Chapter 788 - Almost there

[Venerable physique of the primeval void] ♢ - Peak of the Light forging realm : 

Gather divine essence (30) to unlock the Boundless space realm.

Current divine essence (26) : 

• Scripture (1)

• Aphenoreth (1)

• Dread (1)

• Sorrow (1)

• Ormoncleth (1)

• Victory (1)

• Sun (5)

• Creation (2)

• Life (1)

• Death (5)

• Rejection (1)

• Taxes (1)

• Suffering (2)

• Love (1)

• Moon (2)

Sofia stared at the moon up in the sky, wondering when she had even received those two essences. She had just been handling small matters all over the city with Astelia after Love had left, and when they’d stopped to have a snack, Sofia had noticed the foreign essences already in her body.

“No idea either,” Astelia said, sitting next to Sofia, “I got no news since last time.”

“Well… I cannot complain about it… It’s going to make things a lot easier, so… Does she still want me not to take essence from Water, or..?”

Astelia sighed, “Moon is always like this… I think as long as you help with the castle she won’t say anything. You probably couldn’t have gotten far inside it without her essence anyway.”

“Right… We have some time, still. Unless it’s no longer a 400+ dungeon?”

“Oh, no. It still is. I have to wonder whether it is something like that temple of Sorrow you retrieved that shroud from. But Moon just will not tell…”

“Ah well. Just give it a few more years and we’ll go in there together. Hmm… Decided what you want to do for the trial yet?”

“Not really,” Astelia answered, “I know that you cannot tell more, but that is quite the dilemma. Form a single strong group knowing a single person is going to reap the most valuable rewards, or all go our own way with the possibility that our groups will be too weak to get said rewards at all… I think I liked single person trials better.”

“Eh. There’s always the third option. Just break the scores enough that multiple people get the reward.”

Astelia frowned, “You said that last time, but how are we supposed to do that? Not everyone is you with a mana heart rank that doesn’t even exist.”

“Even like this you still won in almost half of the sparring session against me and Pareth together before we took the trial. And you kept training until now. I don’t think you’ll get into the trial any weaker than I was. Have you spoken with Cin recently? The Recessed are already preparing to bet on you and Alith.”

“Bet on…?”

“Can’t say. Censored.”

“... What would you do in my place?”

“I think… Probably go by myself,” Sofia said, “After all, Saria got the rewards too with a much weaker group, you just have to have good people you can trust and be strong enough to make up for their weaknesses.”

Astelia bit into a pastry, deep in thought, after a while, she came to a conclusion. “You better wait for me before you go to the next trial.”

“We don’t even know if the next one is a group trial again, but sure, I’ll wait. Got a city to build and a debt to pay in the meantime anyway, so you can even take your time.”

“You better not forget you said that.”

The next day, Ihuarah was still working on the ritual circle, his progress had been slowed down by his surprise flight to the beastmen continent the previous day.

Instead, Sofia went to fetch Alith for a quick trip north, she found her alone, face in a cauldron in Erredis’ workshop.

“Hey! Still brewing?”

“Hmm! Sofia? Yeah. Nothing important though. Just prep work for the trial. I need a good stockpile of potions to feel safe. Hmm, speaking of, Asty came earlier to tell me she wouldn’t group up with me after all. Feels a bit lonely,” Alith answered, head peaking out of the cauldron that she was apparently brushing the inside of with some kind of oil.

“My fault, sorry about that. I think that’s good for you, though. There’s a particular trial reward that you would love that you might not be able to get if you two group up.”

“Hard to make that make sense, but if you say so, Sof…”

“You’ll understand when you get there. I’m not worried for you either way, your signature skill is going to do a lot of the work for you this trial. A LOOOOT.”

“All the more reasons to stockpile these short stat boosting potions then. Any one in particular you want some extra of?”

“Aura?” Sofia tried.

“Tsssk. You and Sar’ truly are one and the same. They’re still useless to me but I’ll make you some. Did you just come in to say hi?”

“I was hoping you were free for a quick round trip to the desert.”

“Oh!” Alith reacted, head coming out of the cauldron again, “Time to beat up the demons?”

“Yes. You can come and watch.”

“Watch? Sof’ you know me, imma be taking part in the fun! Especially this time, revenge for trapping us in that stupid pyramid! Are you sure we can get them though? That dwarf was level 349 and he didn’t dare, right?”

