Mornn
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Chapter 657 - Win on a technicality
🕑 Added 2025-04-18 16:00:23 +0000 UTCBookie, when I catch the guy, summon the pearled snake.
The demon’s crystal of frost pulsed with cold magic, washing over Sofia harmlessly as VPPV gave her immunity to the cold. As she was not hampered by the magic, the demon cancelled his chanelling, shattering the crystal, sending hundreds of ice fragments flying in Sofia’s direction.
One of the fragments pierced Sofia’s shoulder, the freezing power it emanated completely useless, and all the other ice shard bounced off Sofia’s avatar form after [Singularity Eddict] took effect.
As Sofia quickly closed in on him again, and both his ice and lightning spells looked useless, he switched element once more, unleashing a continuous stream of flame from his sceptre like a dragon’s breath. This, again, was completely useless, as the two angels bolts Sofia was channeling both provided her with some heat resistance, and the demon’s flames were barely comparable to the heat of a million mana bolt.
Sofia slammed her piercing bolt into the demon’s shield again. Carried by the longer channeling and the additional momentum, the bolt pierced through two layers of mana shield before getting stopped by a third one.
“Starting to panic?” Sofia taunted the demon as he took a step back, casting another spell.
At the same time, golden mist escaped Sofia’s avatar body from the side, quickly transforming into a giant skeletal snake. The emperor pearled snake skeleton was fast, tough, and had native magic resistance, a perfect summon against a mage.
The demon seemed surprised by the snake’s sudden appearance, but unleashed his next spell nonetheless. An invoked magical sword shot out from his scepter and pierced right through Sofia’s heart and left her body through her back before disappearing as it flew too far from its caster. Sofia reeled back as the giant snake tried to bite at the demon, prompting him to jump backwards.
I really need to upgrade my armor…
“Found your weakness, human filth,” the demon cackled, clearly preparing to unleash the same spell again.
As if.
Sofia had barely taken any damage from the invoked sword, it had indeed pierced through her avatar form, her armor and her heart, but so what? Her vital organs were all for show at this point anyway. If anything, the four percent of health she had lost to this attack only helped her stack [One with suffering]. Only if the sword had pierced her mana heart would it really matter, but she would never let that happen.
Seeing it coming, she managed to block the next invoked sword with her right arm, it pierced through puter layer of the avatar before shattering when it collided with the armguard. At the same time Sofia jumped toward the demon again, and the snake attacked with a tail swipe.
The demon let the skeleton’s attack land, this time, shattering one of his magic shields as he channeled another spell.
Whatever he was channeling this time, it was a big spell, Sofia could feel the demon’s mana flowing toward his staff even through his magic shields that obscured her mana senses.
She took the opportunity to slam the bolt in her left hand on his shields again, shattering three more layers of magical protection. At the last second, she let the bolt go, which also released this bolt’s two copies channeled by the skulls. The three bolts faded as they collided with the demon’s mana shields, breaking several layers of them.
He still has more?!
The snake attacked again, and again the demon did nothing in return, focusing on his channeled spell with his eyes closed.
Sofia started to feel the mana around her behaving a bit strangely. It reminded her of Sovuln and its spatial anomalies warping the flow of mana.
Spatial attack magic?!
The demon opened his eyes, unleashing his strongest spell.
Sofia said no.
[Heat Death]
A million mana points disappeared from Sofia’s reserves, colliding with the mana of the demon’s spell, utterly dismanteling it. Space stabilized, and the demon was left stunned by the unexplained disappearance of his most expensive magic.
Another angel’s bolt slammed into his shields. It shattered four layers of mana shield before finally getting through, as Sofia had hit to the side of the demon’s physical shield, the bolt struck right into his waist, stabbing deep inside of his demonic flesh. Seeing the opportunity, Sofia let this bolt go as well.
It pierced clean through the demon’s side, and the last two bolts held byu the skulls followed, riddling the demon’s body with two more charred holes.
With a growl of pain, the demon retreated, teleporting away once again, barely avoiding another bite attack from the skeletal snake.
You must be almost out of mana by now.
Sofia on the other hand, still had about half of her mana left, and could tell the avatar form would last for a while longer, as she had just inflicted plenty of lightning damage.
The demon’s wounds rapidly healed after he teleported away, and his mana shields started reforming one by one. As Sofia and the snake ran toward him again, he used a different move.
