Mornn
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Chapter 656 - Down from Olympus
🕑 Added 2025-04-17 16:01:06 +0000 UTCSofia was not the kind of person who would fall to the same trick twice in a row, the asterite chest she had gotten from the coin-thrower dwarf appeared between her back and the demon’s four blades. The demon’s weapons shattered and that extra time was all it took for Pareth to teleport to Sofia again and catch the demon like a grappler.
Give me five seconds! She ordered Pareth as two glowing human skulls dripping with blood appeared around her..
Meanwhile Kuli survived the same predicament in a much different manner, she back-flipped, her tiny frame slipping through two of the incoming blade as she spun in the air toward the demon. As her extended hands reached the demon’s chest, she grabbed a thorny outgrowth and both herself and the demon suddenly flipped in a way that defied all physics, slamming the demon head first into the glassy ground.
It only took an instant before two new demons appeared, surrounding Mornn, who had been channeling something. An array of orichalcum swords appeared around her, perfectly deflecting all the blows as she continued her channeling.
It’s as I feared…
“Try not to kill it too often!” she shouted to the others, “It multiplies every time!”
At the same time, the one Pareth had grabbed was slowly freeing himself from the skeleton’s grasp.
Kuli jumped up at an impressive speed, unleashing a familiar move at one of the two demons attacking Mornn, a punch that created rippling shockwaves in the air. It did nothing to the demon.
“They have no soul!” She yelled, as the demon she attacked suddenly turned around and sliced her up. She barely saw it coming with her signature skill, but her mobility in the air was subpar at best, she twisted her body like a falling cat, avoiding three of the blades while the fourth struck her left leg, slicing off her ankle and foot.
The demon Pareth was holding was about to free himself, so rather than to let it throw itself at Sofia again, Pareth used [Gravity well] to keep it there and crush its bones against his armor of light, rendering it unable to struggle without killing it.
At the same time, Mornn finally finished channeling her spell. Hundreds of swords of fire appeared in the sky above the battlefield. They started raining down, killing the two demons near her and Kuli as they were impaled by dozens of fiery swords.
Four more demons appeared around them.
“I’ll just kill them all!” Mornn screamed, as the fire swords kept raining down and the demon multiplied again and again.
Kuli did her best to take some distance, returning to the ground where she had better mobility as the rain of fire continued.
Sofia could feel Mornn’s mana plummeting, Sun’s saintess would not be able to keep that up for long, but it did buy Sofia enough time to finish her own channeling.
Sofia’s own skulls in the [Skull Choir] copied her spell casts even if it still used her mana. As she had learned during the last trial, this was the perfect tool to apply the rot faster. Using 900 000 mana, herself and her skulls each channeled a 300 000 [Saintomancer’s Star] as the rain of swords ended.
Three bright spheres of radiant light appeared above Sofia and her skulls, like three brilliant suns dispelling the night.
The hundreds of demon copies rushing at Mornn all instantly turned in unison.
Their gazes were fixated on the suns. They had a new target. Many of them simply disappeared and reappeared closer, teleporting to be as close to the suns as they could, the warmth of its light burning their skin.
Sofia activated the skill again. The balls of light seemed to implode and invert as their light turned sickly and gray. The world seemed to lose its colors as the light touched it, and that was for only a moment, as the rot soon started to spread.
From the demons to the mountains and the plains in the distance. Everything was getting rapidly covered by a destructive layer of black manavore rot.
Sofia did not stay behind to see if that was enough to suppress the demons. The suns would hold for about one minute, so this was how long she had.
Pareth! Stay here unless I call, defend the others two. She ordered as she plunged straight down into the fault.
These fuckers have too little health. They run on low mana. They have no core and no soul.
The original must still be down there! The first demon we killed was already a copy.
Sofia rapidly sunk into the darkness, without the rot-covered demons even noticing. Though her mana was almost empty, she still had many cards to play. She discovered the rift at the bottom, in the middle of a giant lake of magma, and adjusted her trajectory towards it without a second thought. When she felt it was about time, she activated the skill.
The nice thing about sending a huge explosive plasma bolt at an army was, it counts as a lot of lightning damage.
Sofia’s forehead split open as she traversed the rift in space. On that day, the demon world experienced its first thunderstorm.
[Avatar of Zeus]: Reality inspires myth, myth inspires reality.
Your blood progressively charges up with divine lightning as you inflict lightning damage in combat, you may only activate this skill when fully charged.
Become the Avatar of Zeus for a short duration, fully replenishing your health, stamina and mana, while unleashing a lightning storm around you.
For as long as the Avatar form lasts, you gain:
-Immunity to all negative status effects.
-Immunity to lightning.
-50% increased healing received.
-50% increased lightning damage inflicted.
-All your damage is lightning damage.
-Limited lightning authority.
-Lust.
When the Avatar form expires, for the next hour:
-Receive 20% increased damage from all sources.
-Effective magic range decreased to 1 meter.
-All mana costs are doubled.
