Chapter 632 - God’s plan

Some time later, after bidding Remia farewell when they felt they had all the information they needed, Sofia and Pareth left the playhouse with the Goddess’ help. The citizens were in a frenzy due to the diva going missing, so it was quite easy to leave the area unbothered by anyone.

Sofia wished she could have stayed for longer and asked more questions, about the lost epoch especially. Sadly, with the knowledge that staying in this fake world too long meant being stuck there forever, there was no longer any time to spare for such trivialities.

Pareth ran ahead, Sofia following however she could, Pestle sitting on her shoulder. Pareth led Sofia to a fishing harbour, a part of the city she had never gone to. To her surprise, Pareth led her to a rather large fishing vessel. There seemed to be no activity on it, no one aboard. Pareth climbed in first, helping Sofia up, and he pointed to the trapdoor leading under the main desk of the ship.

Are they really in there?

Sofia opened the trapdoor, seeing light combing from inside, a strong herbal odor assaulted her nostrils.

“Pareth?” someone asked from inside.

The familiar voice brought a smile to Sofia’s lips. “He’s also here, yes,” she answered, jumping down the hatch.

“Sofia!!!” Bookie screamed, stopping whatever he was doing to come running, jumping into her arms.

“Here, here. I’m happy to see you again too. Sorry it took me so long to find you.”

The interior of the ship seemed to normally be used to prepare fish, as the walls were lined with preparation tables and rows upon rows of long knives, but Alith seemed to have repurposed a section of it into a makeshift alchemy laboratory. “Glad to see you with your head on your shoulders this time,” Alith greeted Sofia, only sparing her a quick glance, as she was busy carefully pouring some green liquid drop by drop into a glass full of purple goo.

“This time?” Sofia repeated, while Pareth was carefully climbing down the ladder to join them.

It was Bookie who answered from within her arms, “the first time, we found you right before the restart. Alith and me went to check the funeral home we entered the city from, because we thought you might have left us a message there!” he explained, “But we found your corpse being prepared for burial instead…”

“Oh… Yeah, things happened… I hope you weren’t too worried.”

“I wasn’t!” Bookie denied, “I knew you were still alive!”

“You did?”

“Yes! If you had really died, I would have died too! I can just feel it.” he exclaimed with candor, as if proud about that fact.

“Bookie… So, did Alith find you or were you two together from the start like me and Pestle?”

“We were together,” Alith answered from her workbench, “we both appear in an abandoned house not far from here. It’s too drafty so we moved here. Lots of things happened but basically we guessed that we’d have to fight that dragon or whatever killed you the first time, so we’ve spent this loop making some potions.”

Sofia gave Alith a thumbs up, “Good call, we’re probably going to need that. Not that we have to fight, but…”

Later, the following evening.

Sofia just finished going over the plan for the second time.

“Are you sure we can do this?” Alith asked.

“Yes, according to Remia that’s really the only way if we want to all leave at the same time.”

“Alright… Well. Good luck then. What if you don’t make it?”

“Then we try again next loop, and hope it’s not too late…”

“Not our worst odds until now, heh. Use the potions well.”

“Will do,” Sofia assured her, leaving with Pareth and Pestle.

Alith and Bookie were the crown unit, charged with infiltrating the palace and snatching the item, while everyone else had a much tougher task: bait the chancellor away and kill him.

Izzaro was immortal in this realm of his creation, but he could be incapacitated in a few ways that Remia had described, only then would everyone have time to leave with the crown. As for why they had to separate like this and have someone else fetch the crow at the same time, it was simple, because the crown could be in any one of more than twenty spots in the palace. Having to check them all after incapacitating the chancellor would give ample time for Izzaro to recover if they were unlucky and took too long to find it.

Pareth and Sofia were both well equipped for battle, and Pestle had eaten more than her fill, and was starving for a good fight. She was going to have it.

When Sofia was certain that enough time had gone by for Alith and Bookie to be in position, her group did the one thing that, according to Remia, would without fail draw out the chancellor’s dragon form. It was the least dangerous of the two, as it lacked the time-freeze like ability.

