Sofia flew west by following the mountain chain that went all the way along the north of the human kingdoms. Counter-intuitively enough, she flew faster the closer she was to the ground, since that was where most mana gathered. And since she had to cross the whole human continent from East to West, she would avoid getting too much attention by going along the mountains. While Couvauz was the easternmost kingdom, Sovuln was the westernmost one, or used to be. Just east of Sovuln was Skyreach. Verenha and the orphanage being in the south-west of the kingdom and Einsen, the capital, being in the east.
She planned to first go check on everyone at the orphanage, maybe give the kids and Clarice some money or something, and pick up the necromancy grimoire. It didn’t feel right letting the book rot under the orphanage’s floorboards. She wanted to at least try [Identify]ing it, and try to trace back its origins. Then she wanted to check in the middle of Skyreach, where the old capital from the trial should have been. And her final destination was adventuring into Sovuln, to search for what remained of the slaver camp and her Sister, forgotten atop one of the many floating islands created by the tide.
Not knowing when to stop, she flew west for days on end, only ever landing to eat, drink or sleep. That was until she spotted a wall of mana on the horizon.
“Looks like I reached Sovuln.”
Information about what went on inside the abandoned kingdom now was rather sparse, but she at least knew of the corruption. Anyone who lived on the west side of Skyreach would know about it. She had no real details about what it was, but from all accounts, it was a nasty thing, and the spread was rather violent. It had eaten the whole kingdom of Sovuln and even spread well into the original territory of Skyreach before the barrier was erected.
Now, with the army patrolling the border to prevent monsters from leaking out and the barrier spanning the whole east and northern borders of Sovuln stopping the corruption dead in its tracks, the dangers from the fallen kingdom were contained. That was about as much as she knew about the situation of her birthplace.
It was Sofia’s first time actually seeing the barrier. The mana patterns making it up were fine and detailed all the while requiring very little energy. Whoever designed that was an absolute master of rituals, no doubt. Maybe the dwarves were involved.
On the other side of the barrier, the landscape was incredibly different. It didn’t seem affected by the cold winter at all. The grass was long and wavy, trees had too many or too few branches, heavy with lively shivering leaves, everything looked unnatural. But by far the standout feature was the light pink color that every plant boasted. Trunks, grass and leaves alike, all tainted in pale shades of pink.
“It’s unsettling but I expected worse from the descriptions.”
Curious, she approached the barrier and poked a finger through it. It felt like pushing through a thin spider net.
[You have entered the dungeon : Sovuln, the ebbing kingdom - Certain Death]
Lovely place to call home. I’ll go back in there soon enough.
Seeing a stubby round cylinder on the path of the barrier further south, she flew there. It was a smooth stone pillar on top of which was an insane ritual circle. Insane was the only way Sofia could describe the design, the sheer complexity of which gave her a headache by looking at it. Getting closer, she noticed something unusual. The stone cylinder was very cleanly cut. In fact it had a peculiar texture, one she recognized. “Orvod?”
Guess the guy actually survived the Alphageid attack. Since the barrier is only a decade old, he must still be around now. Interesting. Lucky that I’m no longer a demon. I hope he’s no longer working with the Church…
Could Pareth take him on? Hmm, maybe. He can fly though, and Pareth cannot.
Ah, whatever, I’ll worry about that and Sovuln when I need to. First the orphanage. Can’t wait to see Clarice’s face when she sees the wings.
Sofia flew south along the barrier, this time she flew as high up as she could, she didn’t want the military camps across the border to spot her. Though she noticed that a lot of them were almost empty.
By the time the sun started setting, Sofia finally found the river that Verenha was built along. She flew over the closest village, then dived into the forest.
“It should be around here?”
She walked around the forest for a few minutes until she found them, the ruins she had used for her first necromancy ritual. Walking inside an old crypt, she found a skeleton sprawled near a ritual circle. Hey hey, look what we have here. If this isn’t Pareth’s first skeleton. She stored it in her ring. I’m never using this one again, I’ll display it in my home… Whenever I get one.
