotaging your next planned event location,” Beligenus explained while he focused his attention on the contraption again.

“How come Scripture knows of the event location?” Sofia asked.

“It is a complex subject which has to do with his domain,” Beligenus started explaining, his head still buried inside the strange contraption occupying most of his desk, “We found a few students worshiping religious texts within the academy grounds. Using this along with the proximity of His Essence which you bear, it created a sufficient link for Him to spy on the happenings within the Academy. We have since removed all religious writs in the near vicinity, but the event locations were planned long in advance.”

Scripture can spy on things happening near me as long as there are religious texts being worshiped nearby? … I see. No wonder the elf prepared such a complex trap last time, Scripture really knew about Leverle’s charm. Of course there would be religious texts in Death’s Church!

“So this is what this was about!” Astelia said like she just understood something, “I was wondering why Beryl was so insistent on asking if I had texts from Moon.”

“No one asked me, though?” Sofia wondered aloud.

“Asking you would only alert Scripture that something was going on, we acted fast to prevent any actions from His part. We know that you carry no religious text, however,” Beligenus told her.

“How?”

“We asked your skeleton.”

Oh. That would work. When, though? Not that it matters but… Hmm. When I was busy reading through the library probably, Pareth did wander off on his own a few times… Is that it?

Alright, I’m still not used to seeing him act on his own that much, but I’m not against it.

It’s honestly uncomfortable to be separated like this…

Beligenus stood up from his chair to get a better look at his mithrium machine, he addressed the two teachers again, “This, right here, is a targeted essence canceller. As you can see, I am still giving it the finishing touches. Only I can operate it, and this is what I will be using to prevent Scripture from intervening when you fight His pawn. We were planning for you two to enter the location an hour early compared to the event’s planning to ‘scout the location’, but we can proceed with it earlier.”

“Wait, so we’re really going to fight against them? Can you not deal with it yourself?” Astelia asked, “Why do we, two weak teachers, have to expose ourselves to danger like this? I know the issue originally comes from Sofia’s history with Scripture, so I would understand if you did not want to help; but if you are going to help, being level 500, why make things this complicated? I know how strong Dragons are.”

“There is a lot going on. I could, indeed, obliterate that measly pawn of Scripture, right this moment, without even leaving this office. But that is not what you want, trust me, you want him alive. And I will explain why at the end of this conversation.”

Why could we possibly need the Elf alive? To steal another Essence from Scripture maybe?

Sofia raised another question, “And the reason only I and Astelia can go is to avoid the Elf from being suspicious and teleporting away like last time?”

“Precisely,” Beligenus confirmed, “The pawn is a remote vessel to Scripture, fooling his senses would be easy. But, even in hiding, someone over level 250 would be too noticeable to approach without being detected by a God. Past that threshold, you become much more visible to the divine, annoyingly so. So only you two can go.”

Oh, alright. I feared that we may need to cancel the birthday party but it turns out that despite everything not happening how I thought it would, we can still proceed. That’s reassuring.

Beligenus continued to explain his plan, “Once the pawn takes notice of your arrival, he will put whatever plan he is preparing to execution. At this instant, I will appear in the skies above and activate this machine, which will prevent Scripture from connecting to His Essence and from interfering at all, as well as prevent the pawn from escaping. This, however, is a complex process, I will not be able to help in any other way, and can only maintain it for a few minutes. During this time, you must neutralize the pawn and free him of Scripture’s grasp.”

“How do we free him?” Astelia asked.

“It is a simple matter of removing a few parasites. Which I believe should be one of Miss Vakaria’s abilities. Is it not?” Beligenus asked with a knowing smile.

Sofia nodded, but she was deep in thoughts wondering how Beligenus could possibly know that. The abilities and existence of [Blessing of the Deep] were not something she had revealed to just anyone.

He found out that I saved the Magisterium’s daughter perhaps? How extensive of a background check do you need to perform to know about THIS?

No secrets from the level 500s huh. So the elf is full of mind parasites… How like Scripture to do that. Can he really be saved, though? The sinner Paladins and Templars were all already beyond saving…

“So, we go there pretending to just come to scout the location, you cut Scripture off, then we free the pawn, right?” Sofia asked for some clarification. “Will they not fight back?”

“Oh they will, absolutely. And they are much stronger than you both as well. But without Scripture pulling the strings, they will be acting purely on blind instincts. I am fully confident that you can handle it. If not, I will be saving you, but it will cost the pawn their life,” Beligenus explained.

“I still don’t get why we should care abo-” Sofia started saying, but she stopped herself mid-sentence. Slowly, the pieces of the puzzle were starting to all fit together in her head. She looked at Astelia.

Oh fuck…

Sofia and Astelia were teleported to the event location. It was the remnants of an ancient dilapidated city, surrounded by steep rocky mountains on all sides. No dungeon this time, the actual event for the students was an archeology trip, during which they were meant to search for old relics and try to understand what had led to the city’s downfall. Of course, no archeology would be done today.

Astelia’s mood was terrible, Sofia had never seen her this stressed and angry. So much so that she wondered whether the small Vampire could actually fight. The enemy was a hundred levels above them, after all, not a gap easily crossed. Only because of the mind parasites infesting the enemy did they stand a chance.

On the bright side, they now knew the enemy very well.

Sofia looked around, they had been teleported directly within the ruins, only carved stone blocks in vaguely square formations on the ground were left of whatever this place had been. Astelia turned to look in a certain direction, she couldn’t prevent her sharp canines from showing, she growled, “He’s here. I can smell it.”

Sofia placed a hand on her shoulder. “Try to calm down, Asty. We’ve got this. We’re prepared. Play your role, and everything will be alright.”

This calmed the shaking of the young vampire somewhat, but it failed to dispel her tense facial expression.

Out of nowhere, the blue sky disappeared. The entire mountain range had suddenly been enveloped by a bright pink shield pulsing with energy, like an impenetrable dome of flowing mana obscuring the sky. The transition had been instantaneous and silent.

Violent screams resounded from the other end of the ruined city. Deformed screeches of rage and agony. It was Scripture’s pawn being cut from the divine hand controlling him.

Alright Mr. Scribe, it’s on you, on my signal!