Chapter 526 - Let go

Sofia walked on the floor where the light drew a door, then back, then on it again. “The floor is definitely hollow there. I still can’t get through or feel anything beyond my footsteps sound different.”

“Then breaking through is likely the actual solution,” Everelle commented, “Can I try something?”

“Go ahead.”

Everelle nodded and summoned her tiny Sunless architect that looked like a stick figure with a white dot on its torso. She pointed at the ‘door’ Sofia was standing on, “Help us out Bob, can you make a hole there?”

“Bob?” Sofia repeated as she stepped back to let the Sunless do its thing.

“I have three Architects. They’re all named Bob. Don’t ask.”

“A- Alright…”

Bob approached the spot and kneeled down to touch the floor with the stubby end of its tiny forearms. With a sound akin to a shattering pot, a circle appeared on the bricks making up the floor where the sunless was, it was a clean circular cut. The floor inside the circle prompt fell, the small architect with it, letting out a cute high pitched cry.

Sofia and Cinthia hurriedly went to look into the hole, it was pitch black, but Sofia could see that it was about fifty meters deep, with the Sunless rapidly falling down.

“Is he fine?” Cinthia asked, seeing that Everelle seemed not to care about the Sunless.

“Bob’s level 299, he’s a bit stupid but it would take more than that to kill him,” she answered with disinterest as the group heard the bang of Bob finally crashing on the lower level of the palace. “Alright, let’s follow. He’s waiting for us down there.”

Sofia looked at Pareth, wondering if he was going to fit in the small hole, before she was reminded that he could now alter his size at will.

Crap… I might be the one who’s going to have trouble fitting. Oh wait, no, I’m slimmer in my demon form, easy to forget, that. With how natural it still feels despite the change I could almost forget I’m transformed. Crisis averted.

Sofia jumped into the hole, lighting the way for the others. She slowed the fall with her wings, even if she barely had space to open them a little, and landed near the satisfied-looking Sunless. Ihuarah slid down the shadows on the walls, while Cinthia, and Everelle just jumped one after the other, landing heavily at the bottom. Meanwhile Pareth took the short way and teleported right up to Sofia with Bookie holding his hand.

The fall had taken them to the center of a domed circular hall plunged in darkness. There were eight stone coffins adorned with writings in an unknown language mounted on the walls, and messy-looking ritual circles drawn on the floor.

Of course no obvious exit in sight.

I wonder what these rituals do. But they’re so crooked… We really owe the Avians a lot for how much they modernized this stuff, this is unreadable.

Among the very few things that stood out in the room, the unlit torches on the walls seemed to have attracted Everelle’s attention. “We should try to light the torches,” she confidently suggested, “worst case it’s more light, best case… You’ll see.”

“Is that your dungeon core instinct talking, Eve?” Ihuarah asked.

“My hero knowledge, more like. I wouldn’t be able to explain, but yeah,”

“I wanna do it!” Bookie excitedly said, jumping up and down, and Sofia mentally gave him the go. Holding up his left hand, a thin stream of fire spewed out from Bookie’s glove. Lighting up one of the room’s eight torches. He immediately stopped there as the other torches and the ritual on the floor all lit up at once in unison, with loud noises coming from the coffins in the walls.

Sofia stood ready to dispel any harmful magic with [Heat Death], and everyone got ready to face whatever was coming.

Slowly, seven of the eight coffins opened, and Sofia felt her senses get distorted, she couldn’t see the rest of the room very clearly, all of a sudden, and her gaze was like sucked in by what came out of the coffin.

“Clarice…” she whispered.

The familiar woman, once head-matron of Sofia’s orphanage, made her way down from the coffin with difficulty. 

“Sofia!” Clarice exclaimed, looking weak and struggling to even stand up correctly, “Is that you? Where have you been?! What… What have you done?” she asked, clear worry in her voice.

Sofia stared at her without a word.

Are the others also going through this?

I thought only one Hollow Grief could exist at a time.

Sofia’s emotions welled up in her chest as Clarice drew closer; in her demon form, she could not cry.