Alright, back to the orphanage then. Who knew I’d willingly come back after struggling so much to find a good way out. Well, my initial plan didn’t go how it should have but I left either way.
She followed the path through the forest she knew too well, walking through the leafless trees until she saw the familiar roof tiles of the orphanage, lit by the last razing rays of the setting sun.
It’s deadly silent… Is everyone asleep already?
She walked around the spiked fence until she got to the main gate. Let’s at least act a bit like a normal person. I wonder how long they spent searching for me after I disappeared. Or did the Church tell them? Who knows.
The gate was closed but to Sofia’s surprise, it wasn’t locked.
Now that’s weird. Leaving the gate unlocked at night wasn’t something Director Jeffrey would do. Especially not during winter, when monsters like wolves were more active in the region.
Now that I think about it… The chimneys aren’t smoking. I’m not cold because of the princess robes’ set effect but it’s still winter.
Just one thing wouldn’t have been too suspicious but it was starting to add up to a lot. If anything happened to Clarice and the kids…
Sofia activated her weapon and armor. Pushing open the gate, her every step left a deep imprint in the dead grass. She looked hard with her mana perception, not picking up much. At least no magical traps outside.
Walking up to the front door, she turned the doorknob. Unlocked too. Inside the orphanage was darkness, silence, and cold air. The floorboards creaked under her steps.
No one in the common room… Is there really no one here?
Leaving the common room, she entered the corridor that linked every room on the first floor, the same one she’d staged her fall in on her last day here. The broken shelf and the blood stains had been cleaned. The first rooms on her left and right were the boys and girls dormitories. Reflexively, she went to open the door on her right, to the girls’ room. Something smelled very bad.
Before she could touch the doorknob, Sofia heard the hissing of swords slicing through the air, one in front and one behind. The wall and door behind her broke in an explosion of debris and splinters, torn open by a huge claymore.
The sword behind was stopped by the large hands of a skeletal ogre that barely fit inside the corridor. Meanwhile, Sofia struggled to parry the sword coming from the front with her own. Thankfully the spine was sturdy, but her muscles were having a hard time holding back the huge sword, until the [Chains of the four seals] appeared to hold it back. That allowed her to kick in whatever remained of the door, revealing a fully armored paladin. As the heavy sound of Pareth punching came from behind, the paladin facing Sofia tried to free his sword from the chains, pulling without success. Sofia rushed forward, thrusting her empty left hand toward his greathelm covered face.
The paladin took a hand off his weapon to catch her armored fist. Before the impact, a green dagger appeared in Sofia’s hand out of nowhere. The mithril dagger pierced straight through the hand and helmet.
‘You have defeated [Sinner Paladin - lv. 141]’
‘You have defeated [Sinner Paladin - lv. 165]’
The messages were not at all the murder notices Sofia had expected.
But she had no time to think about what was going on, though it was obvious this had to do with the church, she heard a lot of armored footsteps closing in on her. From the second floor, from the other rooms, from the outside.
Worse, she could feel the mana movement of big spells being prepared from at least three places outside.
Flee or fight?
As Sofia gazed into the dark room, the stench of decay assaulted her senses. She held her breath, her eyes adjusting to the dim light cast by the soft glow of her Spine sword. Her legs trembled as she discovered the gruesome sight before her.
In the shadows, she could make out the small, lifeless bodies of the orphans she used to know. Her heart twisted in agony. These kids, she had known each and every one of them as well as she had known her own sister. She gripped her bone sword so tightly that her whole arm shook.
As the footsteps grew closer, leaning heavily against the shattered remnants of the door frame, Sofia made a vow in that moment. With Pareth’s [Sanctified grounds] fired up, filling her body with power, she swore an oath to the innocent souls before her.
She would not rest until every single paladin and priest in this kingdom had tasted the warm and salty tang of their own blood on their lips.
