Saintess Summons Skeletons

Chapter 513: Looking Death in the Eye

Moving between the bone trees, Sofia found a hole in the dense canopy, affording her a look at the ‘sky’, which looked like a swirling vortex of gray clouds.

“Not some kind of weird sky-sea this time. The complete silence feels strange.”

Looking around, it was hard to see far in any direction, the bone trees and their dense gray foliage obscured the way no matter where she looked.

“Seeking death is taking on an entire new meaning…” Sofia commented for herself as she picked a direction at random and started walking. She felt strangely at peace walking through the strange forest. “This is when you know you’ve made it as a necromancer. Will Death be mad if I steal this tree design for Zangdar? I should be able to reproduce this pretty easily. I have to say, though, this place would look much better with actual colors…”

Making slow progress through the dense forest, Sofia couldn’t help but let her mind wander, and she started questioning her current situation a bit more. “This shouldn’t be any kind of trap but was this whole thing really necessary? And am I not in some kind of danger right now? Out of all the places someone shouldn’t go this feels like a given…”

“Hmm… Maybe Death is taking the opportunity exactly because I’m uniquely suited to come here. VPPV allows me to move around. The Deep-given protection from instant death, and [Singularity Edict] can also protect me from the semi-continuous type of damage that usually floods out when the templars use holy smite with Death’s power.”

The forest looks a little bit less dense in that direction… Could this be the way out?

“Can gods visit each other? Could Sorrow come here? Actually, where is ‘here’? Do locations in the physical plane and here link to one another in some way? It could also be more like the margin, where the rings take us to Zangdar no matter where we start from…”

So many questions…

“A wheat field now?”

Right out of the forest, she found herself in what looked like a wheat field extended as far as the eye could see, lightly swayed by a non-existent breeze. Something about it felt wrong, Sofia felt observed, as if something was hiding in the fields, staring at her. She stopped at the edge of the field and the forest, observing the wheat from up-close.

“Oh. The wheat grains are tiny eyes. Lovely.”

Taking a few steps to the left and to the right, it became obvious that the wheat’s eyes were indeed staring at her.

“I don’t feel like turning back, so… It’s just eyes, I can deal with it,” she said to herself as she stepped into the field. The eyed-wheat parted by itself to let her through, bending out of her way.

“That makes things easier. Why the eyes, though? Why are the divine always so full of eyes? I thought it was only the Gods but it turns out the Recessed are the same… Even the skill I’m supposed to get from my quest… Eye of the Orator? Always eyes… And the place they sent Hugo was the eye of creation. Is there like… A hidden lord of eyes influencing the world to be full of them?”

Sofia walked through the fields in a straight line, and the crazy thoughts kept coming.

“It’s not even that weird for eyes to be everywhere, in hindsight. The planes all seem to have their own color themes. Like a messed up rainbow. And what would be the point of these colors without eyes to see them? If there’s one common point to every plane no matter which one, it’s light. What allows me to exist, even now: light. The strongest god? Sun, the god of light. Even in the margin and the deep, in places where there’s no mana, even when there’s no obvious source of it, there is light. Mr. Scribe worked to create a stronger race for us, the keywords were ‘divine shadow body’, result? Venerable physique of the primeval void, and the Lumian race, a new race based on light…”

Sofia’s meandering thoughts were interrupted by the vision of something new on the horizon.

Smoke?

She could not see what produced the smoke, as it was very far away, but considering she was walking through Death’s domain without a set direction, she changed trajectory to go check out the smoke.

“I think… I want to take a break after going to Sorrow’s. Study light for a bit. A lot of my skills are light-based so it can’t hurt… Can I find a light mage? Maybe I should go ask Phillip, since he’s a Chromatic Dragon. Might as well stop by his daughter's shop since I’m already in Exidia.”

Following the smoke brought Sofia out of the wheat fields, and into rocky plains, littered with the bones of giants. Of course she was in no state to bring them with her, if that was even possible, but just looking at them would be enough to make her drool, had she still had a regular mouth. The skulls of these dead giants were large enough that she could enter them through their nose. She found one half buried in the ground, which made it easy for her to walk up the skeleton’s spine and take some altitude.

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The rocky plains were like the remains of a battlefield of giants, further in, there were gigantic swords and lances buried in the ground with the dead giants.

“Most of these giant skeletons look decidedly human. Just imagining Pareth in such a big skeleton… Is there a place like this in the physical plane? If so, I need to find it.” Putting her dreams of giant skeletons aside, she looked for the smoke, which was still distant, and despite the height of her new vantage point, she still couldn’t see where exactly it was coming from. She resumed her walk through the silent domain of Death.

