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Momo the Ripper | Ch. 248 – Rise & Fall
🕑 Added 2024-02-01 22:52:59 +0000 UTCAs it turned out, Chevri’s tip about the witches wasn’t exactly a secret; the town’s population was a whopping twenty-two, and half of those belonged to the local cult.
“They’re… ah yeah, over there,” the lizard girl said, hand-wavingly, as she gestured to the other side of the mass abyss. Across the chasm of waterfalls, and below the statue of the wyrm, was a cozy but massive cottage. It was decorated in weeds and ivy and ice-colored blossoms. From afar, Momo saw figures that might have been women, but she wasn’t sure. It was too foggy to tell.
She set out, determinedly, to get over there, as Chevri put it, but there was one glaring problem: the geography. The cliffside town ran in a semicircle, and while there was a small path carved out starting where they had parked the carriage, and running up through a small assortment of houses and an inn, the path ended about halfway towards the witches’ nook.
There, the path was bisected by a waterfall. The only way through was a small, uneven trail of floating rocks, levitating just above the water. Below them, a massive drop. And there was no cheating around the thing. It was too far to fly in Momo’s current condition, and it wasn’t like the carriage could just carry her across.
Momo’s stomach did flips as she approached it.
“Alright, bud,” she said, squatting down to meet the Dusk’s eyes. Only, the cat didn’t reciprocate. Instead, it meticulously studied the route of floating rocks in a way Momo recognized. “Dusk, do not cross that by yourself. You’ll di—”
The cat flagrantly disobeyed her, hopping forward and landing easily on the first rock. Momo went pale and she yelled at Dusk to stop it, but the cat just sprang from one rock to another, and before she knew it, Dusk was on the other side, licking her paws as she laid in the grass.
“That was very rude,” Momo shouted, but her words died under the loud thrush of the waterfall.
She looked down, trembling. The drop was so far. But she didn’t have a choice. She needed that poison. She yearned to know what idiotic and confusing series of words Valerica had strung together this time.
If only I could flap my wings for more than 2 seconds, or use my Mist form to cross over, this wouldn’t be scary at all…
But she wasn’t strong enough for that.
Trepidatiously, she extended one foot. The first rock was reasonably large, and she managed to get onto it with little problem. The second was smaller, but her reflexes were still decent thanks to her Nether Dokkaebi upgrade, and soon enough, she was halfway across. It was so easy, in fact, that she started to get a little too confident, and—
“Shit!”
Her ankle gave way, and she slipped, the rushing waves overtaking her. Water gushed down her throat and over her head as she hung on desperately with her fingers to one of the jagged rocks. She coughed, wheezed, using every bit of her strength to grip onto the wet sediment.
Dusk jumped to her, uselessly gnawing at her fingers to try and pull her forward, but it was no use. The cat was nowhere near strong enough.
No… She groaned, trying and failing to push herself upward. I can’t die now… This would be almost as stupid as a death as my first one…
The longer she held on, the more slippery it became. And as she became more desperate, the thought crossed her mind to try and use her Mana—to enter Overdrive again—but doing that would mean the end of her magic, permanently. The medic had warned her as much.
As her fingers twitched with their last bit of strength, a memory of Nia entered her mind, unbidden. It was back on the field near Morganium. They were doing that exercise Momo always hated—Momo’s sword against Nia’s hand—and Momo was losing, badly. But instead of finally backing off, as Nia usually did, the assassin instead offered a word of advice.
Clear your mind, idiot, she said. The harder you try, the harder you’re going to fall.
It was advice in a particularly Nia sort of way.
It hadn’t made sense to her then. She wasn’t sure how mindfulness was supposed to suddenly turn her into a better swordarm. But now, on the verge of falling off a waterfall, it clicked.
She stopped struggling, and she let herself… fall.
She plummeted for several moments before her wings stretched out; she swooped downward, catching air, and used the momentum of the fall to spin her right back up.
She soared through the water, her wings becoming wet with the cold, magical chill of the waterfall, the fresh air buffeting her cheeks and running through her hair. For a moment, a bare millisecond, she stopped thinking of the inevitability of falling again, of the certainty that there was only so long she could persist in the air, and just took in the majesty of the scenery:
A mountain ridge, barricaded by waterfalls, descending for miles and miles down into a pit of frothy white. Everything gleamed with the sun, as if this was the pit of heaven itself.
A broad smile ran across her face.
She didn’t even notice her feet landing back on the rocks when they did. It felt as natural as a baby crawling, she simply was in the air, and then she wasn’t; she was on the other side now—a few yards away from the witches’ commune, in the tall, unyielding grass.
She had done it, without using an extra bit of Strength. She had simply let the wind carry her.
To her surprise, as she was about to walk forward toward the witches’ house, a soft voice whispered in her ear. One she hadn’t heard in a while.
Congratulations!
Due to your rigorous physical training with the rapier, and your display of finesse in piloting through the skies without using an ounce of your own muscle, you have gained a level in the class [Seraph].
[Seraph] now occupies your second major class slot.
Momo’s jaw dropped, pride and astonishment filling her chest. A new major class? She had completely forgotten that since Nether Demon had combined her Demagogue and Nether Dokkaebi classes, she had once again opened up her second major class slot.
[Seraph] is an expert class under the domain of Ytra, Goddess of Balance and Healing. Seraphs are the famous flying warriors of Ytra, a protective class of support heroes which come to the aid of the wounded in battle. Their skillset is a mix of close-quarters combat, flying projectiles, and healing spells.
Ytra? Momo blinked. I don’t remember ever hearing about her.
Then again, peacekeepers tended to be like that—unseen, unheard.
But yet again, this Ytra was still a child of Morgana’s, and that made her a plausible threat.
She shoved the thoughts aside, too excited to worry. The voice continued.
[Seraph] is a dual Strength/Intelligence class.
Since this is your first class utilizing Strength, a few notes from the System Admins:
- Strength-based skills require Stamina to cast, not Mana
- If you push past your Stamina limits, you will enter Fatigue, then Exhaustion
- Some Strength-based skills can have their effects multiplied by using certain weapons, or, in the case of the [Pugilist], by being unarmed.
You have gained the passive skills [Equivalent Exchange] and [Effortless Flight]
[Equivalent Exchange]: For every blow a foe lands on you, there is a 5% chance (increasing by 5% with each blow) that they will be hit for the same damage.
[Effortless Flight]: Flying no longer requires Stamina.
You have also gained + 30 STR
She grinned giddily as she brought up her System panel, reviewing her new skills. This class was perfect for her current situation. Not only would she be able to fly without expending any extra energy, but that immense boost to Strength would make walking and running much easier—typically easy tasks which her Mana Disease had reduced to tiresome chores.
Not only that, but Seraph was a perfect compliment to her Nether Demon class. It would help her excel with her rapier, while also possibly unlocking ways for her to heal herself and others.
For the first time in a while, Momo felt hopeful.
Comments
sebsebs
Nice! She seems to be leaning towards a nephilim, with a mix of good and evil, angel and (nether) demon. Good for her! Thanks for the chapter
Conor McGroarty
“Empty your mind” kind of reminds me of “kill 6 billion demons.” I think there was some kind of line that basically said “your body knows more about killing than your mind ever could, so let it work.”