In a spectator room full of actual gods, the sight of Sofia’s new form raised some questions.
“Is that… That’s something they can do, now? The avatar of a fake god?!”
“Come on, Love,” Sun replied, sipping on a drink through a straw, “She’s currently carrying nineteen divine essences. That’s more than anyone in this room. And two of them are from the Lords themselves. What did you expect? You know full well how fucked Stebron’s magic is.”
“But he’s a dragon…” Love replied, a confused expression on her face full of of makeup.
“Shouldn’t we do something about her?” another god asked, “Not that I side with Scripture, but this could end up badly…”
“You don’t have all the information, Wealth,” Sun answered, “yes it could end up badly, and trust me, I don’t want another leviathan either… But if I read all the signs correctly, we really need her to perform. More than that, I would say we need more people like her. Moon’s Oracle and my Saintess show good potential also… I just wish I’d understood Anna’s warning earlier…”
“What? The issue with the core should be long fixed by now,” another god said, “There are more than enough ascended already.”
Sun shook her head. “No, Progress. You all really don’t get it. The core was never the real problem… “
“Then, what is?” Peace asked from a corner of the room.
“Listen… I wanted to keep that for the end not to ruin the mood, but… I know I can trust all of you here. Information about what I’m going to be showing you must never leave this room. Understood? This is something only the High-Scribes, Death, Moon and Myself are privy to at the moment.”
After everyone acquiesced an image appeared on one of the room’s walls under Sun’s command. It was the image of a vivid midenicite mural. At the top, written in cursive old Fae language, the more knowledgeable gods were able to decipher a few words.
‘The great tapestry of fate.’
In the field of ash Sofia’s bolt had left in the demon world, the demon was sitting cross-legged on the ground, looking at the rift, as if he had been waiting for Sofia’s arrival.
He watched as her muscular Avatar form, still only half as tall as he was, emerged from the rift and landed heavily on the glassy ground, kicking up a cloud of ash.
Lightning formed overhead and struck the demon dozens of time, but none truly reached him, stopped by multiple layers of mana shields. Besides that, he had no visible weapon. He slowly stood up as Sofia recovered from her forceful landing; black ash fell from his upturned palms, flowing through his clawed fingers.
“My army…” the demon said, “turned to ashes.” What his voice communicated was not pain or sadness, merely disappointment.
The sound of his voice barely reached Sofia, whose sense were altered and warped by Zeus’ lust.
“You shall join them soon, filth,” Sofia answered before her brain could even process her words, a stake of lightning appearing in both of her hands, and four more appearing nearby, two for each of her choir skulls.
“You think you stand a chance against me with your measly lightning and explosions? Pathetic,” the demon answered, summoning his own weapons. In truth this demon ‘lord’ was no warrior, he was a pure mage, two of his hands holding a scepter tall like a tree, while in the others he held massive tower shield engraved with the screaming faces of a thousand humans. “Let me show you true magic,” he said as he unleashed lightning magic of his own, a streak of red electricity shooting straight from his staff to Sofia’s head.
Sofia charged straight at him. The red lightning hit her squarely on the head without doing any damage, and affecting her with several curses and status effects she was immune to. She reached the demon’s raised shield, slamming a piercing bolt into it. Her bolt was stopped by the mana shields before it even reached the physical one, and the demon teleported hundreds of meters away. He instantly started to channel a frost spell that spread cold air through the underworld as a massive white crystal formed above his head..
Really a pure spellcaster? Sofia wondered as she charged at the demon again.
As long as his clones all stay on the surface, this is going to be easy.
I’m a pure mage’s worst nightmare.
Comments
Tejing
"two glowing human skulls dripping with blood"... is that what the "bloodlight echoes" skulls looked like? I thought they were normal human skulls with bloodlight veins extending from them. I mean... she didn't actually have liquid blood even when she extracted her skull back then, so I'm not sure why they'd be "dripping with blood". I guess maybe they glow now because she's since become a lumian? I guess I'm just generally confused on the details here. Well, Sun mentioning the leviathan in this context has interesting implications. Did the leviathan come from abuse of divine essence somehow? Or is it a more general thing like "powerful person went wrong"? This talk of Anna's warning and the great tapestry of fate certainly teases at the greater plot... but it doesn't actually reveal much. I can't really even guess at much from what's been said. Sigh... :-) The Lust effect is really hard to control, huh? Sofia doesn't normally go around calling anyone "filth" other than Scripture. It's true, she really is a pure mage's worst nightmare... Corrections: slipping through two of the incoming blade as she spun blade -> blades and both herself and the demon suddenly flipped herself -> she rather than to let it throw itself at Sofia again than to -> than it -> him (either could be fine, but be consistent.) itself -> himself to keep it there and crush its bones against his armor of light, rendering it unable to struggle without killing it. bunch more it -> he variations here. Again, either could work, but be consistent. You used "he" a lot early on. copied her spell casts even if it still used her mana. it -> they herself and her skulls each channeled herself -> she defend the others two. others -> other Sofia rapidly sunk into the darkness, sunk -> sank a confused expression on her face full of of makeup. of of -> of and struck the demon dozens of time, time -> times whose sense were altered and warped sense -> senses a stake of lightning appearing in both of her hands both -> each OR a stake -> stakes
E
It would be funny if Sofia's team won "last group standing" because the continuous rot spawned an overwhelming sea of demon clones that wiped out everyone while Sofia was down there fighting the Lord.
