Saintess Summons Skeletons

Chapter 148: Families

Chapter 148: Families

Sofia explored the lost Avian city in the following hours. Not much besides the stone walls had survived the passage of time. There were some parts of the city where the air was thick with curses; Pareths [Purify] cut a path through them. She understood after the fact that they were random and not linked to anything interesting, which was a disappointment. She never found a way that led to the place Pareth had fought in.

Street after street, her vision became clearer and clearer until it suddenly opened up all at once. She could see in this cavern as well as during a bright day. There was no more darkness, no more shadows, everything was clear everywhere she looked as she turned around.

Can I turn it off?

Sofia found herself in the dark once again.

Yeah lets not do that.

[Venerable physique of the primeval void] :

First step : Become more resilient to explosions (50%)

Second step : Become able to see in the dark (100%)

Third step : Become able to breathe light (0/100%)

Fourth step : Overcome absolute cold

Fifth step : ???

Current step training method : Hold your breath in the brightest environment you can find.

The new step is, uh, different from what I expected? Breathe light? How does that even work? Am I becoming a plant? Well, at least the training doesnt sound so bad. All I need is a bright place, shouldnt be too hard. But I wont be able to do that in this dungeon.

Done with her main goal for entering this dungeon, she decided to speed things up. Since she could finally see, she was confident enough to fly up. The cavern was humongous, there was easily a hundred meters between the ground and the stalactite-riddled ceiling. Flying up she had a good view of the whole Avian city. There were a few interesting-looking buildings she hadnt explored yet, but most importantly, she could finally see the Buried Cathedral.

When she had entered this main cavern, she had turned to the left and found the city, the Cathedral was on the right. It was an impressive work of architecture, and it was preserved much better than the city, but most impressive were the messages she was getting when she looked at it.

[You have been affected by : insanity. But your skills negated the status]

[You have been affected by : insanity. But your skills negated the status]

[You have been affected by : insanity. But your skills negated the status]

There has to be an Apostle in there. Definitely. What is it going to be? Apostle of the dark? Sofia felt uneasy, so she decided to get her third rune ready.

If she was to be honest, without [False immortality], she would turn back now and leave this cursed dungeon to never return. The runes gave her the confidence to keep going.

The High-Priest, that she resummoned at some point after he expired during the exploration, still had about an hour of lifespan left when she got done. More than enough, lets get this done.

Sofia decided to land and enter through an open window on the upper floors of the Cathedral. There was no reason to announce her arrival to a probably hostile Apostle. She expected another disfigured demon. But on the off chance they were neutral, she wouldnt blast them as she had done for the Son of Dread. Else she could have double-bolted the Cathedral from the other side of the cave.

The interior of the Cathedral was dense with cursed air, still, she advanced, letting Pareths purification skill lead the way. They had entered by a side of the buildings highest floor, which was a long corridor. The Avian statues decorating the walls were of impressive craftsmanship. Who did they represent? These dont look like Gods, their religious figure?

To navigate the place, Sofia followed the insanity prompts, which led her to step foot on an archway overlooking the main chamber of the Cathedral. As Pareth cleansed the way forward, the sacred place revealed itself to Sofia.

Holy We found the Avians.

The scene was unbelievable. The cathedrals stone bench had been piled against the wall, everything pushed to the side to make room. Room for a giant ritual circle drawn by people, Avians. Sofia could see the similarities to the circle of skulls she had drawn for the ritual of Sorrow.

The Avians, clearly real people of different builds and appearance, had all shared a similar fate, turned to stone, kneeling toward an altar, inserting a knife into their own hearts. There had to be at least a thousand of them.

On an elevated stone platform at the very back of the Cathedral sat three Avians in luxurious garments, one of which had a strange conical hat and the other two had large crowns. They had been overlooking the ritual. They held no knife but were turned to stone all the same. Their expression had slightly faded from their face, eroded by the changing eras, but Sofia could tell that they looked uneasy.

I dont think these three knew they were going to be a part of the whole petrification thing.

The only thing that Sofia couldnt quite see was the central altar of the ritual as it was under the archway she was standing on. The Apostle is on the altar. She could only see the two protruding ends of the altar, made of black, stone-looking material. Black Primus resin bricks. Just like the pyramid.

Someone spoke. A very feminine voice, it was all Avian language gibberish, but the sad and pleading tone was as human as it could get. It came from the altar below.

W- What do I do about this? Should I go down? What if its some kind of trap? This girl down there sounds really desperate though. Hmm. This might very well be the most dangerous thing Ive ever done In this reality at least.

I cant even escape fast because the curse is closing back up the path behind me. Unless I trust that the rune can save me from it. A bit too risky.

Id go out and send Pareth but he still sees nothing What a headache this place is

I need to get away, risking a fight here is too dangerous.

The person down on the altar was still desperately trying to communicate, in Avian. When she heard Sofia take a few steps back, she started violently sobbing in between her words.

Fucking Ugh.

Can you understand me? Sofia tried.

Silence followed for a few unbearable seconds. And then the gibberish Avian talk started again, with a renewed pleading energy. Sofia couldnt understand a single word but she could clearly feel the same kind of dread, the same kind of despair, the same pain in this womans voice that had once been her siblings, as a kid, hopeless, begging for their next meal with both their lives on the line.

... Sofia closed her eyes, trying her best to suppress the bittersweet memories of her sister.

Alright, you win. Im coming.

There was no obvious way down, and she couldnt fly or jump because of the curse. Similarly, if she wanted to search for the real stairs down it would take forever for Pareth to cleanse the way. If the curse is in the air Wait, I do know of another way to disperse that How did I not see that before?! It was so obvious!

How does it work with the staff?

Usually, Sofia couldnt use [Angels bolt] while holding something. She discovered that it didnt apply to the staff. The lightning gathered and formed a lance, except that instead of the usual wild plasma javelin, it was contained around the staff, almost like a coating. To save some mana, this was the spell version of the skill.

The pleadings from the person below had stopped.

This worked quite well at repelling the curse or to be exact, at consuming it, the curse mana seeping into the spell, feeding the lightning. It wasnt what Sofia had expected and she freaked out when she saw the curse from outside the purified zone closing in but it disappeared before it could even reach the staff itself.

Good enough. Sofia still wasnt about to jump down however, she ran through the Cathedral, searching for a way down as she burned the curse away. It didnt hurt as bad as it used to, her armor held out better than usual. Pareth was holding the blessed marrow greatshield. 10% more resilient is much more noticeable than I thought.

Sofia couldnt stop cursing at herself for not having thought of that way to deal with the curse sooner. It was so much better, saving a lot of time and effort, all she had to do was to hold a bolt and run. It still took her a while to find the way, the Cathedral was surprisingly large from the inside, and she had to dispel the bolt after a while. A fully formed one, she normally couldnt dispel without backlash, built the staff worked as advertised, completely negating that. After waiting for a few seconds for her armor that was glowing red to cool down, she cast another bolt and started running again. Finally, she found her way down and soon entered the main chamber by a side door.

Entering the main chamber from the ground floor this time, she had a direct view of the altar.

The Avian demon was pinned down on the altar by metallic shackles covered in runes, emitting a black glow.

Sofia couldnt see much from where she was, the altar was higher than her head, but three things were certain. This was the person who had been talking. She was crying and repeating the same few Avian words over and over again. And she was an Apostle.

Just like she could see the Heroes levels without [Identify], Sofia could see information on that Apostle, which she thought was due to her authority as an honorary Apostle.

[Evranarheimlein - Daughter of Curse - Lv. 299]