Chapter 201 - Victory or Defeat

Sofia climbed a few steps, the low gravity was too weird for her, so she used [Bone dominus] to make her bone armor denser and heavier. It offered more protection but she usually didn’t do it because it would slow her down too much. Now it was actually helping. When her weight felt about right, she started her ascension again.

Steps came, one after the other, there were no sounds other than her own heavy footsteps.

Looking up, Sofia could only see more stairs. How much higher is this going to go? No one answered her question, but a few steps later, she started to hear something.

Drums.

Sofia wasn’t extremely familiar with instruments and music, but she had at least some basic knowledge from her time in Hooasow and Drakron. Her steps were accompanied by the distant sound of drums, at first they were quite slow, but the higher she climbed, the faster and louder they got. One more instrument joined, then another, and before long it was a whole orchestra which followed the rhythm of her steps.

“Quite the welcome committee. Forget a skeleton musician, I need this orchestra…”

The melody was exhilarating, it made Sofia want to climb higher and faster. It made her want to fight. It made her blood boil.

Finally she reached the top, and as she stepped out of the stair and onto the flat roof of the tower, she was welcomed by a sea of stars all around. The orchestra was a group of ghosts, there were tens of them spread around the tower. The music slowly stopped, only leaving behind the sound of a single melancholic harp.

Sofia felt the need to bow to the orchestra, but the other thing on the spire’s rooftop wouldn’t let her do that.

Facing away from Sofia, sitting cross legged at the center of the platform, was a single Orc wearing nothing but a golden crown and burlap shorts. Big, burly, green skinned, with large facial fangs, Orcs were a rare sight, but not an unknown one.

“Welcome, challenger,” the Orc greeted without turning around. He stretched his arms one by one and stood up slowly, showcasing a three meters tall body with a musculature worthy of a martial God.

I guess the final floor is a one on one fight?

“I am elated to have another challenger so soon. What is your name?”

“Sofia Aphenoreth.”

The orc slowly turned around, revealing a scarred face with only one eye left. He looked over Sofia and grinned, “One who walks with the outer Gods. Interesting.” A spiked heavy plate armor formed around his body, the pieces appeared one by one and clamped together around him. Extending his right hand, a regular looking longsword appeared in his grasp.

Sofia readied her spells.

“I have long awaited for someone worthy of my crown, now come, challenger!”

Two lines of system text appeared to Sofia at once, one as a prompt, one as an [Identify] result, and the ghostly orchestra flared up; the music started again, and the platform atop the spire expanded in all directions.

The Orc gave a final line before closing the visor of his helmet, which said it all.

“I am Victory! Prepare yourself!”

[Ranking Spire Phase 2 : Floor 100 - Defeat]

[Incarnation of Victory - Level 199]

Sofia was far beyond letting the stress of such a situation get to her. With a thought, her Skeletons appeared, and the battle started. Beating a God was always the plan, this was merely a bit earlier than expected.

The front line were the three Templars, behind were Pareth and the High-Priest, and Sofia was at the very back of the formation, spreading her wings. It would take eight seconds until Pareth’s [Sanctified Grounds] were ready, it was the Templars’ job to make that time.

Victory charged forward, and a Templar took a step forward to block the incoming sword strike. The Orc sword slid along the Templar’s and stabbed him in the head, sending him barrelling backwards.

“Sun blessed? Interesting!”

The Sun blessing was the singular thing allowing the Templar to still be fine.

Mana : 62430 / 94000

Such a limited resource.

Sofia’s grip tightened on her weapon as the Templars leveraged their invincibility to stall for time; blue electricity ran across the scepter. Pareth channeled his skill but he also struck at the Orc with a long spear a few times when he spotted an opening. Victory dodged them all, through masterful swordplay, he was holding off the three Templars with minimal efforts, sending them flying one after the other.

The High-Priest skeleton was busy channeling one of his stronger buffing skills for Pareth.

Sofia flew behind Pareth’s back. Imitating the fleeing black orb from the 97th floor, she tried to stay out of the God’s direct line of sight. About five seconds in, Victory had sent all three Paladins flying at once; he charged toward Pareth.

Pareth teleported to Sofia, and in the instant he disappeared, she released the bolt. It was just a third of a real bolt’s power, but it was still a dangerous weapon. Victory dodged the bolt which exploded right behind him. It sent him forward and he front rolled, landing upright on his feet. His armor looked undamaged.

Reflexively, Sofia flew a bit further back. Pareth fought off the God with heavy sword strikes which were all parried, as he then teleported back to Sofia to avoid the Orc’s counterattacks.