Atlas Dwarf
Makes you wonder if the future exploration trial will be of the wasteland/ruins Sofia left of after the Demon Invasion. The Demon(s) destroyed everything (technically not wrong). Piss off the system staff enough and they'll threaten to put Sofia in your level 300 trial. I imagine they already do something similar with that Rank 2 guy (Leviathan candidate?) that got 0.56s on that underwater dungeon.
Silver Dawn
I still have this nagging feeling that her race is too weak for the difficulty of obtaining and the fact it was personally made by the God of Creation.
Jonathan Wint
Sofia is very shocking!
Lazy Monster
We don’t know she hasn’t used the avatar in combat yet. It probably doesn’t remove the debuff since the rune has never removed the mana downside from her apostle form
Phsteven
Does anyone remember if dying and coming back from a rune cancels out the debuff from Avatar of Zeus? It would make sense that it would because it takes a snapshot of her before she used the skill, but system shenanigans could still be in play with it....
Mornn
Dragons, kleptras and fairies are all basically born at level 400 an can reach 450+ without too much effort if they live long enough People watch this one first mainly because it's the first one you're allowed to spectate :p But in this case in particular, it's mostly because 'Sofia Aphenoreth'
Songy
Hopefully quick question Mornn: Are there any species (in this world) that are born beyond level 300? Seeing as different groups are using the tournament to discuss if individuals are interesting or should be kept from advancing, I was kind of wondering if selecting the 300 filter for the tournament was because it was the first one everyone has to take or just because it's the first filter with few enough candidates for it go make sense.
Vettu
So, the dagger took some inspiration from Stebron's magic to make the avatar of Zeus skill? Or, at least, that's how I'm interpreting Sun's comment. Interesting 🧐
Cinnamon Toast
Okay if the leviathan was the dragons worry then it makes sense to delay anyone from reaching level 500 too fast give them at least half a millennium to mature
Chance Rose
So did they vote to let the leviathan ascend? And I mean I get why it would be so hard to kill if a single drop of its blood was enough to turn Sofia into basically the melting "Thing". I mean I honestly wonder what it has to do with lords as well since one of their skills is obviously hidden below it. Glad to see Zeus out and about, im just real into the lore we got this chapter.
Ceasar Salas
Thanks for the chapter! I’m glad we get to see the Avatar of Zeus in action finally
Lazy Monster
Yeah she also mentioned “Mr.Scribe was adamant about not getting other souls mixed up with ours”
E
"Strip naked, get in this mithril box, and cannibalize your own Soul. Everything should be fine." -Mr. Scribe
E
I was half expecting her Sofia skulls to turn into floating Zeus heads. Excited to see just how much of the human world got deleted by the constant blast of rot. Sun's comment about essence count of the deities makes me suspect Creation never intended to simply make a new race. He was Anna's father and likely made Sofia into the most powerful thing possible specifically due to this "warning." This would explain why he puts so much effort into supercharging everyone
Lazy Monster
Clearly we need a 2nd Leviathan class being so we can have a “Let them fight” moment
Lazy Monster
TFTC. Well this demon is screwed. He’ll run out of mana long before Sofia and then he’ll be mostly defenseless. Nice to see the gods freaking out over the avatar. Interesting with the Levitation being something that may be a screwed up ascendant, maybe it got there with the soul grafting method which might be why the Mr.scribe was against using other things souls.
ArtTheGreat
YES!!! Zeus time!
Matt Grayson
I dunno. Maybe the Leviathan is just lonely and they'll meet, fall in love, raise a litter of galaxy-devouring monsters. Happy endings all around!
Matt Grayson
Fair enough. These are really steep hill hangers.
Mornn
Everything is always a cliff if you look hard enough :p
Cyclone001
More juicy lore to speculate on. Love these cuts to the VIPs, but a cut away to Zerei, Saria, Cynthia or someone like that in the general audience would be pretty sweet too. Cynthia would be great for the recessed commentary track actually. 500s are still looking at this too much like a children's tournament.
Drew
This implies the Leviathan was once a normal being, going up in levels like everyone else, but definitely a top-tier person. Maybe they went insane? Maybe that's why the two groups are both considering stopping Sophia: to prevent the potential creation of another Leviathan-like being.
Tom Asciola
Ah, more kindling for the fire
Matt Grayson
Sofia is every opponent's worst nightmare.... And two cliffhangers at once. Nice!
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
BOT
So much fear and caution around a measly little not-yet-lvl 300 Saintess? This isn't even her final form! It's gonna be a real *shocker* for them when she pulls the stunts her race lets her
