Mornn
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Chapter 658 - The master of birds
🕑 Added 2025-04-21 16:00:08 +0000 UTCA singular demon flew out of the western fault. He had expected many possibilities as to what would greet him on the other side, but despite his best effort, none of his previous guesses were even close to the truth.
The vanguard laid eyes on the mangled corpses of thousands of human soldiers near the fault. He wondered for a second if the demons from the other faults had started the invasion early, before he noticed how utterly mutilated the bodies were. Demons were a violent group, certainly, but not the kind to play too much with their food.
This was not his kin’s doing.
The demon turned back. He needed to warn the others.
He heard a whistling noise just as he jumped back into the fault. His dead body landed back into the demon world, riddled with fairy-sized holes.
Soon, the demons sent three elites as a second vanguard group. They were sent back down in the same state as the first one.
Pestle sat down on the rim of the fault, happily swinging her legs. If no demons ever came out, then she didn’t need to worry about anyone else stealing Sofia’s points.
The duke’s magic shields and all of his clones faded as he died.
Kuli wiped the sweat off her brows as she landed on the plains of ash, breathing heavily, “That was… Not easy.”
“That cloning skill was nasty,” Mornn agreed as she landed next to her, the multiple wounds on her body leaking with fire as if she was full of burning gas.
Sofia jumped and landed near them, still in her avatar form and covered in demon blood, “To the western fault, we have no time to lose,” she told them, pointing upwards.
My avatar form won’t last forever!
The others agreed with a nod and looked up. Their reactions were strange; Sofia looked at where she was pointing as well. The portal in the demon world’s sky had disappeared.
“Nah… The demon lord must have been sustaining the entrance…” Kuli commented.
“We’re already in the demon world anyway, can’t we just find the other fault from here? Surely it’s not that far,” Mornn suggested.
“Hmm… Mornn, how long can you charge your signature skill for?” Sofia asked, “do you think you could have broken through the demon’s protection in one hit?”
“I can charge it for about thirty seconds,” Mornn said, “I could probably cleave a mountain in half like that,” she bragged, “but I can’t move while I charge it and I doubt anyone’s going to wait in front of my sword for so long…”
“Really? That’s perfect, then, give me a second…” Sofia told her group as she felt her avatar form start to weaken.
I’ve got maybe two or three minutes… I need to start now.
To Mornn and Kuli’s surprise, Sofia started channeling another explosive bolt while she was also busy giving Pestle orders. She could not quite feel Pestle’s location, but she could tell they were still connected.
Pestle, do you hear me? I need you to enter the demon world fast. Forget about the other orders for a bit, just quickly enter the portal in the fault and get back out without getting seen.
It wasn’t long until Sofia received confirmation that Pestle had gotten the order. Sofia felt her location for just a second, a small blip in her senses, before it disappeared.
Got it, thanks, go back to preventing people from getting in.
Sofia turned back to her three teammates. “Alright, here is the plan…”
Elite demons surrounded the corpses of their dead reckon group. One of them spoke up, “My lord… What should we do?” he asked the most dreadful-looking demon nearby.
Said demon wore a twisted looked on his already twisted face. “This can’t be the work of the humans,” he analyzed, crouching near the corpses, examining the bloody wounds. “They must have contracted an evil spirit.” The other demons looked shocked at their duke’s revelation, they knew they terrified the humans, but not so much that they would sell their souls to one of the old spirits.
“Do we cancel the attack?” another elite asked.
“No,” the duke answered, “I will go get rid of the spirit myself.”
The other demons cheered, it was rare for the old duke to fight directly, that was an event to celebrate. A strange sound came amidst the cheers, like a low rumble, coming far afar.
The demonic army was engulfed by a explosion of blue fire and lightning.
Sofia watched from afar.
I only expected another demon lord. Good that I prepared an explosive bolt anyway. I thought I only had thirty seconds left but my lightning blood is back to full again.
She checked her kill count, it had almost doubled in an instant, but as expected, the number of lords slain was still at one. Nonetheless, this was accounted for in her plan, so Sofia kept counting the seconds.
As soon as the explosion dies down…
As the explosion’s fireball kept expanding, Sofia managed to locate the high level demon, as it was the only point of stability in a mass of roiling mana.
He won’t even see me coming, that’s even better.
Just before the explosion died down, Sofia activated the third tier of [Runeforged Overlord] with whatever little mana she had left, and flew as fast as she could toward the demon she could not even directly see. In the middle of a sea of fire, Sofia tackled the demon lord she could not even see.
PARETH, NOW!
Pareth teleported to Sofia. In his large hands, he held Sun’s saintess, who was immobile with her sword held high above her head, brimming with mana. The Saintess’ sword fell down with a bang that blew away the remnants of the explosion.
The demon lord never even got a chance to understand what had happened to him.