They started slaughtering the civilians.

Panic was quick to spread in the streets. People fled Pareth’s blade and Sofia’s crossbow bolts, while Pestle mercilessly butchered the guards and knights coming to stop them, the flightless fairy punching through their plate armour with ease.

Five minutes of this all-out carnage were all it took to draw the ire of this realm’s protector. A deafening roar resonated through the city’s streets as the Palace exploded in the distance. A giant gray Dragon emerged from within growing taller and taller until his massive frame towered over the entire city. Without mana, it was sluggish like a decaying zombie, and could not use any magic, but its mere size was awe-inspiring nonetheless and its raw strength was still enough for it to destroy this entire fake world if it needed to.

Sofia looked at the two measly steel bolts she was reloading her crossbows with.

Like a needle against a mountain. Remia’s information better be correct.

“Pestle, go ahead! Pareth with me!”

Sofia ordered, running toward a tall tower’s construction site.

The Dragon was coming over, each of his slow steps making the entire city tremble, Pestle was to face it head on, and to bring him close enough to the construction site.

Sofia and Pareth ran straight toward the construction site. It was normally quite heavily guarded but the guards and workers had all already fled due to the Dragon’s appearance.

The entrance is right there!

A narrow pulley platform served to lift the heavy construction materials up to the tower’s upper floors. Sofia and Pareth both jumped on, and they both pulled out a dagger.

“These should be the security lines,” Sofia quickly pointed out after observing the structure for a second, “cut three on your side, at my signal, you cut the last one, I’ll do this side.”

The two got to work, the daggers slicing through the ropes one by one, the entire structure creaking every time a line was cut. The Dragon approached fast. Finally he was close enough that his gigantic head pierced the clouds above them. The Dragon clawed at the air, trying to catch Pestle who jumped from roof to roof. The fairy’s tiny claws hacked at the dragon’s paws whenever she narrowly avoided their strikes. Each move of the Dragon left huge scars in the city, blowing away entire rows of houses.

Sofia had to wait for the perfect moment, when the towering frame of the Dragon was exactly where she needed it to. 

“Now!”

Sofia and Pareth finished cutting the last two security lines. The counterweight dozens of meters above suddenly fell, and the platform they were on shot upwards like a slingshot.

The world blurred around them as the platform ascended. At the apex of its climb, the platform shot out of its guiding rails. Sofia and Pareth were catapulted into the air. Sofia threw her dagger and pulled out her crossbow, while Pareth grabbed her with one hand and readied a loop of rope attached to his belt with the other.

Sofia aimed at the distant right eye of the Dragon, and shot. The bolt was coated with poison that would blind the Dragon for a bit, should it land, but it flew way under the target, and bounced off against the scales of the Dragon’s lower jaw. She had not time to complain about it, as she was slammed against the Dragon’s shoulder. Izzaro’s scales were extremely uneven, so Pareth’s rope loop managed to catch onto an asperity, as per Remia’s plan, and they were now stuck there, clinging onto the scales of a moving, raging Dragon, some seventy meters above the ground.

“I think I broke a foot,” Sofia told Pareth as she latched her own rope loop onto the gray scale, “are you also hurt?”

Pareth shook his head in response.

“Good, go first, I’m coming as soon as I manage to fix my foot.”

Pareth seemed worried, but he nodded, and started moving up the Dragon’s shoulder, throwing his rope loop to a higher rough bump on the Dragon’s large scales, and using it to secure his climb.

Just bone dominus is too slow, I need to drink a p-

The Dragon took a step forward, his shoulder shaking with the movement, and Sofia had to clutch the bumps in the scale until her knuckles were white for her not to fall. His paw hit the ground with a bang, demolishing two more houses, and Sofia could finally relax a tiny bit, reaching for the potions strapped to the back of her belt. With one hand, she drank its contents, while looking up at Pareth, who was making some serious progress climbing toward the back of the Dragon.

It’s gonna take another step, I’ll go after.

Sofia braced for the movement. It was easier to stay in place this time, as she had expected the shaking. When the Dragon’s paw impacted the ground again, she started her climb.