Chapter 436 - Heartaches

Sofia ran as fast as she possibly could, taking random turns, delving deeper and deeper into the mines, but nothing could free her of the Destroyer’s pursuit. No matter what she did, the red light grew closer every passing second. Tunnels cracked and collapsed from the Destroyer’s rampage, closing off paths through the mines, and before long, Sofia encountered a dead end.

Faster!

The Destroyer was coming, but [Regret] was still not off its ten second countdown. 

It was too late, the merciless mandibles of the Destroyer surrounded her, and the spell was still not ready. Sofia did the only thing she could, she jumped right into the gaping maw of the giant worm, trying to extend her time however she could. She escaped the mandibles but the inside of the Destroyer’s mouth was like a Sandworm’s, full of uncountable deadly sharp teeth the size of an arm.

She was never going to get the two seconds left until the cooldown on [Regret] wore off, that left her with only the riskier of the demon form spells to count on, one that relied on luck.

[Misfortune] : Through the power of sheer bad luck, ever-so-slightly alter the immediate fate of your enemy in your favor. Costs 10000 mana per cast, 500 seconds cooldown. Right leg blood vessels must be undamaged for the skill to correctly resolve.

The spell activated as Sofia jumped through the Destroyer’s mouth.

What had happened? Sofia had no clue, but one thing was for certain, the Destroyer did not close its mouth in time. Sofia made it all the way to the back of its mouth, which was closed by a thick wall of flesh. The third key tore through it like through paper, and Sofia threw herself into the monster’s throat. It was big enough for her to stand and still have space over her head.

Bone! I need to find a bone!

The Destroyer was thrashing around. Before Sofia could even stabilize her footing, she was stopped dead in her tracks, a thick insectoid leg impaled through her chest.

The Destroyer had stabbed itself to get to her. It had been too fast and unexpected, Sofia had not even seen it coming.

Her health took a serious dive, but under the mana pearl’s effect, her thoughts were still clear. This was an opportunity. The dagger sliced through the Destroyer’s leg, and Sofia finally found bones.

Another leg pierced through the Destroyer’s body to get to Sofia, but she was connected to the beast’s bones this time. She felt it coming. Twisting her chest, she let the second leg pierce through the demon-form hole of her heart while she propagated her [Bone Dominus] controle through the Destroyer’s bone.

There was no time for the Destroyer to launch a third attack. A wave of magic spread through its bones, making them spin around before turning them all to dust in a nine meter radius, the range limit of [Bone Dominus Imperium]. With this, any spinal nerves were severed, separating the head from the rest of the body. The thrashing stopped.

GET FUCKED!

With her regeneration fueled by the mana pearl, Sofia had just hit ten thousand mana again. In another situation, she might have used [Regret] to heal her wound, but her mana heart’s malus would not allow that, so she grabbed the now boneless insect leg still wriggling through her ‘heart’, and she used another of her demon skills.

[Hollow heart]

The skill went off, but there was no obvious change. Moreover, the Destroyer was still alive.

Another leg pierced through the creature’s body to take a stab at Sofia. It was one of the legs closer to the creature’s head, and came in at an angle. Because it came from further away, Pareth had time to react. Appearing, crouching, in between the attacking appendage and Sofia, taking up the entire space within the throat like an imposing skeletal door.

The leg pierced right through him, but it gave Sofia just enough extra time to slightly move out of the way. The leg barely scratched her leaving a big hole in the side of her armor, but only grazing her actual skin, there was some damage but it was light.

With what Sofia knew of the creature’s anatomy and the length of its legs, there were three more legs near the head which could reach her. She still needed to cut the leg going through her heart if she wanted to move. A single cut with the dagger did the trick, but as Sofia started to move away, another leg pierced through the destroyer’s shell and flesh, stabbing in her direction like the sharpest sword.

Pareth’s body and shields of light all failed to stop it. 

The only thing Sofia could try was to block with the thin dagger.

It worked. The shock was violent. Propagating through Sofia’s arms and into her entire being. If not for her own skeleton currently being a [Bone Dominus] construct, it would have shattered like she had shattered the Destroyer’s.

She was sent flying further down the worm’s throat by the attack, landing in a thick green goo. It attacked her armor, slowly dissolving the bone and producing putrid fumes.

Sofia stood up and stored Pareth back into her eye. Thanks to [Dodge-me] she could stand on the weird stomach juice like it was solid ground, just needing to be careful to constantly restore the soles of her bone armor with more bone. 

The Destroyer was still moving, somehow, but much weaker than before. 

Is it still digging around with just its head?

Sofia was still wary, but it seemed she had really destroyed all the nerves controlling the lower body of the Destroyer, as it was not really moving, and Sofia suffered no more stab-attack.

It was still too early to celebrate, but she felt like she had already won.

Sofia followed the signal of Bookie’s presence, and found him further, in the creature’s third stomach. Or what was left of it. There was a stretch of around thirty meters long inside of the creature’s body where there were only bones and black dust left within the shell. The Dragon-scale armguard with Bookie’s skull inside was lying there, in a pile of black dust.

It still fought this fiercely with its body in that state?

And it’s STILL not dead?

Sofia had to admit that the Destroyer’s resilience commanded respect. 

She grabbed her armor and freed Bookie’s skull from inside. 

Welcome back. Good job out there. 

Quickly cleaning the arm with some blood and bone, she slid her arm into it again. It was still as good as new, without so much as a scratch. Only when she put the mana hearts back inside did she finally feel safe. Both the legs that had pierced her torso had been centimeters away from hitting the hearts. It was like a miracle that they were intact.

With her mana regeneration fueled by the pearl’s effect, Sofia’s reserves were quickly climbing back up, after less than thirty seconds, she could use [Hollow heart] again. And she did. The spell activated correctly, although the Destroyer did not react, it still meant that the magic had found a heart to destroy.

She activated it again, and again, until her transformation was right about to run out. She only had a few seconds left when, both of her hands on the destroyer’s shell from the inside, she activated it for the seventh time. 

‘You have defeated [Kidjikkik Destroyer - Lv. 358 - Imprint Cannot be Damaged]’

Sofia’s transformation ran out, but unlike the usual weakness that usually came with it, she felt a sudden surge of strength bolster her, which made her smile. It was coming from the crown.

Enjoyed the show, Victory?

Still, Sofia was tired, she sat down in the piles of black dust her rot had left behind.

[A new title has been unlocked!]

The good news just keep coming!

[Giant Slayer]: Through wits and determination, you have again and again fell foes far beyond your size or capability. 

Effect: Gain the temporary passive skill [Eilor’s Battle Instincts] when battling enemies of monstrous size.

Sofia was interested, but the system would not provide any further explanation on [Eilor’s Battle Instincts] nor on the specifics of ‘monstrous size’, so she quickly turned her attention to another pressing matter.

I should hurry and collect the imprint.

As for whether it was for her or for Pareth, there was no question, if the Keystone imprint was some kind of finishing touch to a mana heart, she was the one who needed it the most, as the entire point of Aphenoreth’s boon was to push beyond the limit, so it was imperative that she reached said limit first.

She brought out her mana heart, held it high, and activated it. 

The Destroyer was a manaless creature and yeah, Sofia could visibly see the usually invisible mana imprint being pulled into the heart. It was strong, violent, powerful. When the process stopped, the mana heart had changed. It no longer looked like a rock, but like a round, glowing piece of the Destroyer’s red shell.

[Destroyer’s Nascent mana heart of Aphenoreth]