‘Your group has murdered [Demon Duke Arzazkaktatan - Hexweaver Lv. 349EX]’
As for Sofia, it was a bit too early to rejoice. The saintess’ attack had left her as little more than a stain of bloodlight and few bones around a cracked mana heart, which barely held on thanks to VPPV preventing her health from falling below 1%. Not only was it quite an uncomfortable situation, but her racial skill [Pillar of Creation] prevented her from moving as her health was too low, and the unlife runes prevented her from healing.
P- Pareth… I hate to ask you this, but…
Pareth looked disheartened, but he readied his sword nonetheless, under the confused stares of Kuli and Mornn.
“Buddy, it’s already dead…” Mornn commented in incomprehension. Sofia had told them she would be fine, and from what they could see, she was still ‘alive’ as far as the trial was concerned.
Pareth had a second of hesitation, and someone took this opportunity to relieve him of his job. Barely slipping in through the closing portal, Pestle barelled into the demon world.
“Pesle help!” she happily cried out, landing right on top of Sofia’s mana heart. Then, without more ceremony, the tiny fairy dispelled her invisibility, grabbed Sofia’s mana heart. Kuli saw what was coming, and tried tostop the fairy, but it was too late. Pestle opened her jaw wide, and bit into the heart.
Sofia died, having never expected that she would become food for her own skeletons. She reappeared on the ground three seconds later, Pestle sitting on her chest. The avatar form should have had plenty of time left but it had ended with that revival.
“Very eat!” the fairy proudly proclaimed, her tiny hands on her non-existant hips.
“Are… Are you alright, Sofia?” Kuli asked, a worried look in her eyes.
Sofia struggled to sit up, “I’m fine, don’t worry. Just a bit weak because of my transformation’s after effects,” she explained while she looked around. Mornn’s attack had left a great split in the land, as if a giant had started to cut the demon world like a cake for dessert. “Your signature skill is quite something…”
“Eheh… For all its downsides, It’s pretty good. I’m hoping I can split an Alphageid like a log with it someday. Not quite there yet.”
“Well it’s a good start,” Sofia commented, “And it’s also the end for me for this event… The penalty for using the avatar form are pretty hefty. I can’t really fight like this.”
Kuli nodded as she looked around, “Well, we can always just do the same thing without the explosion. There must be a third demon lord in the last fault.”
Mornn shook her head, “I have a twenty four hours cooldown…” she reminded Kuli with a sigh.
“Ah right… Well… I suppose we just hide here until the end of the event? We killed two thirds of the demons so the first place is ours no matter what as long as we survive until the end,” Kuli said, sitting down next to Sofia, “How about we sit down and have a drink? I could use a break.”
“You know what… That’s fine with me,” Sofia said, bringing a bone table and some accessories out of her storage. “Pestle can’t be the only one who gets to have a snack,” she said with a giggle, lightly scratching the fairy’s tiny horns.
Mornn scratched her head as she watched the guildmaster starting to brew tea. “Is this really alright?”
Sofia nodded, “Yeah, we’re getting points for just ‘surviving’, might as well find ways to kill some time. The side effects of my transformation only last for an hour, so if the third demon lord is still alive by then, we can always try to go after them. And well, I have another idea for getting even more points.”
“Hmm? I’m listening,” Mornn said, putting a hand back on the handle of the sword she’d just sheathed.
“No, no, you can sit down. Hear me out, the ‘lesser’ demons aren’t very strong. They must also have cities in this world… Do you get me?”
“Nehh… Sofia… You know people are watching, right?” Kuli said.
Sofia cackled a bit a the idea, “If they have been watching us until now I doubt whatever I could do now would change anyone’s opinion of me. Plus I’m a necromancer to begin with, what do people expect? If anything, I’m more worried about what the fairies watching might think of Pestle… Not to mention… These demons are an insult to the real thing, let me tell you...”
On that fateful day, many poor civilian ‘lesser demons’ experienced the terror of being hunted by flocks of level 299 skeleton birds.
Comments
Tejing
Pestle is her own unique kind of overachiever. Definitely worthy of being one of Sofia's summons. :-) Yeah, an unexpected Angel Bolt from a distance is really hard to defend against, huh? Even harder to imagine your enemy using the explosion as cover to 1-shot you. He never stood a chance. "Pesle" seems like an intentional thing to represent that she talks funny, but I honestly can't picture what it's supposed to represent. The "t" in "Pestle" is already silent, so even if you leave it out, it still sounds the same. Curious that her avatar transformation ended that time but not the previous one. I wonder what made the difference? Honestly, nobody should really bat an eye at Sofia doing this, since it's a fake world with no lasting consequences and the trial is structured so that she can get a reward from doing it... Corrections: Elite demons surrounded the corpses of their dead reckon group. reckon -> reckoning Said demon wore a twisted looked on his already twisted face. looked -> look like a low rumble, coming far afar. far -> from was engulfed by a explosion of a -> an tried tostop the fairy tostop -> to stop The penalty for using the avatar form are pretty hefty. are -> is OR penalty -> penalties Sofia cackled a bit a the idea a the -> at the
Jonathan Wint
So the recessed feed on fear huh... Sofia is so on the Resessed Path. Even if that's not how you normally get gods. I think it does not matter.
