Saintess Summons Skeletons

Uncertain about how to continue, Sofia opted to just repeat a few words and hoped that it would naturally prompt the village chief to keep speaking.

“So early…” she repeated, faking a melancholic tone.

“It’s hard to believe it’s already been five years, isn’t it?”

“It feels like it was just yesterday,” Alith commented, trying to help Sofia out.

“Isn’t that right?” the village chief agreed, “if her Majesty were still here, she would have certainly found a better solution than the ritual…” he said dejectedly before stopping himself with a cough, “N- not to downplay the work of Sir Izzaro and our Sorcerers toward our salvation, we are eternally thankful,” he hurriedly added.

Sir Izzaro? I’ll need to remember that name. This ritual is really starting to sound like a bad thing… And salvation from what? The skin monsters? I guess they are safe from them, somewhat. Their cities outside, though…

“It’s fine,” Sofia answered, “We are well aware that this is no perfect solution, yet we have to make do with what we have…”

Hopefully this doesn’t come off as too humble, considering his reactions, it could.

Contrary to Sofia’s worries, the village chief simply nodded silently. “That we have… The blessed dagger is ready, and so should be the anesthetics. If you would confirm that the tower is in a good state, then everything is done.”

The tower is probably the obelisk. But a dagger and anaesthetics??? Are we going for a ritual sacrifice or something? Who is getting sacrificed and why? I don’t like this… I know we just said not to separate but… If there’s one place we could find more information, it’s the ‘tower’.

“I shall check the tower, then. Lead the way,” she told the old man.

The village chief stayed silent and unmoving for a bit, making Sofia worry that she may have said something she shouldn’t have.

“But, esteemed sorcerer… With all due respect, I bear no sorcerer blood, and am not able to enter the tower…”

Oh, that’s all it is? You scared me! It will become an issue if I’m not able to enter it, though. But I assume ‘Sorcerer blood’ is probably mana?

“Who said anything about entering it?” Sofia answered, “Are you not even going to escort me out of your home and to the entrance, close as it may be?”

“Oh! Of course, of course! Please, follow me.”

The old village chief led Sofia and her group to the other side of the giant glowing obelisk, where a gate of flowers decorated a tall vertically rotated eye on the obelisk. It was made of the same hard to describe glimmering material as the rest of the structure, but was like a finely sculpted human eye, about two meters tall, eyelashes and all, and with a hole in place of the iris.

“There we are,” the old man announced, “Shall I keep your aides company here in the meantime?”

“You need not worry about us,” Alith said, “We will wait right here, try not to take too long.”

She’s on board with the idea, good.

“I will be right back,” Sofia said, before walking up to the large eye.

Scribe! Identify! Quick, tell me how to open this thing! Sofia hurriedly asked internally as she walked to the eye as slowly as she possibly could without being too suspicious. ṚàΝ𝘰₿Èʂ

[Door ?]: While it is hard to say for certain what is going on as no magic activity was detected, this seems to be designed for an arm-sized thing to be inserted in the iris.

You’re saying I should stick my arm in there?! It’s not like I’d die from losing an arm, but…

Alright…

With no other idea, and her mana senses giving her nothing, Sofia followed Mr.Scribe’s suggestion and slowly pushed her arm into the open iris while monitoring the village chief’s reaction.

Since he seemed not to react, this was probably the actual way, but now Sofia had her arm up to the elbow in the hole, and nothing was happening.

She tried to feel the interior of the hole a bit, it was hard and cold with a wood-like fibrous texture. She quickly found something that stood out in the deepest part of the hole.

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Is that… Another light fruit?

Sofia tried pulling on it, but the thing did not move at all.

Shit, is there anything else in there?

Her hand moved around but there was nothing else.

“Is something the matter?” the village chef asked, seeing Sofia taking too long to open the door.

“N- Not at all, I simply need a second to focus,” Sofia replied, as she tried random things like knocking on the fruit or trying to move it. Then she tried blasting it with mana, and she could almost feel herself spin. Everything around her had changed.

I’m inside?!

Of course it was mana… I should have started with that.

