Saintess Summons Skeletons

Before throwing herself in the chimera’s maw, Sofia started with some intel gathering. People were quick to inform her that the Queen’s eternal mortal envelope was indeed laid to rest there, as the name suggested, and that it was completely forbidden to the public, the chancellor and guardian knights being the only ones allowed inside.

Thereafter, Sofia spent an entire day observing the enclosed shrine and its surroundings, at first by just walking around in the vicinity, and later by hiding upstairs in someone’s home she entered by lockpicking the back door, and observing through the windows.

Night was falling once again, and Sofia felt a bit discouraged.

She counted no less than twenty knights, ten for the morning shift and ten for the afternoon one, as well as at least four archers waiting in ambush in surrounding buildings. They were basically impossible to spot from the street, but Sofia had noticed one from her higher viewpoint, and from there she spent all afternoon trying to locate others. She was not even sure that she had seen them all.

At least no mana means I do not have to worry about there being any sorcerers.

It’s not going to be easy even with Pestle. The surrounding streets are well lit with many torches starting from dusk… Going about it discreetly is basically impossible.

But going for a frontal assault is also bound to fail, the watchmen’s headquarter is only two streets away and I’ve seen firsthand how many they are on standby.

And currently I might die from a single punch, let alone a sword strike… I do have the luxury of potentially getting multiple attempts, but I would rather not count on it.

Maybe I should simply ask the commander if I can have access before I risk my life, but I don’t think he would accept. Everyone here has this air of pride and nostalgia when they speak about her. With this kind of borderline faith-like devotion, it’s basically asking for the moon. I wouldn’t be shocked if they arrested me for even daring to ask.

I’ll just have to find a way.

I can start by killing the archers and…

Wait, can I?

What if people I kill don’t come back for the next loop like I did? I’m different from them, after all, keeping my memories… Hmm…

No… I Worry for nothing. If it’s been thirty thousand years and these people don’t come back to life each time, wouldn’t this place be a ghost town by now?

Or wait, would it? Since they lose their memory, doesn’t everyone do the exact same things each loop unless someone like me comes to disrupt them? That would mean anyone meant to die during the loop died off the first time and there hasn’t been any deaths since.

Hmm… That’s quite the issue.

And the only way to know for sure would be to kill someone and see whether they are back in the next loop.

After these thoughts, Sofia hit a mental roadblock.

“Pestle.”

“Hmmm?”

“Did you kill that guard with a crossbow who shot me last time?”

Pestle seemed to hesitate, “Hmmmmmmm… Yes! Very kill. Very kill,” she answered, proud of herself.

Now that is great news.

“Just to make sure, was it the same one we saw on the third floor?”

“Same same,” Pestle confirmed, quite sure of herself.

Sofia’s smile grew wider.

The next day, around midnight, Sofia was about ready for her grand plan to unfold. She was sitting on a wooden balcony overlooking a rather narrow street. Any minute now.

Lit by a single candle, Sofia pretended to read a book while looking at the end of the street. Finally, there was light.

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They’re here.

Two knights were coming, they were part of the constant patrols around the area, each holding a torch, casually chatting through their closed helmets.

Sofia patiently waited until the perfect time, standing up when the knights came close. She bent over the balcony and waved at them, she called out to them, though not overly loudly as it was night, “Have a good shift, sir Knights!”

The knights looked up, they were about five meters away from being under the balcony. One of them raised his torch, perhaps to answer, but Sofia was not going to wait, she had already damaged the balcony’s railing, now all she had to do was to lean on it with all of her weight.

Hopefully I survive this…

As she leaned over the balcony railing, the wood cracked beneath her. The knights had just enough time to shout a warning before Sofia fell from the balcony.

The sensation of falling uncontrollably only lasted a second. One of the knights rushed forward, trying to catch her. Unable to properly catch her, he slammed into her with a grunt, his arms wrapping around her in a desperate attempt to break her fall. That might have worked with a shorter lady, unfortunately for him, Sofia was quite tall, and heavier than she looked. The impact was brutal, throwing them both to the cobbled street. Sofia cried out, she had planned to but ended up not needing to act, as the pain was quite real, she certainly had at least a broken bone.