“Sure was. But I killed him. And I know from experience failed Apostles are weaker than their level suggests. We’re going to be just fine, just don’t forget to use your signature before you die…”

“No big deal even if I die, I’ll just respawn the next day.”

“Tried that yet?”

“Haven’t, not really a big fan of dying, unlike you, but I have the skill, no reason it shouldn’t work.”

“... Alright then… Ready to go?”

“Anytime!”

Sofia flew all the way to the red sand desert, carrying Alith, which took less than an hour. They had to stop since the red sand absorbed all the mana preventing Sofia’s wings from working.

Alith landed on the hot red sand, looking up at Sofia who still floated above the sand, and joining her, understanding what was going on.

“Can’t fly huh?”

“Well. Runeforged overlord’s free flight isn’t quite as fast, as you can tell.”

“Still faster than my ghost form…” Alith quipped, floating in the general direction of the pyramids, “I still haven’t got a proper flying skill.”

“Clint said you’d get a class evolution next time, right? Surely then.”

“Surely… I still don’t have a big multi-target skill either. Aside from the shriek. I guess I just need my second specialization already.”

“Oh you should be able to get that easily…”

The two kept chatting as they flew above the sand. Surprisingly, they encountered a sandworm on the way, that somehow felt them floating so close to the surface. They didn’t even stop to fight it, Sofia just scrambled its mouth’s bones as it prepared to jump out of the sand.

“Ah, we’re here!” Alith exclaimed, seeing the familiar ruined city appear in the distance, followed by the big pyramid of Domination.

“It’s been what… About five years since our first time here?”

“Hmm… More or less yeah. Ah, can’t believe I’ve been wearing the same dreary top all this time.”

“Nobody’s preventing you from taking me off,” Dopple chimed in with a rare comment.

“After you just ate up the Mithrium armor? Sure buddy, keep dreaming. I’m not stuck with you, you’re stuck with me.”

“Truly a most miserable fate,” Dopple quipped, “I should be awarded another Mithrium shirt for my troubles.”

“Can I wear a shirt over you?”

“...”

“That’s what I thought,” Alith said with an amused snort.

“How many times did you even take it off at all?” Sofia asked.

“Outside of washing and baths? Maybe twice to get into places with a formal dress code. Sometimes when the weather’s too hot I sleep naked also, dunno if that counts.”

“... Do you even get hot with your blessing?”

“Of course I do! You’re immune to cold, do you not still get cold sometimes?”

“Not often. But I guess I can see it… You better not be doing that during the next trial.”

“Duh, I’m not like that, I know the Seraph’s going to be watching.”

“Right… Well. Let’s get going?”

“Sure. I have an idea that could be fun, wanna try?”

Sofia followed Alith’s plan. Both of them entered the pyramid through the main entrance, and Sofia just carved out a straight path to the centre with her dagger.

“Now we just go down, right?” Alith asked.

“Yeah, the main chamber is right there, about twenty meters deep. I can feel their close aura clashing with mine already.”

“Alright, let’s do this then! I’m ready!”

Sofia nodded, took her demon form, then switched it to the numb sorrows for some extra physical stats, and punched through the ground.

The floor of the pyramid crumbled, opening the way down to the pyramid’s central chamber where the two mutated apostles were imprisoned.

For the second part of the plan, Sofia stayed up while Alith jumped down, unbreakable rapier in hand.

Activating her [Will of the mountain lady] signature skill, Alith was essentially immortal for the next four minutes. She fought against the two demons alone, not taking any damage, but also inflicting little. She just kept giving them shallow stabs with the rapier.

The pyramid shook as the two failed apostles attacked Alith again and again, failing to make her lose a single health point.

Meanwhile, she kept up the debuff from her hero blessing, stacking it up to a hundred on both of the demons.

[Heir of fire] ♢ : Apply a stack of ‘Devouring fire’ on target for every successful melee attack, up to 100 stacks.

(An attack needs to deal at least 1 health point of damage to be successful)

Devouring fire lasts for 3 seconds, renewed upon applying a new stack, and augments damage received from all physical attacks by 10%.

“All ready!” Altih shouted from below.

Sofia dropped down.

She barely got the time to properly see what the mutated Apostles looked like.

One scepter slam each.

‘You have murdered [Revekmetetyelon - Son of Domination lv. 386]’

‘You have murdered [Remekepstetyemon - Son of Domination lv. 379]’

Current divine essence (28)