Thousands of specks of light appeared all around the fields of burned ash, surrounding the demon, Sofia, and everything in the near vicinity, and in an instant, by observing the magic Sofia understood what was happening. This was a mass teleportation spell, each light a target, she had trained with Astelia enough to recognize the structure of teleportation magic.
SHIT! PARETH! Sofia screamed in her head as she jumped as fast and high as she could, taking to the skies.
Thousands of rot-covered blade wielding copies of the demon appeared all at once. Caught between their blades, the pearled snake was reduced to bone bits instantly. Many of the demon copies jumped after Sofia, but she instantly activated [Runeforged Overlord]’s third level to get away faster.
For some reason Pareth was not here yet.
Things started to get dicey. Dozens of demon copies died, consumed by the rot. And this had the unfortunate side effect of creating many more of them, which appeared in the air, completely surrounding Sofia.
She was sliced by innumerable attacks, and despite her mana heart’s best effort to stay out of the way, it could not avoid the strikes forever, and shattered, caught between two blades.
Does death cancel the avatar form? At this moment Sofia discovered the answer was no. She opened her eyes three seconds later, two angel bolts in her hands that she did not remember ever starting to cast, while Pareth, Kuli and Mornn were surrounding her, barely managing to protect her from the hundreds of demons by killing them indiscriminately before they could strike. Mornn in particular torn through the demons like a hurricane of swords, countless blades flying in all directions around her, decimating the hordes.
He’s got to be almost out of mana by now!
Sofia teleported out of the storm of demons and swords with [Summon Self], and Pareth followed by teleporting to her. Without sharing a word, they both flew straight in the direction of the real demon, Pareth flying thanks to [Runeforged Overlord].
The demon flung another magic attack at Sofia and Pareth. Sofia did not even entertain the thought of letting it go through. About a hundred thousand of her mana disappeared, and so did the demon’s spell.
As Pareth drew close enough, he activated his skill, [Chains of the four seals].
The chain could not reach the demon through his mana shields, so they grabbed onto the shields instead, and unlike usual, the skill did not stop there. Pareth had, after all, gotten his turn on the skill optimization device. The chains wrapped around the spherical mana shield like constrictor snakes, looping around and around until only a ball of shining chains of light could be seen.
The demon tried to teleport away once again but the chains prevented it, anchoring him in place.
Still, many of the copies were chasing after Sofia and Pareth, so they couldn’t stop, and going too close was similarly dangerous, as the demon was now well-guarded.
Sofia gave Pareth a mental order and they both flew straight down. Sofia fired her piercing bolts, killing the demon copies immediately below them, and Pareth landed on their corpses, the sheer weight of the impact creating a shockwave that flung off the other nearby copies. It would not keep them away for long, but it was enough. Sofia landed next to Pareth, and instead of colliding the ground like him, she instantly sunk into the ash and rocks.
One of the graveyard Nymphs carried her through the ground while the nine others helped Pareth get some breathing room by pulling the copies underground one by one.
Praying for Pareth’s chains to hold, Sofia sped through the ground toward the demon.
As someone who had spent a lot of time reading in the Exidian libraries, Sofia knew a thing or two about defensive spells. Spherical mana shields in particular, when used while on the ground, had a big weakness. The mana shields could not cut through the ground, and having them be a perfect bubble around the caster would prevent them from walking. As such, many spherical mana shield left a space open at the bottom, helping to make the spell cheaper in sustained cost, and to allow the caster to walk.
Sofia, in spirit form, emerged inside of the chain-covered shields of the demon, right behind his back. When she was fully out, the Nymph let her go.
The demon noticed, turning around, but it was too late. Sofia punched him straight where she could feel his mana core through his skin. The simple punch not only inflicted lightning damage thanks to the avatar, but also [Confusion] thanks to [Runeforged Overlord].
The confusion was short-lived against such a foes, but it was enough for Sofia to land another punch. And another. The demon desperately tried to cast more spells, but the [Confusion] made it impossible to cast anything complex, and his weaker attacks Sofia just shrugged off as she kept punching like a maniac, each punch refuelling her avatar form.
Finally, the demon ran out of mana, and without anything getting in her way, Sofia’s punches managed to crack the demon’s tough hide. She mercilessly plunged her hand deep into the wound as the demon screamed and cursed, even trying to punch her back though pointless it was with his pitiful physical stats as a pure mage.