She still had her hand on the fruit, but the eye on this side was almost closed, barely open enough to leave the space for the iris hole. I can still feel the connection with everyone on the other side, I’ve really just gone through the door.

Sofia pulled her hand out, and to her surprise, the eye closed fully as soon as her hand was out.

What the hell!

Sofia took a step back. The eye was no longer moving. She tentatively approached her hand, and the eyelids started slowly opening again.

Oh, alright. Not stuck.

With a sigh of relief, Sofia finally took her time to observe where exactly she had landed. The interior so far was nothing but a spiraling ramp going up. The walls were still shimmering with the deep’s strange light, and there were no decorations whatsoever.

Sofia started quickly running up the ramp. Surrounded by this strange color, it felt almost like she had been eaten by Ormoncleth’s strange parasites. It was an unsettling thought.

She made it to the top, and what welcomed there was a simple circular room containing a single thing, a small iridescent tree with no leaves, shimmering in the deep’s colors. On the tip of the topmost branch of the tree, like a morbid ornament, was impaled a pristine and delicate human hand. It had clear, polished nails and smooth light skin with nary a blemish, and from the cut wrist, a thin stream of liquid shimmering colors continuously bled, smothering the entire tree.

Most of the liquid seemed to get absorbed by the tree itself, whose roots dug into the structure of the obelisk, but some pooled on the floor around the tree.

Sofia gasped at the sight of the otherworldly hand, “What am I even looking at…”

“What is this… Whose hand is this? Did they kill a human form envoy from the Deep and use its body parts to fuel this light world?”

Sofia turned around the tree, making sure not to walk in the puddle of shimmering blood.

“Are there even human envoys? The one I killed was like… A thing. And there was nothing left of it afterwards. But I could believe that it could have bled like this. It’s likely that I’m the closest thing to a human envoy now, isn’t it?”

Sofia stared at the hand again.

“This place might be even more unsafe for me than I thought…”

Having a sudden bad feeling, Sofia turned around, staring at the ramp leading down. There was no one there.

“I’m imagining things now…”

After saying this, she lunged at that empty space, punching the air with her gloved hand.

Still nothing? I could have sworn…

Sofia’s thoughts were interrupted by the very faint feeling of the air moving around her in an unnatural way. As if someone had just walked next to her.

She blasted some of her mana all around the room, carefully observing how it behaved. It ricocheted off the wall, and seemed to avoid the hand altogether, curving around it a bit like attacks aimed at her with [Dodge me]. Besides that, there was nothing.

Fuck this! I need to leave here.

Sofia ran down the ramp as fast as she could. At the bottom, she blasted her surroundings with mana once more, searching for any traces of an invisible opponent, worried that she might let a trapped evil out into the world or something like that. Once again she found nothing, so she quickly jammed her hand between the closed eyelids, and sent some mana into the strange fruit.

WE need to leave.

She reappeared outside.

“Sorceress!” the village chief immediately greeted her, “You look unwell. Is there an issue with the tower?” he asked in disbelief.

You can see that without seeing my face? Sofia wanted to say, but she held herself back.

“There is,” she told him, looking to the side to make sure the others were still all there and in one piece, “We cannot hold the festival tonight. I will be leaving immediately to relay the news. Things being as they are, you will need to hold the festival and ritual on the original schedule after all.”

“This…” the old man answered, “H- how? How are we to hold the festival without a sorcerer?”

“Worry not,” Sofia reassured him, “Either I will come back, or another Sorcerer will be dispatched in time. The ritual will be held no matter what,” she told him without a shred of doubt in her voice.

“Oh! Thank the lords…” the old man accepted the explanation with a nod, “Will you and your companions not at least reconsider and stay the night? The villagers would be ecstatic to have such honoured guests…”

“No,” Sofia adamantly refused, “We are too short on time.”

Sofia and the others left the village in a hurry following the main road. Bookie and Alith seemed nervous, while Pareth was on high alert, ready to fight.

“I’ll explain when we’re well out or earshot,” Sofia whispered to the others as they walked away from the village between the wheat fields.

Thank the lords, he says! What do you mean thank the lords?!