Finally, [Sanctified Grounds] activated, and the Templars made their way back to the fight. It was Pareth’s turn to be on the offensive.

Pareth :

Health : 1 189 783 / 1 189 783

Stamina : 450 068 / 450 068

Mana : 18900 / 19900

Pareth and the God exchanged sword strikes, the clash of weapons punctuated by inflections of the ghostly orchestra. Victory parried all strikes with enough force to make Pareth’s sword bounce back. He was inflexible, immovable, whenever he took a step forward, Pareth could only take a step back. The God had used no magic yet. Despite that, Sofia was hopeful.

He’s not as fast as the Master, we can do this!

Sofia’s [Graveyard of the righteous] activated, graves sprouted all around the platform, and dozens of graveyard skeletons appeared around Victory, a literal swarm that he couldn’t escape unless he grew wings. Mana gathered around his sword. Sofia reflexively gained some altitude. With a short war cry, the God spun on himself, only once, so fast that it almost looked like he hadn’t moved. His sword, despite being quite short, left behind an arc of light all around him.

The graveyard skeletons all died and the skill was forcefully canceled. Holy- The scepter absorbed the backlash! The attack hadn’t reached her, but it cut straight through both of Pareth’s legs.

Health : 916 132 / 1 189 783

Sofia instantly used [Heal Undead], because the cut was so clean and with the help from [Bone dominus]’s blessed construct, the legs were almost instantly healed, and Pareth regained a substantial amount of health. Though it was only for a third of a second, that small heal had cost Sofia more than fifteen thousand mana.

Health : 979 337 / 1 189 783

I’m already down to less than fifty thousand mana…

The High-Priest’s spell finally activated, giving Pareth a great speed boost. While Victory was busy repelling the Templars, Pareth struck. This was the first solid hit against Victory. A clean strike on the shoulder. It had slightly dented his armor.

This isn’t going to work, is it?

Pareth being an obstacle in the God’s way was the only reason Sofia was still alive after so long. She ordered the Templars to go as far as possible while Pareth held the god back.

Each of the Orc’s attacks sent Pareth reeling back, after a powerful strike, Pareth’s sword of light shattered. Before it could reform, the God threw his sword and grappled Pareth. Like guided by a spell, the sword spun and drew a wide Arc around Pareth, going after Sofia.

Pareth couldn’t teleport with the God latched onto him. He summoned his [Flying shields of light] but they all shattered, not even slowing the sword down. Sofia flew up but the sword kept flying toward her, adjusting its trajectory.

[Collapse]

All the mana around the platform instantly collapsed into the ring, Sofia could hardly handle the recoil from such a violent surge of energy. She felt the mana rush through her, unconcerned that she was in the path, as the gluttonous ring devoured it all. The air emptied from mana was stale and dead, Sofia fell, her wings no longer supported by anything. The sword, having lost its connection to Victory, whizzed past far over Sofia’s head.  Both Pareth’s, Sofia’s and Victory’s magic armors had disappeared from the collapse, their mana absorbed into the ring.

The ambient mana was slowly coming back, just like the buried cathedral’s petrification curse when Pareth purified an area of it, in less than a minute, it would be like nothing ever happened there.

The three Templars had been far away at the borders of the platform, channeling spells, they unleashed their [Light severance] in unison. The slashes of light were fast approaching the unarmored God. Victory let go of Pareth and deflected two of them with his bare hands, grabbing the ethereal slices of light and crushing them. He was about to deflect the third with an elbow blow, but was held back by Pareth’s [Chains of the four seals].

Victory’s armor was already reforming over his body, but the slash hit him before, leaving a deep cut in his back in an explosion of green blood.

Sofia almost celebrated with a scream of joy, but she held back, focusing on charging her Angel’s bolt as fast as possible. The battle was far from over.

Victory’s armor was almost fully reformed when he roared, it was an enraged war-cry, charged with mana. The Templars were pushed away by the pressure and sent flying off of the platform, never to be seen again. Sofia’s cast was interrupted as she struggled not to suffer the same fate. She felt blood accumulate in her mouth, the simple shockwave from the shout had been enough to injure her; she had lost about a fifth of her health. Even Pareth, who was trying to recover from his dispelled armor and shattered weapon, was destabilized by the shout.

Victory flashed forward and punched Pareth’s unprotected spine. Pareth couldn’t defend properly, he teleported away to Sofia, but too late.

Only his upper body arrived at his destination.

Health : 453 690 / 1 189 783