Chapter 642 - They all collapsed

[Start in 00:30]

[Pick one : - Be teleported alone - Be teleported with your group - ]

“So we do get to choose. Still group?” Mornn asked right away.

“Yeah that’s perfect. We just need to hope we land near the center for full coverage. Are you ready, Kuli?” Sofia asked as she finished to engrave her second unlilfe rune.

“Neheh, perfectly ready, you won’t have to worry about us.”

“Alright. Feels strange to be relegated to a defender but I’m also ready,” Mornn also confirmed, slightly raising her shield.

Sofia selected the group teleportation holding the admin dagger firmly in her right hand instead of her scepter.

[You have picked - Group teleportation - you will be teleported near other groups]

[Spectators can now join the four live groups broadcasts.]

Four live groups? Does that mean there are twelve other real people? 

[Start in 00:01]

As the sun disappeared under the horizon, Sofia and her group disappeared from their room. 

The first thing Sofia felt was the cold wind. They had been teleported outside, on the main deck, and dozens of other groups were nearby. They were near the center of the ship. Sofia couldn’t have asked for a better starting position in her dreams.

As she stabbed her own left hand with the dagger, she also noticed that people had not only their full name but also their number of points showing in glowing letters directly above their head. There was also a new permanent system window in the corner of her vision, where names of contestants already jumped up mere instants after the teleportation.

[Global Group Point Rankings:

1 - Executors - 70 (3 dead)

2 - Hero’s journey - 40

3 - Gods calling - 40

4 - Obsidian Mountain - 30

5 - Jenny’s group - 30]

Her preparations done, without losing a single extra second, Sofia started casting her spell, her mana emptying in droves.

The nearby groups all noticed, and without even communicating, they all knew to either focus their attacks on her, or flee.

“In position!” Mornn yelled, her magic creating a wall of fire surrounding the group.

The saintess, Kuli and Pareth took a triangular position around Sofia, protecting her from all sides. A few ranged attacks came, but nothing that could be thrown so fast would be too powerful for the three of them to defend against.

Sofia’s mana plummeted, and the music started to spead.

Mana : 1 073 036 / 5 365 182 (1 073 036)

The music was cold and violent, spread around the Ark by the marine winds that started to pick up in intensity. A storm was starting to brew above the Ark.

[Sixth symphony’s movements]

80% Maximum mana : A Vengeful tyranny of Winter :

All damage received by the caster is inflicted upon everyone else as soul damage.

May dramatically affect the weather.

Sofia’s hand holding the dagger rose to her chest, with a flick of her wrist, she spun the dagger around. “Kuli, ready?!” she asked one last time.

“Ready!” the guildmaster confirmed.

Sofia had already given herself a cut to disable [VPPV]’s one hit-kill protection, so there was only one thing left to do. She mercilessly stabbed her own mana heart, and died.

A nasty wave of cursed magic spread through the music filling the air, when Sofia opened her eyes to the sound of countless system notifications three seconds later, brought back by the unlife rune, it was over.

‘Pending notifications x18730’

‘You have incapacitated [Amalya - Lv. 299]’

‘Eternal lights has received 10 Tournament points!’

‘You have incapacitated [Tamesh - Lv. 299]’

‘Eternal lights has received 10 Tournament points!’

‘You have incapacitated [Kin Kin - Lv. 299]’

…

[Global Group Point Rankings:

1 - Eternal lights - 93650

2 - Hero’s journey - 1430

3 - Executors - 910 (3 dead)

4 - Obsidian Mountain - 708 (2 dead) 

5 - Gods calling - 464 (3 dead)]

All around them on the deck, the dead bodies of other contestants, bleeding from the mouth and eyes for a lot of them, were disappearing in puffs of smoke one by one.

“I can’t believe this worked…” Kuli muttered, she had been the one responsible for protecting Mornn and herself from Sofia’s soul attack.

Sofia’s mana senses scanned the deck and the bodies.

Pareth. Survivor on your front-right, blue robes. Look like a mage, he must have had some resistance to soul damage.

Pareth swung his light sword, creating a bright arc of slicing light with [Arclight] that flew out and crashed into the person playing dead in the middle of the disappearing bodies.

‘Your teammate has incapacitated [Severnicus Boromitus - Lv. 299]’

‘Eternal lights has received 10 Tournament points!’