Logen Felxon
Aaaand there we go, took me a bit over 4 days to get through 170 ish chapters of the p4ea content I pay for. Which isn't a record breaking incident at all but I feel it was a good pace. 30 ish chapters of great System universe content, 30ish chappies great HWFWM content... When it comes to Saintess Summons Skeletons, the only thing I had any kind of disinclination to was the amount of stealth our favourite party in this story had to do on the hidden moon. But regardless of my disinclination to the stealth happening there, I loved the weirdness, I loved the arc all in all and the pacing might have been slow but it's good to take things slow sometimes. The current arc you're doing is going pretty great in my eyes. I can now say with 100% assurance say that even if I have to stay away from my normal habits for extended portions of time, it's well worth supporting ya. My trust in you as a writer has been re-affirmed, I think it would have been re-affirmed even if I caught up in the middle of the moon arc tbf. :) Cosmic horror is my jam. Anyhue, just thought you ought to know, that's my verdict, and hope you're doing good. :)
Captain2003Rex
Now we just need to enroll her at the same “School of Raw Ass and Metal AF Dialogue” as Brennan Lee Mulligan lol
Phsteven
She's gotta get the Doom Guy title after she wipes out all of the demons in hell!
Phsteven
Perhaps she is going to regrow herself after eating enough? I'm sure eating Sofia's mana heart and all of the excess of the avatar skill will see her becoming something more...
Lazy Monster
If she makes it into a passive after getting the healing and gets the specialization point from the shop then she can try to make “false immortality” into a specialization and maybe closer to real immortality
Lazy Monster
Well the birds are mobile so she doesn’t have to be there personally, she can wait for the drawback of the avatar to wear off, if some kind of a defense is mounted then she is at no risk whatsoever, and it allows her to get more points on the “survive” front.
Silver Dawn
I was honestly thinking a Demon King or something a full two filters higher. If they can basically one shot a level 349, going after a 399 might just be possible if they get the first attack off undetected.
Ceasar Salas
Thanks for the chapter! For anyone curious, this has strong Catholic Saintess Olga of Kiev vibes…. Or specifically 1 thing she did, I recommend looking her up. Ps Check for the part about birds and fire
Atlas Dwarf
I wonder if this is going to give Sophia an upgraded Title of 'Demon' that amplified her demonic aura. Maybe 'Demon Lord' and/or 'DOOM' (one for killing a demon lord as an actual Demon and the other for breaking the Hero Admin's trial).
Endicar
There is is no corner of Sofia’s mana heart she wouldn’t obliterate for just a single extra point
Chance Rose
We gotta find a way to give pestle her skin back. Sassy undead fairy is great but she cant pout appropriately without cheeks and a waist.
Floyd
She'll break the scoring again by killing more demons than were actually involved in the invasion.
Phsteven
Honestly, I was kinda expecting a new dawn to force all of the civilians to stare at the sun until it inverts and rot turns hell to dust. Would probably be faster than the flying murder squad, though idk if speed was what Sofia was going for...
Dan N
Sofia really needs to take the False Immortality optimizations to allow for healing and to make it a passive skill. Then she just needs to make an optimization feature request that allows for Stamina regeneration (maybe she can refill her stamina at a 2 to 1 cost in health or mana, or maybe the same 1% rune degradation as the health regen) and then she will literally never have an excuse not to have 3 or 4 extra lives on at any point in time and it'll solve problems exactly like this one. What would have happened if she'd been by herself either somewhere unreachable by Parath and her other skeletons or say after a devastating battle where Parath and Bookie have both succumbed and will need to be resummoned. She'd be completely helpless and unable to kill herself.
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
Vettu
What are the chances that those lesser demon kills, however miniscule individually, are going to net yet another abnormally large amount of points for Sofia? She'll have to aquire the funds for those pauldrons somehow
Lazy Monster
TFTC. Sofia plays civilization exterminator against the demons, lol. Now that it’s been mentioned I wonder how the fae view Pestle. Also, I know Sofia killed some lesser demons in Sorrows temple, did she add them to the book or choir?
Matt Grayson
Pestle! Violence!
Tom Asciola
Ahh, "master of birds." I get it now. Also, Mornn can be just as scary as Sofia with prep time, huh?
Dan N
Cut to a group of human Heroes munching on popcorn while getting nostalgic for Hitchcock.
Cyclone001
Lol - Sofia casually committing war crimes for bonus points. Atta girl. Love it.
ArtTheGreat
Pestle is scary. I look forward to seeing how this affects her points. Maybe she’ll even find some extra demon lords to kill. “How did you kill 7 demon lords? There were only supposed to be 3!”
Kennyevilmonkey
A little demon boy, holding his mother's hand. He looks up as a shadow covers the city, the two stopping their midday walk to look up at the unnaturally moving clouds. "Mommy, what is that?"
Songy
Poor simulated fake demons
Blai Navarro
The power of points stikes again
CurufinIII
*Alfred Hitchcock Intensifies*