You’re so cruel, mom…

Sofia slowly walked up to the stumbling woman. She knew she might get attacked, but she didn’t care, she had three unlife runes up anyway.

“I’m sorry, Clarice.”

“Sorry? Don’t be sorry, you built a new life for yourself, didn’t you? That’s all I ever wished for you, Sofia,” Clarice answered with a weak smile, stopping a few steps away from Sofia, she extended her arms for a hug. “Why do you look so sad? Come, I’ll give you a hug just like when you were a child. Let auntie Clarice comfort you.”

Sofia couldn’t bear to look any longer, she stared at the floor, “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you…” Sofia whispered, her voice weak and heavy, “It’s my fault you died… I’m sorry…”

Sofia walked forward into Clarice’s hug, she held the frail and delicate woman, feeling weaker than ever, and bracing for a surprise attack. But there was nothing of the sort, Clarice simply reciprocated the hug, tightly holding Sofia and caressing the base of her wings. Sofia could feel the woman’s warmth and the beating of her calm heart, like a club hammering her sanity with every beat.

“I’m sure you did the best you could, Sofia. You changed so much, I’m happy for you,” Clarice whispered in Sofia’s embrace.

After a while, Clarice pulled away. “Alright now, be a big girl, I know you were always somewhat of a klutz but there are people waiting for you. You can’t stay with me.”

“I know… I’m sorry Clarice. I’ll avenge you. I swore it.”

“If it makes you happy,” Clarice answered with a shining smile, “don’t ruin your life for those of us that are already gone, alright?.” Clarice then crossed her arms in front of her chest, held her head up high, and closed her eyes. “Now kill me, you need to.”

I feared it would come to that…

“Is there no other way?” Sofia asked, knowing full well that there was no bringing back the real Clarice no matter what.

Clarice shook her head, “I’m not real, Sofia. Just an echo of your past and sorrows. The soul of Clarice has long faded and returned to nature. But I am glad I could share that little time with you either way. Come now, make it quick, agonizing over this will do you no good,” the thing taking the form of Clarice peacefully said with a serene voice.

Sofia heaved a long and dreary sigh, she walked up to the woman and took her in her embrace again.

“Thank you for everything, Clarice,” Sofia whispered softly, “Say hi to the kids for me.”

Sofia’s nail gently pierced the back of Clarice’s neck. Bone dominus severed her spine at the base in a clean and painless break, and Sofia’s demon form magic activated.

Blood spread over Clarice’s chest from below her clothes, and she started to disappear, becoming translucent. While she faded, her smile never did. The open tomb crumbled, and Sofia could finally perceive the rest of the room correctly again as she fell to her knees. Pareth and Bookie ran to her side, they were the only two others awake, everyone else was standing in a daze, even the small Sunless Architect.

“Sofia! Are you alright?! What happened?” Bookie worriedly asked, hugging her from behind.

“Nothing… Nothing… Don’t worry about it,” she answered with a sigh, “Did nothing happen to you and Pareth?”

“Not me but Pareth was stunned like everyone else for a few seconds!” Bookie recounted, “I was very very worried! I couldn’t even go close to anyone or return to you! I didn’t know what to do! But brother Pareth woke up fast and told me to wait!”

“He told you?” Sofia repeated, turning her head toward Pareth.

“Well… He made me understand,” Bookie clarified. “Are the others going to wake up soon?”

“That depends entirely on them…” Sofia answered. “But truly nothing happened to you?”

“No? The tomb opened so I was getting ready to fight! I was going to freeze whatever monster came to attack us to death!” Bookie enthusiastically proclaimed, “But then nothing came out… And then I looked around and you were all…”

Nothing came out? Taking a look around, seven of the eight tombs had opened, one for each person present, but only Bookie had been unaffected somehow.

Is he because he knows no sorrow?

Then nothing happens? Or… Could it be the illusion tried to take the appearance of the Orator?!

Ahem… Are you alright, Sorrow? I’m going to need to check with Cinthia…

Sofia decided to hug Pareth and Bookie while she waited for the others to wake up. They were still made of bones, but to Sofia, their embrace was warm and soft.