“What now?!” Mornn asked, looking around, “At least five people are collapsing on us!”

“We need to secure the points!” Kuli answered, “Let’s move!”

She’s right, any death would cost us 19000 points, we need to reach the rooms as soon as possible.

Sofia deactivated the [Sixth symphony] and followed after the others as they ran toward the back of the Ark. Meanwhile, she also grabbed two pages of Bookie and summoned skeletons as she ran. She summoned the tall mimic, the fastest skeleton, and ordered him to run ahead of the group, and she also summoned Pestle.

Pestle was already invisible, but Sofia could feel her near her.

“Take care of the person following us from underneath!” Sofia ordered her, out of the multiple mana signals collapsing on the group, that one following them from below felt the most menacing for some reason.

“Very kill!” the invisible fairy answered before punching her way through the ground to the lower floor. Pestle seemed to successfully stop whoever was down there, as Sofia no longer felt them following, but she could tell from the fairy’s movements that she was actually having to fight. Though that menace was dealt with, another one popped up soon enough. 

The floor of the main deck burst open from below in front of the group, utterly pulverizing the mimic skeleton. A single person came flying out of the hole, an tall and overly muscular, bare-chested red-skinned orc.

[Saint Tartaros - 464 Points]

His eyes landed on Sofia. “It was you,” he said, looking down.

Pareth gave him no time to attack, morphing to his maximum size, he charged at the orc, swinging his sword. Tartaros punched at the incoming sword, shattering Pareth’s weapon of light in a single blow.

My mana is still low, I can’t commit to a strong bolt…

Sofia summoned an array of Sandworm skulls while Kuli and Mornn jumped in to assist Pareth. In a three versus one, Tartaros was quickly getting pushed back, though he still managed to parry all of their blows with his bare hands, shattering several of Pareth’s weapon and Mornn’s swords in the process. 

Holy fuck, what a monster.

The sandworm skulls were charged up and aimed at tartaros, but Sofia turned them around at the last moment, she felt abrupt mana movements behind her, rippling waves typical of an incoming teleportation.

“We have more company!” she warned the others as she preemptively let the sandworm skulls release their laser attack aimed toward the location of the teleportation.

A group of four people appeared out of thin air in front of Sofia, all heroes. At first glance, they had an andarian mage, a short blonde human priestess, a heavy warrior wearing full plate mithril armor and a gorilla beastman archer, the mage was someone Sofia already knew.

[Ezerid Rodes - 1440 Points]

They were flawlessly protected from the sandworm skull lasers by a magic barrier made of stacked transparent hexagonal plates. The beastman released the three arrows he had already knocked on his bow before the teleportation, producing three loud bangs, they were all aimed at Sofia’s head. 

Pareth appeared in front of Sofia at the last second, the three arrows pierced into his armor of light, getting stuck in his spine. His life did not go down.

Sofia quickly checked on Pestle, but from how fast she was moving, she was still fighting.

Those four behind and Tartaros blocking the front… More are coming, and my mana is still low from the winter symphony…

“Plan C!” Sofia shouted to the others, summoning the graveyard skeletons. The ghostly Nymphs quickly bringing her under the main deck.

Ezerid tried to stop her with a spell, but Pareth stood firmly in the middle, giving Sofia enough time to safely transition to the spirit plane and escape. The ghostly skeleton Nymphs let her go on the lower floor, going back up to assist Pareth.

On the same floor, an unusual battle was going, Pestle was battling against another invisible ennemy further back, leaving huge scars in the floors and walls as they attacked and missed each other. 

Sofia left them all behind, dashing toward the rooms by herself.

A swordsman had been hiding behind a pillar, he tried to ambush her as she ran, bringing down his sword brimming with energy at her.

Unluckily for him, the ground gave out under his feet, deviating the path of his sword just enough that it completely missed Sofia, only gliding against her billowing cape, the very same artifact that had brought his [Misfortune]. Sofia blasted him with some erredian Rot in return, focusing the light toward his face through her staff without even looking back.

I’m almost there!

In a scene that Sofia had already lived through once, Ezerid appeared out of the void without any warning or signs of teleportation. He stood with his staff firmly planted on the floor at his side, right in front of the door to room 1, but this time, he was facing her and not the door.