Saintess Summons Skeletons

The tunnel of the Kidjikkiks pierced through the walls of an underground facility long before they could reach the city.

Catacombs.

Everyone was on high alert. Sofia ordered a single Kidjikkik to step forward into the grim-looking subterranean gallery. The catacombs, or this section, at least, was in the real world.

Lifetime : 17 935s/17 940s

Sofia lightly poked the skeleton in the skull with one finger, causing it to crumble to dust. “It might have been better to keep the ogre after all…”

“Sofia,” Bookie called out, pulling on her hand, “Sofia, it’s not dead!”

“

Lifetime : -1s/17 940s

“The name changed. I don’t even know what to make of this… The lifetime is stuck at minus one. It’s not even getting healed by [Bone Dominus]’s blessing so it doesn’t look like it’s going to stand back up anytime soon…”

“It’s not even permanent bone dust, is it?” Alith asked, “This thing is useless like this. But maybe it’ll be able to guide us in the light world anyway?”

“There’s a chance. Maybe he would even be able to speak. Or maybe not. We’ll see. It’s not like there’s a reason to get rid of the page now anyway.”

“Do you think it’ll still be like this next time you summon it?”

“Probably not,” Sofia answered with a shrug, “But it’s a weird case so I can’t say for sure. Let’s try.”

Bookie nodded, dismissed the Forgotten and summoned it back. It was restored to its pristine 3 Health point self. Sofia was about to call it quits and resume the catacombs’ slow and careful exploration, but she suddenly had an idea. She could give [Bone Dominus]’s construct blessing to just about any coherent set of bones now, be it her own skeleton, armor, Pareth, Bookie, or even the Solar Skeletons. She rarely gave it to the Solar Skeletons, as they would lose the blessing when they died, which meant a loss of passive healing, hence why the constructs were usually Pareth, herself, and a bone ring she wore under her armguard. Since this skeleton seemed to refuse to die when it was killed, Sofia sensed an opportunity for shenanigans.

As the skeleton was so brittle and weak, it was extremely fast to bless. It immediately made it much sturdier, but he still only had three health points nonetheless.

Sofia lightly punched the blessed skeleton, and it crumbled again.

It kept the blessing.

“I might be able to extend the blessing’s range by just spreading this bone dust,” Sofia muttered, “It’s also indestructible in sunlight as are all of Bookie’s skeletons, so I can find a few uses for this…”

“Not so useless after all, I guess,” Alith commented, “not helping us right now, though.”

“Right, right, sorry, I just had to experiment a bit…” Sofia apologized, unsummoning and resummoning the skeleton again. It was still blessed by [Bone Dominus]. Sofia blinked a few times, not believing her eyes. I see. I see. The forgotten will not be forgotten anytime soon. “Can you lead us out of these catacombs?” she asked the blessed skeleton.

Slowly, the skeleton started walking out of the room, and started going down the catacomb’s main corridor in the same direction the group had already been heading toward before.

It only took a few minutes and two turns through the corridors before it led them to a closed door that Sofia’s mana senses peered through. “Stairs,” she told the others.

“Damn, it actually led us to the exit.”

“Sofia!” Bookie exclaimed out of nowhere, “I can hear it!”

Hear?

Thanks to Bookie, Sofia also noticed it, the singing voice from before, its faint vibrations coming from the stairwell behind the doors.

“Oh wow, I hear it too now. There’s really someone singing out there,” Alith said, “I can’t understand a single word.”

“Was this your old language?” Sofia asked the Forgotten skeleton.

Since it did not answer, Bookie felt pressured to explain, looking down at his feet, “I told you, it’s not very smart…”