Chapter 523 - A calamitous dei

WIth Ihuarah’s guidance and the group’s overall power, it was not such an arduous task to find and activate the four obelisks, even when four Ochiaran chiefs showed up together as they neared the last one, they were dealt with cleanly. These mud ghosts were simply not strong enough to push them to their limit.

After the fourth obelisk activated, the ground shook, and Sorrow’s giant palace appeared from underground, rising to the surface and toppling over large parts of the jungle. 

Ihuarah had not predicted, however, that three gigantic monsters would appear with it. The group was split up as they fled. Sofia was with Ihuarah, hiding under a rotten log, while Pareth was with Everelle and Cinthia.

“How is it?” Ihuarah whispered as he saw Sofia’s eyes regain their color.

“They have it better than us. The flying serpent is busy eating the jungle’s flying monsters, so they are slowly making their way to the temple,” Sofia explained, having just observed the situation through Pareth’s eyes.

“Good. Unfortunately they will not be able to enter without one of us, but they should still be safer if they can hide near the entr-” Ihuarah stopped midway as the monster he and Sofia were hiding from had suddenly stopped moving.

No way. There’s no way it could hear it with how noisy the jungle is…

The giant monster whose bloated green feet were the only thing that one could see had stopped walking through the jungle. The trees’ canopy only reached up to its ankles, and the entire jungle shook from every step it took.

Suppressing their mana, Sofia and Ihuarah held their breath, which was easy as neither of them needed to breathe, and after a few seconds, the monster started walking again, slowly getting further from them. The issue, though, was that it was still in the path between them and the palace.

If only I hadn’t changed my title to Olympian earlier I could just use Master Thief now…

“Could you reach the palace without me?” Sofia asked. Since Ihuarah was a shade, he could move swiftly and discreetly through the shadows, and likely avoid catching the green monster’s attention.

“Like this? Probably not, this monster has keen senses. If he were to be focused on you, then without a doubt,” he answered without hesitation, “But I am not leaving you here. Entering the place without you is pointless to begin with. We must simply bide our time. That is only Sorrow’s first test.”

“These monsters are Sorrow’s doing?!” Sofia asked back, whispering loudly.

“Certainly, yes. The Ochiarans too. Though I cannot be certain, as this place predates even my previous life, but our merciful mother is not one to leave her legacy unprotected,” Ihuarah explained with excitement in his voice.

The green monster stopped in its tracks again, so the duo also stopped making any sound. Sofia took the opportunity to check on Pareth.

The serpent is still busy.

But this is getting worrying… Where is the damn lion?

Out of the three creatures who had come from beneath, Pareth’s group had been chased by the giant flying serpent, while Sofia and Ihuarah were still being looked for by the green-skinned giant. They had originally been split up like this to deal with the Ochiarans, with Sofia and Ihuarah slowly whittling down the four chiefs while the others managed the continuous waves of lesser Ochiarans that hadn’t stopped even after Sofia inserted the four soul stones into the last obelisk.

This left the third creature, a tall red stone lion, completely unaccounted for. It had gone into another direction right from the moment it emerged from the ground with the palace, as if attracted by someone else. This was worrying for several reasons, but Sofia was mostly afraid that it would return, as it would make the situation much worse. 

When the green giant started walking again, producing tremendous noise and tremors with each step, Sofia prepared herself. She had a bad feeling about the red lion going missing, so she wished to reunite with the others as soon as possible.

“Start going without me, I’ll use my signature skill as a distraction, and join you soon,” she told Ihuarah.

“That might work,” he approved, “I fear this will not buy you much time, but it shall suffice. We only need enter the palace and we should be safe… If you do not make it, exchange places with me.”

“Are you crazy, Iwa? You’ve seen how fast it caught up when you tried to teleport before.”

“I escaped it once, I can do it again. Besides, you are the one taking the most risks right now.”

Sofia glanced at the description of her signature skill.

[Awakening of the five calamities]: /ULTIMATE rank Signature Skill/

The Saintomancer has created yet another tool for sorrowful destruction.

Channel any amount of mana over 1 000 000 to invoke one of five Elemental Skeleton Destroyers hereby known as the five calamities.

You may invoke one additional calamity for each time you have died during the current battle. 

Each calamity is a singular and unique invokation.

Calamities disappear when they run out of mana.

Cooldown: One month per invoked calamity.

Available calamities:

Calamity of Blood

Calamity of Bones

Calamity of Spirits

Calamity of Plasma

Calamity of Light

She knew it by heart already, having read it hundreds of times, yet never using it so far.