The more she walked through the plains of giants, the more she started to find some liquid pooling on the ground, in between the rocks and the grass. It was hard to tell what it was, considering that Sofia already felt like she was underwater, and that, just like everything else in this plane, it was in a random shade of gray. Sofia guessed it was probably water, but it could really be anything else.

Eventually the number of giant skeletons became sparse, and the pools of liquid started to connect and flow, turning into a silent river. The river was flowing in the direction of the smoke, so Sofia followed.

The rocky plains became flatter as she went, and there were no more bones, just the swerving river. Until the ground started to become weird. Sofia found a hole. It was just a big hole in the ground, she couldn’t see the bottom, as it was all gray. Not wanting to fall, after checking it out once, Sofia moved on. But as she followed the river further, there were more and more such holes. At times, to avoid them, she was forced to step into the river, making her advance even slower than it already was.

Then she found the end of the river. The entire rest of the horizon was a hole. The holes had become so numerous that there was nothing else left, as if this was the edge of the world, the river through itself into the gray void below. But the source of the smoke was still out of sight, in the gray void.

Sofia stopped on a small rock, not far from the edge.

“What now? I cannot fly here…”

“...”

“Or can I?”

“I never tried that here, but… With [Dodge Me], I can walk on air…”

Sofia took a step into the air, leaving herself speechless.

I cannot believe that this works…

Very well.

Sofia walked up to the edge of the river, and she took a step into the void. She thought that she had long conquered her fear of falling, but the great gray abyss below still made her uneasy. Yet, since [Dodge me] worked, she continued, taking one step after the next in the direction of the distant smoke, until she could not even see a trace of the river when she looked back.

After a long while, the source of the smoke revealed itself, the chimney of a lone small log cabin, floating in the void.

This feels like a fever dream…

Before she knew it, Sofia was in front of the cabin’s door, she did not even remember walking up to it. Everything was still silent.

She knocked on the door. There was no response, but Sofia heard the quiet ‘click’ of a lock being opened, and the door slightly opened by itself without the doorknob even moving. Taking this as an invitation to enter, Sofia stepped in. The cabin was as small as it looked, not even half as large as the room she had been imprisoned in at the church, there was barely enough space for a bed, a small table with two chairs, a few cabinets and the chimney, burning strange twisted logs with a silent fire.

A thing was on the opposite side of the cabin from the door, its back facing Sofia, looking out of one of the cabin’s three windows. It looked like a pile of gray tattered rags in a vaguely humanoid shape.

“Death?” Sofia asked under her breath, silently closing the door behind her.

She blinked, and the pile of rags was no more, but the entity looking out the window still existed. It had become something else. Some kind of horned and furry thing, like a demonic goat standing on two legs, dripping with blood that made no sound when it hit the cabin’s floor.

Sofia was startled by the sudden change, taking a step back. She blinked again. Now the gray creature was a wall of eyes, looking in all directions. It made Sofia extremely uneasy, her thoughts were becoming cloudy. Uncomfortable, she looked away. Focusing her attention on the cabin’s wooden furniture, but her eyes were inevitably drawn back to the thing, which had changed again. It was a decayed, humanoid plant, its body covered in constantly blooming and wilting flowers.

Another blink and Sofia found herself staring thoughtlessly at a mass of tangled hair and gnarly protruding nails, covered in paper slips that bore unknown uncanny symbols. Her sanity was slowly slipping away, coherent thoughts struggling to form. Her mind became more foggy every time she blinked and witnessed another one of the creature’s forms.

A low, calm and soothing voice came from where the creature stood, to bring the madness to a stop.

“You should close your eyes,” it said. And despite Sofia’s current form having no eyes, it was evident that she could blink, so closing her eyes was also something she could do. She mindlessly followed the voice’s advice.

Her entire world became nothing but the color gray, and her thoughts gradually came back to normal.

“You are admirably resilient,” the comforting voice said after a long silence. “Do you remember where the chairs are? Feel free to take a seat.”

Sofia nodded, and fumbled around a bit, eventually managing to sit on the wooden chair thanks to the voice’s guidance.

“Right there. You can relax, just keep your eyes closed,” the voice continued. It was still coming from next to the window. “I’m sorry that you had to walk all the way here. I had to make sure you would be able to withstand coming near me.”

“I-... It’s nothing,” Sofia answered, softly, “It was a peaceful journey.”

“I am glad you enjoyed it,” Death answered, a smile in his voice, “most others are none too eager to follow such a grim path.”

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