For a moment, the situation was nothing but confusion. The knight under Sofia groaned in pain as she struggled to keep herself conscious through the pain.

The other knight rushed up to them, “Joe! Oh, lords!” He grabbed Sofia and pulled her down from his colleague. He quickly opened the visor of his bascinet helm, “Lady, you’re injured. Try to stay awake,” he told Sofia who groaned weakly in answer, doing her best to act as limp as she could, despite her thoughts being clear now that the brunt of the pain was behind her.

Broken rib. Crap. Need to fix that fast!

The standing knight helped his fallen companion.

“I’m fine. How is the girl?” the fallen knight asked in between two groans as grabbed his colleague’s extended hand and sat up.

“She looks in pain, but I think you saved her from the worst,” he quickly said, looking at Sofia, “Are you still with us? Hey!”

Sofia kept her eyes unfocused and her and limbs limp, she did not answer.

“Shit! Joe, stay with her, I’m getting Corine!”

“Be quick!”

The knight left the narrow street, running, while Joe opened his own helmet and bent to the side to grab Sofia by the shoulder, “Lady! Stay awake. Now is not the time to faint!” he said, shaking her shoulder lightly while supporting her head.

As soon as the other knight disappeared by the corner of the street. A tiny shadow dropped from the balcony, landing directly behind on the knight’s lap. He had no time to react. The tiny creature jumped, and its clawed hand pierced the knight’s forehead, sinking in all the way to the creature’s shoulder.

The knight went limp. He died without even having time to realise he was being attacked.

Sofia stood up, fighting off the dizziness, her broken rib wasn’t healed but it was summarily put back in one piece, which would have to do for the time being. Sofia pulled a rag from her pocket, and plugged the hole in the knight’s forehead when Pestle yanked her arm out. Then Sofia opened the door of the building which was right under the balcony, and Pestle lifted the corpse, running inside of the house with it. Sofia closed the door.

No one had reacted to the scene, as the inhabitants of the nearby houses had all been killed in their sleep by Pestle in the previous hour. The body was brought to the other side of the house, and Sofia started to quickly undress it. She had chosen to ambush that duo of knights in particular, since they were both right about her size. Thankfully she was relatively familiar with plate armor, having studied many designs to find inspiration for variations of her bone armor. With Pestle’s help removing the multiple layers of armor took about five minutes, and Sofia was just starting to get dressed when she started hearing noise from outside.

“Joe?! Joe, where are you?!”, the man yelled.

He’s back… I don’t have long.

Sofia rushed to put on the armor. She decided to leave out the gambeson to go faster, it would be uncomfortable and look odd if anyone looked at her too closely, but it would also make the armor a lot lighter, which would help considering how physically weak she currently was.

Fully armored, Sofia closed the helmet, the inside of which was slightly bloody despite her best efforts to get a clean assassination, and she left the house through a window on the opposite side of the balcony, getting some help from Pestle to hoist herself through.

Sofia felt a bit weak, all of this night’s killings left her a bit sick, even if she knew they were only temporary deaths, and she was still in pain from the fall, but she had to proceed nevertheless. She gave a thumbs up to Pestle, “Thank you, good work. We separate now, give me ten seconds to run, and start phase two.”

“Phase two!” Pestle repeated confidently, copying the thumbs up.

Sofia engulfed herself in a narrow alleyway, while Pestle rushed to the main street leading directly to the ‘Queen’s rest’, some five hundred meters away.

It wasn’t long before Sofia started hearing the noise of phase two: the disaster.

Pestle rushed through walls, bursting through the stone with ease, and clawing away at every supporting beam she could find. Before Sofia could even run a hundred meters, she heard it, the first building started to collapse. The deafening noise spread through the streets, in the nearby houses, people woke up, in the distance, people were screaming. In the middle of the night, a general panic started, as buildings started to collapse one after the other, all the work of one single fairy, laughing to herself like a lunatic. It was not long before Sofia heard the sound of horns, the knights were calling for reinforcements.

When, after her run, Sofia arrived at the shrine, the gates were wide open, and there was a single knight left to guard the place, his sword drawn, panickedly looking at a building falling to ruin in the distance.