Sofia flew west by following the mountain chain that went all the way along the north of the human kingdoms. Counter-intuitively enough, she flew faster the closer she was to the ground, since that was where most mana gathered. And since she had to cross the whole human continent from East to West, she would avoid getting too much attention by going along the mountains. While Couvauz was the easternmost kingdom, Sovuln was the westernmost one, or used to be. Just east of Sovuln was Skyreach. Verenha and the orphanage being in the south-west of the kingdom and Einsen, the capital, being in the east.
She planned to first go check on everyone at the orphanage, maybe give the kids and Clarice some money or something, and pick up the necromancy grimoire. It didn’t feel right letting the book rot under the orphanage’s floorboards. She wanted to at least try [Identify]ing it, and try to trace back its origins. Then she wanted to check in the middle of Skyreach, where the old capital from the trial should have been. And her final destination was adventuring into Sovuln, to search for what remained of the slaver camp and her Sister, forgotten atop one of the many floating islands created by the tide.
Not knowing when to stop, she flew west for days on end, only ever landing to eat, drink or sleep. That was until she spotted a wall of mana on the horizon.
“Looks like I reached Sovuln.”
Information about what went on inside the abandoned kingdom now was rather sparse, but she at least knew of the corruption. Anyone who lived on the west side of Skyreach would know about it. She had no real details about what it was, but from all accounts, it was a nasty thing, and the spread was rather violent. It had eaten the whole kingdom of Sovuln and even spread well into the original territory of Skyreach before the barrier was erected.
Now, with the army patrolling the border to prevent monsters from leaking out and the barrier spanning the whole east and northern borders of Sovuln stopping the corruption dead in its tracks, the dangers from the fallen kingdom were contained. That was about as much as she knew about the situation of her birthplace.
It was Sofia’s first time actually seeing the barrier. The mana patterns making it up were fine and detailed all the while requiring very little energy. Whoever designed that was an absolute master of rituals, no doubt. Maybe the dwarves were involved.
On the other side of the barrier, the landscape was incredibly different. It didn’t seem affected by the cold winter at all. The grass was long and wavy, trees had too many or too few branches, heavy with lively shivering leaves, everything looked unnatural. But by far the standout feature was the light pink color that every plant boasted. Trunks, grass and leaves alike, all tainted in pale shades of pink.
“It’s unsettling but I expected worse from the descriptions.”
Curious, she approached the barrier and poked a finger through it. It felt like pushing through a thin spider net.
[You have entered the dungeon : Sovuln, the ebbing kingdom - Certain Death]
Lovely place to call home. I’ll go back in there soon enough.
Seeing a stubby round cylinder on the path of the barrier further south, she flew there. It was a smooth stone pillar on top of which was an insane ritual circle. Insane was the only way Sofia could describe the design, the sheer complexity of which gave her a headache by looking at it. Getting closer, she noticed something unusual. The stone cylinder was very cleanly cut. In fact it had a peculiar texture, one she recognized. “Orvod?”
Guess the guy actually survived the Alphageid attack. Since the barrier is only a decade old, he must still be around now. Interesting. Lucky that I’m no longer a demon. I hope he’s no longer working with the Church…
Could Pareth take him on? Hmm, maybe. He can fly though, and Pareth cannot.
Ah, whatever, I’ll worry about that and Sovuln when I need to. First the orphanage. Can’t wait to see Clarice’s face when she sees the wings.
Sofia flew south along the barrier, this time she flew as high up as she could, she didn’t want the military camps across the border to spot her. Though she noticed that a lot of them were almost empty.
By the time the sun started setting, Sofia finally found the river that Verenha was built along. She flew over the closest village, then dived into the forest.
“It should be around here?”
She walked around the forest for a few minutes until she found them, the ruins she had used for her first necromancy ritual. Walking inside an old crypt, she found a skeleton sprawled near a ritual circle. Hey hey, look what we have here. If this isn’t Pareth’s first skeleton. She stored it in her ring. I’m never using this one again, I’ll display it in my home… Whenever I get one.