Sofia tore the demon’s mana heart out of his body in a shower of demonic blood.
‘You have murdered [Demon Duke Sekkaraziraek - Underworld Arcanist Lv. 349EX]’
Comments
Tejing
Curious that the mist is golden this time. Is that because of the avatar form, perhaps? I wonder if it signifies anything? I am glad to know that inflicting lightning damage does in fact lengthen the duration of the avatar form. I suspected it would work like that, but the skill description didn't actually say. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it restores any mana, health, or stamina, though. That seems to be purely something that happens during the activation itself. Nice to see the confusion effect of runeforged overlord shine. It's a really nice ability that she just never seems to get the chance to use... I'm not sure I get the point of the title. Really seems like a very real win, not on a technicality... Regardless, great fight! Corrections: after [Singularity Eddict] took effect. Eddict -> Edict it pierced through puter layer of the avatar puter -> outer utterly dismanteling it. dismanteling -> dismantling the last two bolts held byu the skulls followed byu -> by Mornn in particular torn through the demons like torn -> tore The chain could not reach chain -> chains instead of colliding the ground like him, she instantly sunk into the ash and rocks. colliding -> colliding with sunk -> sank even trying to punch her back though pointless it was with his pitiful physical stats back though pointless -> back, pointless as
Matt Grayson
At this point, it’s safe to say that anything that Sof does falls into the “never meant to” category.
Mrluigi1111111
Survival implies she's meant to die at some point to end the timer and I'm suspecting that's not gonna happen. She's gonna break this event by simply not losing.
Tom Asciola
I'm starting to think contenders were never meant to actually beat the demon lord, and that they were just supposed to last as long as they were able 😅
Daemion
I hope all those copies count as kills, too. By now Sofia's team probably has a huge lead but there's one more rift... unless Pestle has killed everything there already?
Lazy Monster
I’m sure the rot left a small desert of carbon sand so I think it should count
Phsteven
well, she technically killed him so...
Jonathan Wint
FATALITY! FLAWLESS VICTORY! Well, Victory will be happy!
Matt Grayson
If Sofia murders a Demon Duke but doesn't leave a crater the size of Madagascar, does it really count?
Chance Rose
The readers: Mornn what does it mean murdered!? Mornn: eh it's just trial murder, not her first either. Fugget About it.
Matt Grayson
So satisfying. So calming. A peaceful Friday afternoon. 🥰 Sekkaraziraek is my next cat's name.
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
Lazy Monster
Well Sofia did get killed first but it just wasn’t permanent, not that this is new. So I guess the demon won a round. *Shrug*
Draxas
I didn't see a technicality.
Lazy Monster
Let’s see… groups we still need a reaction to Sofia’s madness scene from: Saria group, the Saints, the school teachers maybe, definitely need Leverle and maybe some other Apostles.
Lazy Monster
I was asking if the murder log distinguishes in some way between real people and trial people. I was just using the crown as an example of a time we’ve seen something actually make a distinction.
Mornn
The crown might recognize the fight depending on Victory's opinion, the murder log isn't recording any of this
Lazy Monster
TFTC. Hey Mornn, do the demons like this arcanist show up in her logs as actual people or something like how the crown recorded the flashback of Orovod, where it was “Image of Orovod”? It would be really awkward if someone checks Sofia log at some point and they see their friends name in there when they are still alive.
Ceasar Salas
Thanks for the chapter! Sofia’s on a kill spree again, let’s see if she can go track down another demon lord!
Songy
FATALITY! ⁽⁽(੭ꐦ *Д* )੭*⁾⁾
Mornn
First trial had murdering also, it's nothing
Mornn
flashback to the first trial: ‘You have murdered [Armand Anzan Ovohen - Magisterium lv. 164]’ //// so no, not anything special and not polluting her log either
Kennyevilmonkey
Murder, yay!
Cyclone001
Murdered? Really? Are all the other demons she bolted and the kingdom soldiers now polluting her murder log? How do you even murder someone in a fake trial world?
Tom Asciola
What is a King to a God, I suppose :3c
E
Murdered? Not defeated? This is the first "murdered" message of the trial. Was that demon real? Pareth: "I'M A LITTLE BUSY" Excited to see how this trial ends. According to the trial rules, the other groups still have to die. Time to turn what should've been a king-of-the-hill trial into battle royale. Would the trial trap Saria and Sofia forever if they decide against attacking each other?
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
