Chapter 516 - I thought you said the worse she could do was say no?

Sofia, Cinthia, Pareth and bookie were all waiting at the bottom of a dungeon, in front of a large sealed door.

Sofia grabbed the dagger from her belt, “Since everyone says it’s safe, let’s reconnect, I’d like to use another title here.”

[Title changed to ‘THE GLORIOUS’]

[Title change function is locked for the next 24 hours]

[You have left Scribe-only privacy mode, all system functions have been restored]

[A new title has been unlocked!]

[A new title has been unlocked!]

♢ UNIQUE ♢ [Olympian]: Defeat a Sunless titan during the third trial.

No, but seriously, why?! They’re here to control the Sunless population and scare you off, not to be battered and thrown into a ditch! Do you have any idea how hard they were to create?

Effect: Bring all your physical substats up to par with your current strongest (Maximum Health and Stamina unaffected).

Hoooooooly, this one is ridiculous! With the huge strength boost the crown gives… This might just become my new standard.

[Off the Deep end]: Went to the Deep and back.

Effect: Prevents your mind from producing audible thoughts.

Huh. Alright… Good against the Seraphs’ mind reading, I guess?

“See,” Cinthia told Sofia, “they were right, safe.”

“Safe… Well. Time to go fight that apostle then. We’re still positive it’s only around the power of a level 299?”

Cinthia nodded energetically, “Because it’s severely mutated, also the magic he will use is uncertain, although it should still be based on Rejection’s dispel and redirect-heavy apostle design.”

“Alright. Pareth, stay out of this one unless it starts looking bad, basically just shield Cinthia so she can record everything and give the Recessed a good show. Bookie, you stay with me in book form, just in case.”

Bookie nodded, and his skeleton form disappeared, and Pareth gave Sofia a thumbs up, raising his shield of light in front of Cinthia.

Sofia looked at her stats, she had three unlife runes ready but was still able to refill her mana thanks to the Infinity engine. She sheathed the dagger back, and brought up her newly diamond-topped scepter. 

Do we want music? Hmm… Probably not. Well… Actually? I’m kind of feeling the choir today. Let’s say ten human skulls, five for the music and five for the voices.

“Sofia… What is that for?” Cinthia asked, witnessing the ten skulls start to make atrocious rhythmic booming noises and distorted voices.

“Oh, this is just my orchestra. I worked on a few ‘chants’ while I was trapped in the margin. This one is named ‘Berserker Destroyer’, after the big worm I killed on Fenrir.”

“Is it supposed to sound like that?” Cinthia asked again, holding her head.

“Like it’s making your bones shake and tearing out your ears? That’s by design, really. It’s meant to sound eerie and menacing. I’m almost convinced this one can actually inflict some kind of mental damage, don’t worry though, it’s not as loud as long as you’re not facing the skulls’ mouths.”

“H- how did you even get them to make these sounds?!”

“I had a lot of free time…”

“I feel like my head is going to burst…” Cinthia complained.

Sofia walked up to the door, the bone armor slowly forming over her clothes as her bone wings unfolded, she raised her right hand in front of the seal. “That’s the idea.”

RIng of Zar.

All the ambient mana collapsed into Sofia’s ring, and the magical glow of the intricate magical seal on the heavy metallic doors faded.

Sofia kicked the door in and made her way into the final chamber of the dungeon as her choir’s music overlapped with the sonorous howl of a distorted creature.

[You have been affected by : insanity. But your skills negated the status]

Sofia dismissed the constantly dinging alert as she prepared her first spell, blue plasma formed over her scepter as she walked in, lighting the otherwise dark underground chamber, and revealing the appearance of the failed apostle.

[ ̶̡͆̒͑̈́ ̵̛̜̓̅͘ͅ ̷͕̋̏̆ ̶̶̞̖̬́̌̒͑͜ ̶̯̞̑̅̊͒ͅ ̵̳̺̽̃̓ ̶̬̼͐ ̸̷̢̹͕̖̼͖̩̊͛̏͊̌͆ ̵̝̐ ̸̥̦̭͔̏͘ ̷̢̺͕́̉̊̾ ̷̡̩̞͍͐̀͌̒ ̸̦͖̉͊̿ ̶͍̻̔͝ ̶̟͔͇̋̒͆ ̷͖͍͍͝  - Lv. 399]

Does not reflect its real power, just like Zerei back then…

Despite saying herself that, Sofia had to admit that the apostle in front of her was true nightmare fuel, it looked a bit like the hellspawns Richard kept in his vats, but turned inside out, with apparent bones and muscles, as well as its guts dragging on the floor. Already, the flames from The glorious title were starting to burn it.