Alright, back to the orphanage then. Who knew I’d willingly come back after struggling so much to find a good way out. Well, my initial plan didn’t go how it should have but I left either way.
She followed the path through the forest she knew too well, walking through the leafless trees until she saw the familiar roof tiles of the orphanage, lit by the last razing rays of the setting sun.
It’s deadly silent… Is everyone asleep already?
She walked around the spiked fence until she got to the main gate. Let’s at least act a bit like a normal person. I wonder how long they spent searching for me after I disappeared. Or did the Church tell them? Who knows.
The gate was closed but to Sofia’s surprise, it wasn’t locked.
Now that’s weird. Leaving the gate unlocked at night wasn’t something Director Jeffrey would do. Especially not during winter, when monsters like wolves were more active in the region.
Now that I think about it… The chimneys aren’t smoking. I’m not cold because of the princess robes’ set effect but it’s still winter.
Just one thing wouldn’t have been too suspicious but it was starting to add up to a lot. If anything happened to Clarice and the kids…
Sofia activated her weapon and armor. Pushing open the gate, her every step left a deep imprint in the dead grass. She looked hard with her mana perception, not picking up much. At least no magical traps outside.
Walking up to the front door, she turned the doorknob. Unlocked too. Inside the orphanage was darkness, silence, and cold air. The floorboards creaked under her steps.
No one in the common room… Is there really no one here?
Leaving the common room, she entered the corridor that linked every room on the first floor, the same one she’d staged her fall in on her last day here. The broken shelf and the blood stains had been cleaned. The first rooms on her left and right were the boys and girls dormitories. Reflexively, she went to open the door on her right, to the girls’ room. Something smelled very bad.
Before she could touch the doorknob, Sofia heard the hissing of swords slicing through the air, one in front and one behind. The wall and door behind her broke in an explosion of debris and splinters, torn open by a huge claymore.
The sword behind was stopped by the large hands of a skeletal ogre that barely fit inside the corridor. Meanwhile, Sofia struggled to parry the sword coming from the front with her own. Thankfully the spine was sturdy, but her muscles were having a hard time holding back the huge sword, until the [Chains of the four seals] appeared to hold it back. That allowed her to kick in whatever remained of the door, revealing a fully armored paladin. As the heavy sound of Pareth punching came from behind, the paladin facing Sofia tried to free his sword from the chains, pulling without success. Sofia rushed forward, thrusting her empty left hand toward his greathelm covered face.
The paladin took a hand off his weapon to catch her armored fist. Before the impact, a green dagger appeared in Sofia’s hand out of nowhere. The mithril dagger pierced straight through the hand and helmet.
‘You have defeated [Sinner Paladin - lv. 141]’
‘You have defeated [Sinner Paladin - lv. 165]’
The messages were not at all the murder notices Sofia had expected.
But she had no time to think about what was going on, though it was obvious this had to do with the church, she heard a lot of armored footsteps closing in on her. From the second floor, from the other rooms, from the outside.
Worse, she could feel the mana movement of big spells being prepared from at least three places outside.
Flee or fight?
As Sofia gazed into the dark room, the stench of decay assaulted her senses. She held her breath, her eyes adjusting to the dim light cast by the soft glow of her Spine sword. Her legs trembled as she discovered the gruesome sight before her.
In the shadows, she could make out the small, lifeless bodies of the orphans she used to know. Her heart twisted in agony. These kids, she had known each and every one of them as well as she had known her own sister. She gripped her bone sword so tightly that her whole arm shook.
As the footsteps grew closer, leaning heavily against the shattered remnants of the door frame, Sofia made a vow in that moment. With Pareth’s [Sanctified grounds] fired up, filling her body with power, she swore an oath to the innocent souls before her.
She would not rest until every single paladin and priest in this kingdom had tasted the warm and salty tang of their own blood on their lips.
