Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia wore the white robes of a high-priest of Death, idly working on the bone foundations for Death’s temple as she waited for Leverle to show up.

Maybe they’ll want an underground like they have in Exidia? Can’t dig too deep because of the fairy, though.

Hmm… I also haven’t prepared a statue for Death.

I can’t have religious texts in the temples so they at least need to have proper decorations…

Death though… I mean… I could try to recreate the ways he looked.

But just thinking about them still gives me a headache…

I wonder if Sun’s true divine form is as strange.

Or does she even have one? Her true form could just be the actual Sun.

“Still is our plane, yet your mind is already in the clouds,” Someone commented from behind, startling Sofia out of her random thoughts.

“I didn’t notice you coming, Leverle.”

“Death is swift and silent. I see you remembered you own our robes,” Leverle said, looking down at Sofia who was still sitting on the ground.

“Why do you sound disappointed? Did you expect me to wear those during the trial?”

“It would have been a welcome sight. I hear from the calamity that you intend to enter the forbidden layer?” Leverle inquired.

“Very likely, yes.”

“Then it would be prudent to wear it. You can never be safe enough in these depths.”

“Hmmm? Have you gone there yourself?” Sofia asked.

“A long time ago. It is not a place one can describe with words. I can only wish you good luck.”

“Thanks. I’ll be careful. What do you think of my plans for the temple here?” Sofia asked, producing a miniature bone-temple sculpture.

Leverle’s long neck stretched as his blank mask observed the object.

“It will have to do,” he said, sounding more pleased than his words let on. “I have brought a senior priest to manage this place. Romuald Longcastle. He is meeting with the shade at this moment.”

“Alright, thanks. The builders you mentioned are with him?”

“Indeed. They will follow soon. Though they are only paid for our temple’s construction, a handful of them seem to be interested in moving here. It certainly is quite the city you are planning on erecting.” RΑ₦ОʙĚꞨ

“It’s quickly become a bigger project than I had expected,” Sofia confessed, “It’s invigorating to see so many people being invested in my plans and ideas, though. I just hope I can complete the critical areas like the temple district soon and focus on the outer parts before it becomes a slum…”

“Poverty is inevitable in society. Yet things look peaceful here so far. This continent’s relative safety, I wonder if it is a good or a bad thing for you… Are you ready to enter our lord Death’s domain once more?”

“I am. No need for a fancy ritual altar this time?”

“No need. You are already connected, you only require the proper trigger.”

“Can I go right away?”

“As you wish.”

Leverle’s black hand reached out from under his white robes, and reached for the top of Sofia’s head.

Before she realised the change, she was stripped of her senses, a familiar feeling.

Every damned time. Gathering the energy from the essences within, Sofia used VPPV to create herself a strange body of black light, regaining her senses. She found herself stranded in a gray world, surrounded by a familiar forest of bone trees.

Hmm… I feel a faint connection with the trees.

Is it my aura reacting?

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Sofia placed her hands on the closest trees, her sense of touch was faint and distant, it was like touching a thick lump of soft wool with numb hands. She felt the connection a bit more clearly, but had absolutely no influence over the tree’s bones.

Strange.

Without wasting more time, Sofia retraced her route from the first time, or so she thought, but instead of finding a wheat field full of eyes when she left the forest, she found a village instead.

Did the domain itself change or is this just another location in it?

Curious, she quickly looked around the village. The houses all seemed lived-in and in decent condition, but there was no one to be seen anywhere, aside from the divine realm’s eyes, ever watching.

Sofia spent a few seconds observing the statue that stood on a dry fountain at the center of the village. It represented a lonely-looking cloaked figure, but the statue was broken, lacking a leg. It was a wonder how it even still stood.

What a peculiar place…

Finding her way out of the village, Sofia ended up in the wheat fields like she did the previous time.

Ah. Well at least I know the way.

Sofia walked through the wheat fields randomly until she spotted a thin column of dark smoke rising far away in the distance.

There we go.