As the creature howled, it charged forward.

Sofia activated the third tier of [Runeforged Overlord] and also charged at the last second, to get the strength bonus of [Dodge me]’s chaos state. She slammed the 200 000 mana explosive bolt into her own chest.

The explosion prevented the impact, and Sofia was immune to its damage, as she only took one instance of damage, from the initial stab, but she was blown back by the burst regardless, hitting the walls of the chamber above the door.

Barely a scratch. Singularity Edict is too strong.

Health : 814 124 / 822 762

She gave a quick glance to her health, then as soon as the explosion started to die down, Sofia used her mana senses to analyze the situation. Cinthia was safe behind Pareth, who had shielded her from the explosion without too much trouble, especially since he was also under the [Runeforged Overlord] effects.

Meanwhile, the failed apostle had also been blown back but seemed protected by a magical shield, which had likely negated the damage completely.

Not waiting for the dust to settle, Sofia channeled a piercing bolt as she propelled herself toward the creature, leaving a crater in the wall as she jumped from it. 

I feel like my fighting still is becoming too messy.

Sofia let go of the piercing bolt as she made a 180 turn right before she impacted the creature's shield, only for said bolt to be hit by a discharge of mana from the creature and rebound into a wall.

The demon moved quickly, sensing its fist coming at her from below, Sofia stopped. The uppercut unnaturally curved around her, displaced by [Dodge - me].

What kind of a stupid idiot disables its shield to attack?

Capitalizing on the dumb mistake of the brainless demon, Sofia did two things in an instant. First she grabbed the slimy muscles of the creature’s head, pumping it full of [Aberrant sunlight]’s cursed mana, and secondly, she used Heal Undead, targeting her new diamond spell catalyzer, which spread the light a thousand of rays going in all directions while activate [Erredian rot].

Almost instantly, the demon was covered in pulsating black rot. It sent an invisible magical attack at Sofia. She nullified it with [Heat Death] for the meager cost of about seventy-five thousand mana, never to know what the attack was.

The demon then tried to pull back, and Sofia just let it go.

She cast off her wings, disabling the third tier of [Runeforged Overlord], and simply stood in place as she showered the creature with a bright stream of light from above with Heal undead.

She had sent right about three million mana points worth of aberrant sunlight curse into the demon’s head. The demon seemed distraught, no longer howling, it was fighting against the irresistible urge to look at the source of the golden light coming from above. It was futile, as all the mana the failed demon had left was getting corrupted by the overwhelming quantity of cursed mana. It was not long until it completely lost control, and Sofia stayed floating in the air, constantly changing where she cast the Heal Undead light to appear from, getting the demon to crash from wall to wall in pursuit of the light, while applying layers upon layers of rot. The rot the demon was covered in feasted on the curse and on the demon’s mana alike, quickly emptying its reserves as the flames of victory prevented it from regaining any. Eventually the curse ran out, as the demon no longer had any mana, but that left the rot free to absorb the demon’s flesh instead. 

The demon fought back, but with no mana left to do anything, it was powerless to escape the sticky and ravenous black rot.

Dust settled in the dungeon’s last chamber, there remained nothing of Rejection’s failed apostle beyond a pile of black carbon powder, and an essence that Sofia could not see.

‘You have murdered [Zavrhelonatkir - Son of Rejection lv. 399]’

She walked up to where the demon had died, just in case that would help absorb the essence, but supposedly she was to receive it either way as long as she was the killer and stood not too far.

She dismissed the choir and her armor, turning around to make a victory pose for Cinthia. “You’re welcome, Rejection!”

Then, she muttered to herself, “Clean kill, too. Didn’t even die, this time. Wasn’t even close. It never landed a hit, and I still had half a mil mana points to spare.”

“Sofia,” Cinthia called out.

“Yes?”

“You’re scary,” the red-skinned orc confessed, sounding genuinely concerned.

“Really? This wasn’t even so bad, I couldn’t get to its bones because the muscles were too tough, but I would have turned it into a flesh carpet otherwise. Well. Good to see that I’m not rusty. To taxes next?”

“To taxes…” Cinthia repeated.