How much mana should she use? What Calamity should she summon? How big were they? How strong? How long did they last? She had no clue, but it was time to find out.

I need to keep some reserves. Four million should be enough to make it last a while, right? The question is, which one?

If I want a big distraction… Plasma would probably be the bigger mess in a jungle. Has to be.

Ihuarah ripped out a bead bracelet hanging from one of his belts, scattering the colorful beads around Sofia in the jungle mud, “These will hide the mana from your channeling, but not for long. The instant they turn black the monster will be onto you, I will go right before then.” 

“I don’t expect the channeling to be too long, but that will be helpful. You might just make it to the palace at the same time as the others. I’ll be there soon. Channeling now.”

Sofia willed to activate the [Awakening of the five calamities]. She felt her mana heart slowly start to spin inside her, gathering the mana from all around her body. Closing her eyes to focus, she guided most of her mana toward her heart, it was getting siphoned into a wild vortex that she was uncertain if she could even stop.

The green-skinned giant howled, destroying the jungle in its wake, it ran toward Sofia.

She opened her eyes, the beads were already black, and Ihuarah was nowhere to be seen. The giant approached, but after about eight seconds of channeling, it was time. Sofia forcefully stopped her mana heart’s rotations.

[You have invoked Amazëok, Calamity of Plasma]

‘Remaining lifetime : 40s’

Sofia barely got time to see the system windows pop up before her mana exploded in a blinding white shockwave. Her mana escaped in a painful and overwhelming way, she felt compelled to scream at the sky as a bundle of plasma escaped her body, escaping like a reverse lightning storm aimed at the heavens. The Destroyer skeleton awakened, its bones of crackling plasma like a million compressed lightning bolts. The calamity was a genuine monster just as massive and fast as the original Destroyer Sofia had fought, standing grand and defiant above the jungle, rising against the charging green-skinned giant. 

The jungle was lit on fire by the massive skeleton, turning the muddy and damp place into a fiery hell in seconds, the cries of its fleeing inhabitants drowned out by the unending rumbling of the undead thunderstorm.

Sofia forgot what she was even supposed to be doing, entranced by the majestic skeleton she had just summoned. She watched as it clashed head on with the green giant, its thousands of legs as many weapons to deliver thunderous blows.

The green giant was wounded by the calamity’s initial assault, but it struck back with a simple punch.

‘Remaining lifetime : 34s’

‘Remaining lifetime : 12s’

Crap!

Seeing her summon almost die in one punch snapped Sofia out of it, and she finally used this chance as the giant was distracted to fly up above the canopy and straight toward Pareth’s location.

With a quick look around, she saw the red lion attack with a mana-charged swipe in the distance, decimating a large part of the jungle, but couldn’t see what it was fighting.

Sorrow’s palace stood like a colossal pyramid in the middle of the three giant monsters, judging from Pareth and Ihuarah’s position, the entrance was at the very top. Now without the risk of being caught, Sofia closed the distance in seconds, leaving her raging calamity behind.

The calamity of plasma ran out of lifetime, it exploded in a violent lightning storm as it died, bringing even more chaos to the jungle.

[Amazëok has returned to its resting place]

I summoned that. Sofia thought in disbelief as she landed near the others. Everyone was unscathed.

“I cannot open the doors!” Ihuarah warned Sofia, “You should be able to, there is no time to lose, come!”

He stood near ornate double doors with engravings that reminded Sofia of the doors to Erredis’ castle.

On the doors, there were no handles, only two familiar-looking handprints. Ones of rugged hands with pointy claws. Sofia instantly understood why Ihuarah couldn’t open them. As fast as she could, she unsummoned her armor and took off her dragon-scale armguard, leaving only Aphenoreth’s glove on, she placed her hands on the handprints. 

Already, she could hear the footsteps of the green giant coming after her now that the calamity had disappeared.

Sofia forcefully discharged all that was left of her mana, catching her glowing heart in her mouth without even using her hands.

She pushed forward as she transformed, her muscles bulging under the effort, her feet sliding on the stone floor of Sorrow’s palace wet from the rain.

COME OOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!

The doors resisted, barely moving. Everyone else came to help push Sofia from behind, even Bookie popped out of nowhere and helped give even a tiny bit of strength.

Finally, Sofia could feel the divine essence within her take life, and the doors started to open.

As the green giant drew dangerously close, the doors finally flew open all at once, sending Sofia and the others tumbling down dark and dusty stairs just as the shockwave of the giant’s punch shook the air above them, stopped by a mysterious force an instant before it could hit the palace.

[You have entered the dungeon : Palace of the passed - Restricted]