Saintess Summons Skeletons - Chapter 461: Queen of the hill
[Destroyer’s Complete mana heart of Aphenoreth]: /SSS tier/
UNABLE TO CALCULATE SETTING TIME
Imprint progress : 10000/ 10000
Small Catalyser : 1/1
Medium Catalyser : 1/1
Large Catalyser : 1/1
Giant Catalyser : 1/1
Keystone : 1/1
Transcendent ritual : 0/3
Effects (Stats will be doubled) :
- All stats + 170% (SSS rank base)
- All stats + 50%
- Health + 67 381
- Stamina + 17 900
- Mana + 834 719
- Slashing resistance + 5%
- Explosion resistance + 10%
- Explosion resistance + 15%
- Slashing resistance + 20%
- [Relocate Core]
- Destroyer Signature Skill Modifier
- Speed shard (5)
- Strength shard (2)
I should have around four months left? It was hard to find so many mana imprints… At least I have all I need for the first two rituals now, I just need to make it to the marked location.
Sofia was running at full speed through the blue plains of Cerberus beta. The instructions for the ‘transcendent rituals’ had been hidden within the heart’s description from the beginning, to even Mr Scribe’s surprise, and they were pretty clear, although slightly worrying. The place where it needed to be held was somewhere on the opposite side of the planet compared to where she had been until then.
Slowly, the scenery changed from the familiar lively blue plains and forests to arid and dusty plains with countless deep faults and canyons running through them.
Finally Sofia reached the place indicated by the instructions, a small flat-topped hill with steep cliffs on all sides, standing alone in the middle of the empty arid plains. A few spiky plants grew on the hilltop, but that was all there was to be found there beside rocks and dust.
“This is it? I don’t know why but I kind of expected a special place, not just a flat hill.”
Bookie summoned himself next to Sofia and looked around. “It’s a bit special, I think,” he said, sounding uncertain.
“Is it?” Sofia extended her mana senses and observed the surroundings but she couldn’t find anything special. In fact, she felt so much nothing that it was indeed a bit strange. “Oh, I see what you mean Bookie. There are no bones around here. None at all.”
Bookie nodded, “It’s like all the monsters never come here! There are no insects either…”
“That is a bit strange, yeah. Well, at least this should be confirmation that we have the right hill. We should get started with the ritual. Can you summon the Engineer and the ten Kidjikkik workers, Bookie?”
“Yes!”
The group got to work. Pareth was charged of flattening the place even more, getting rid of the plants and such. Sofia slowly paved the ground with the Bone slates she had prepared, already inscribed with the giant ritual circle provided in the instructions. And lastly Bookie helped the skeletons assembled the tall bone-sculpted altar in the middle of the ritual circle.
They were ready by dusk, but that was only the first part, more work was waiting for them, as the instructions for the ritual ended like this: Defend your positions until the heart is ready. And considering the ritual needed to be started at the start of the night, Sofia was expecting to be fighting the Sunless.
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“This hill surrounded by steep cliffs is a perfect natural protection, I could easily see someone building a castle right here if it wasn’t in the middle of nowhere in a trial zone. What kind of defenses should I build? It says there must be nothing above the altar so building an actual castle is off-limits. I could do walls, though. If I stay near the altar I can just about have the entire plateau in the graveyard range… I’m going to need more bones.”
For the three following days, Pareth became a bone factory, cutting his main head off and regenerating through the [Bone dominus] passive healing.
The entire hill and its immediate surroundings were covered in a layer of bone. High walls had been erected along the cliffs, and there were serrated spikes everywhere around the hill and on the cliffs which would make even getting to the walls very hard. And lastly there were high watchtowers inside the walls which Sofia could use to bolt monsters from afar with some protection. Alternatively, she could also summon her Sirhellions skeletons on the roofs to do the same as they could not fly at night due to the lack of mana.
Although there were no monsters or animals around during the day, there were always Sunless drones everywhere at night, keeping Pareth and Bookie busy. It took ten more days to gather enough mana to make the giant structure into one single [Bone dominus] blessed construct.
“Finally done!”
This felt like a waste of time but I can’t take any risks. I don’t know what I’ll have to defend against, but now this is my battlefield. I just need to get the altar ready and wait for night!
The altar itself was made of a bunch of stacked ritual circles carved in bone piled on top of one another, with a pedestal to put the mana heart on top. There was a ‘Sacrificial slot’ at the bottom of the altar, and the entire thing was surrounded by four tall pillars.
One by one, Sofia placed the offerings on top of the pillars.
The northern pillar, a part of my body. There Sofia placed a few strands of hair, which was the most she could afford to part with currently.
The eastern pillar, a part of my magic. Sofia placed a bone cup filled with summoned blood on the pillar.
The southern pillar, a part of my soul. This one was a bit tricky, as the offerings would be consumed by the ritual, and Sofia could not exactly just cut a piece of her soul to place on there. Eventually she settled on sacrificing a glove of the princess clothing set she got from the first trial. The right glove specifically, since she never wore it anymore. It was one of her few soulbound items, meaning it technically held a very small part of her soul, which would be enough.
And the western pillar, a part of my regrets… Perhaps the most annoying of the requirements, Sofia had gone back and forth with herself for a while, but there was only one thing in her possession which embodied her regrets. A small silver ring, too narrow for her own fingers. Clarice…
She held the ring above the pillar but when the time came to place it down, her past hesitation caught up with her. I have to have something else…
Sofia was a person of few regrets. In the ten days she had spent giving the dominus blessing to her fortifications, she had gone through all of her belongings several times, but there was really nothing else.
Pareth hugged Sofia from behind, gently patting her head.
I’m sorry, Clarice.
I will avenge you and everyone else.
Sofia turned around, Thanks for still being here, Pareth. You can let me go, I’m fine, really… The sun is setting, we need to finish the ritual fast.
Lastly, Sofia walked to the center of the altar, placed her mana heart on top, and the Chimera’s mana heart in the slot below.
Health : 6570 / 85 980
Stamina : 21 032 / 21 047
Mana : 417 100 / 417 100
If only I could heal up a bit…
Sofia’s vision switched to one of the many bone tokens she had embedded into the defensive walls, allowing her to watch the surroundings from every angle. The sun was disappearing under the horizon, the temperature quickly grew colder, and mana started to gather in clumps.
“Alrtight, Pareth, Bookie, be ready. The sun is almost gone, quickly clean up the first drones. We need to defend the heart until the end of the ritual. Three. Two. One.”
Sofia activated the ritual circle. Like a ravenous glutton, the ritual absorbed all the mana around, leaving the air dry, and preventing the usual Sunless drones to appear within the walls. The ritual circle slowly came alive, its many runes and grooves lighting up in a strange blue light. Blue flames appeared on top of the pillars, consuming the offerings, and the Chimera’s mana heart started shining.
An intense ray of blue light shot up from the Chimera’s heart, enveloping Sofia’s mana heart above it and piercing through the night sky.
Bookie looked up, stunned, “Woah! So much light! I can’t even see the stars!”
“Now is not the time to admire the sky, Bookie, we have a lot of guests.”
Sofia’s vision was jumping from one token to another, and the sight of the happenings outside of her walls was alarming. No matter where she looked, countless Sunless drones were rising from the ground, an endless sea of them, painting the landscape black.
“Pareth, you’re up, southern side. Bookie you stay here to keep an eye on the heart and manage the troops. Let’s start with a hundred Kidjikkik Soldiers to the northeast, and spread the rats all around to break up as many forming amalgams as you can. I’ll go hold the northwest for now. If we cannot manage, we will summon the templars.”