Following the smoke, Sofia entered the valley littered with giant skeletons again. Like with the bone trees, she faintly felt a connection with the bones, but not enough to do anything with it.

Could I bring Bookie here somehow?

She followed the smoke to the vast void separating the skeletal plains from Death’s tiny flying house, which looked different from the previous time. I couldn’t see the house while standing at the border last time. My divine plane vision definitely improved. Last time it had been a small log cabin, and now it looked like a cosy brick cottage.

I guess Death has been doing some redecorating. Might explain the village.

Walking over the void with [DODGE-ME] like she did the first time around, Sofia approached the house and knocked on the door.

Sofia was suddenly inside of the brick house. It was impossible to tell if she had been moved in or the house had moved to her; it had not felt like anything. Death was there, not looking out of a window this time, but sitting on a chair, staring at a crackling gray fire in the chimney, poking it with a long iron stick.

He looked surprisingly normal for once, some kind of spindly black humanoid bird, not quite Avian but not too far off, just a bit sickly looking and with strange proportions. Sofia did her best not to blink, trying to remember that appearance, thinking that it would make for an acceptable statue compared to His other myriad forms. Then she couldn’t hold it back anymore and blinked once. Death became an incomprehensible thing that made even Kleptras look like cuddly plushies. Sofia felt her mind slip away, hurriedly closing her eyes.

The memory of that vision haunted her thoughts even with her eyes closed.

Death’s voice pulled her mind out of the spiral it had entered, “Look into the abyss too much and it might stare back. You already knew, so why did you still insist on staring?”

“Curiosity…” Sofia answered, her thoughts still a bit too disorganized to manage a full sentence.

“The same mistake and the same answer. Were you not human I would have sworn you were related.”

“You?”

“One of the few other people daring enough to visit Death. An old dragon.”

“...” Sofia quickly connected the dots. “Cecless?”

“Has she contacted you already? Always so impatient… You should sit down, you can take the other chair next to me.”

Sofia quickly opened her eyes, Death’s previous appearance had scrambled her thoughts so badly, she barely even remembered where she was standing. Thankfully this time it was not too bad, just the skeleton of some unknown bear-like animal, strips of rotten flesh and fur still hanging off of it. It was oozing a cold mist, freezing the surrounding floor but just as quickly melting from the fireplace’s heat.

Sofia did not dare stare too long, and sat down on the second chair, closing her eyes again. “Was that the Yoyögg?”

“Perhaps. I do not see what you see. Your eyes are not strong enough.”

“Hmmm.” Sofia nodded, proceeding to answer Death’s previous question, “Cecless has contacted me, yes. I barely knew that she existed before and now it feels like everywhere I look she has always been there…”

Death laughed. “She is almost my age, and a most meddlesome soul. There are few things still free from her influence. She has left a thousand questions burning your tongue, has she not?”

“... I won’t dare talk about it, even to you,” Sofia answered after serious consideration. Death was not a marked one, and despite her lighthearted tone at the time, Cecless’ warning about not disclosing the details of the coming cataclysm to anyone felt more than serious.

“Yes. This was her choice, too. I have been searching on my own. Likewise, some things I cannot even say. Not to you, not to anyone else. That is the scale of the powers at play.”

Sofia sighed, even Death was being censored, that did not bode well. After a long moment of silence punctuated by the crackling of the fire, she asked, “Do you think we can survive?”

“Uncertain. The previous Sun and Death did not, but I err on the side of optimism. Even if knowledge is impossible to share and hard to come by, many are working in the same direction. The failures of the previous ones have left us with a wealth of information. A clear advantage.”

“Hopefully you’re right… Me taking your essence is not causing you any issues, is it?”

“Of course not. Quite the contrary. If things go well today, I may be able to start freely roaming the land as I used to. That will certainly play in our favor. You may not yet realize how big a role you are playing,” Death said, sounding quite satisfied.

“I was just trying to become a necromancer…”

Death was silent for a bit, Sofia hearing him stir the coal of the fire. “Fate is a curious thing…”