Saintess Summons Skeletons

“Follow me, Daughter of Sorrow,” Leverle told Sofia as he exited the brightly lit examination room. He took the lead and Sofia followed a few steps behind.

It took a little while for Sofia to organize her thoughts.

“U- Uh, nice to meet you, Son of Death…”

“Feeling shared. I sense a question. Speak your mind.”

“Ah, I have several questions, such as why are we going down into the cathedral’s underground, but what I wanted to ask was something about Death.”

“I hear you.”

“Then, do you know why Death does not talk?”

Leverle stopped in his tracks. Like an owl’s head, his flat faceless mask of a head rotated to look at Sofia behind him. “You are privy to unusual knowledge. I understand the smell better now. Death does not speak to spare us.”

“To spare us?”

“Yes,” Leverle answered as his head snapped back to its original position, and he took another step down the torch-lit stone brick stairs. “In GodHood, two opposites reign supreme. The Exuberant Sun, and the Silent Death. Death is too widely feared. The longer people live, the more they dread the idea of all they built collapsing after their departure. Powerful people prepare numerous contingencies to save themselves, should the need arise. Ways to avoid Death. The powerful fear Death, and doing so, they feed it with the purest essence.”

“And that makes Death so powerful that the very words they speak are dangerous?”

“Exactly. Death is over-encumbered. Crumbling under its own essence. It seeps into everything it touches, pure Death, and leaves no life behind. That is why we worship it. To alleviate the burden.”

Then Death must be very happy to be able to send faces in Cinthia’s chatroom. No wonder it’s one of her most active members.

“That is a sadder answer than I had expected. But it does answer my other question which was why you worship a Recessed.”

“Now you know. Too much of anything can be a burden. Your mentor is another victim of such principles.”

Too much of anything… Erredis has too much power? That wouldn’t be wrong… Or is it something else? And she became an outcast for it.

At least there are still some people who care for her. Phillip was genuinely concerned, I think. And maybe it’s just my imagination, but this Leverle guy’s voice felt a little less cold ever since the moment I called Erredis Grandma.

“If Death is so powerful, can they not come to the physical realm like Sun can?” Sofia asked.

“It is much harder for the Recessed to reach the physical plane than for the Gods. The distance is much greater. Death sometimes enters the spiritual realm, but it cannot stay long, for fear of endangering the souls of the living,” Leverle explained as he kept leading Sofia deeper and deeper into the cathedral’s underground levels, his long white robe trailing on the steps behind him.

“Interesting. Is this why the Apostle transformations are so… Grotesque?”

I hope he’s not offended by this…

“Yes. I feel your unease. No need. I know my looks are quite special. So must be yours. Despite their outward appearance, they are the best vessels our Divinities can provide. Lovingly handcrafted for their children, us.”

“Yet they are the reason we Apostles are known as Evil Demons?”

“Things are as they are. We have long since embraced that name; our leader adopting the ‘Demon King’ moniker. It is no matter, we indeed look inherently evil, do we not? We represent the aspects of nature and life that mortals abhor. Thus I find our gait suitable.”

“Now I almost feel ashamed of still looking like I do most of the time… Am I a failure as an Apostle?”

“There is no shame in your existence, Vakariazrehafin. Do you know the failure rate of an Apostle’s ritual?”

“As in how many fail to set it up properly, or to absorb the essence?”

“Neither. Failure as in being rejected by the Divine.”

“That can happen?” Scripture’s book said nothing about this! Wait… Yeah of course it wouldn’t…

The head of Leverle slowly bobbed up and down. “About nine out of ten rituals fail. Out of those, about half are rejections. The divine has no obligation to accept you.”

“What happens then? Do you simply die?”

“In most cases, yes. As a majority of rituals culminate in the performer’s death.”

“I see… It’s hard to believe I took such risks without even knowing it… Thank you for answering my questions. Although I was always proud to be Sorrow’s Daughter, I always had this doubt about my position, since the system messages said I was only an honorary Apostle...”

“Sorrow has accepted you as Her Daughter. Your continued existence gives Her a window to observe this world. It is more than enough, and enough to make you a full fledged member of the Apostles, demonic appearance or not.”

“Hmm. Again, thank you for the answers.”

“Apostles ought to help each other. We are almost there. One more question?” Leverle offered.

“Can you tell me more about the Demon King? I know nothing but his two titles.”

“Certainly. The Demon King is the collective voice of every Recessed. His goal is to create, inform, and Lead the Apostles, should the Recessed as a whole decide to act upon the physical world. Our leader, of sorts. Should such a thing happen, he will summon us.”

“Has that ever happened?”

“Twice in my lifetime. The call is never a pleasant experience, but if you still bear any respect for the Recessed who took you in, you must participate in their name. Hopefully we will never be called again. But I fear it may not be long until the Phageid become a pressing issue,” Leverle informed Sofia, his voice trailing into a sigh after the last sentence.

The Phageid again… I should really stay out of this if I can, I have enough to worry about already.

Leverle stopped in the middle of a flight of stairs between two of the underground levels of the cathedral. Sofia had not been paying much attention to her surroundings, too captivated by the knowledge Leverle was willing to share. But why stop here?

One of Leverle’s strange black arms appeared out of his robe and pressed against a random stone brick of the wall, sending mana into it. The wall disappeared, revealing a tight secret corridor that led to a room full of locked enchanted chests.

“It should be in the third from the right…” Leverle mumbled as he entered the small room. Breaking the magic protections on said chest one by one, Leverle finally opened it, retrieving a paper doll covered in an inordinate amount of minuscule runes. “There we are.” He folded the paper doll into a small roll of paper between two long fingers, before turning back to present it to Sofia.

She tried to [Identify] it, but the result was completely garbled and meant nothing, even worrying Sofia for a second as she thought Mr Scribe might have been having a seizure. But identifying other things still worked correctly.

“What is it?” she finally asked, observing the rolled piece of paper in Leverle’s extended hand.

“A cursed paper doll. Swallow it. This is what your mentor paid extra for. It will protect you from an attack you cannot handle, once. And will call me. Its effects should last for almost a full year. It will be good enough.”

“Why do I have to eat it?”

“It will last longer and be operational faster if it is inside of you. It will simply await at the border of your stomach. You will not feel a thing, I made it myself and can attest that it has no dangerous properties.”

Sofia picked up the rolled piece of paper and swallowed it.

I really don’t feel it… But I can tell it is there through my mana senses… It would be very hard to see from outside since it is so close to the heart which is full of mana. So it’s also a way to conceal it.

Although the [Identify] description was dysfunctional, Sofia trusted Erredis, and by extension, she trusted Leverle. She felt pretty confident that she hadn’t been lied to.

I wonder what kind of attack would activate it.

“I might ‘die’ a few times throughout the year, nothing major, I have a skill to negate that. Will that activate this paper doll?”

“No,” Leverle answered. “It will only protect you from a lethal attack sent your way by someone of level 300 or above. Or at least, it will try. If somehow the Emperor or the old Sage decided to attack you, nothing short of the great calamity herself coming back could possibly save you.”

After Leverle gave some more details on the paper doll’s restrictions, such as how far from him it could optimally operate, the duo returned to the surface the way they came. This time, it was Leverle who asked questions; the roles had reversed. He mostly wondered about Sofia’s story as an Apostle and her connection with Erredis.

As they left the Cathedral, Leverle brought Sofia to the central plaza of the giant city. Both the Imperial Palace and the Academy could be seen from there, their extravagant architecture rising far above the roofs of the regular houses and shops.

“We are in luck. It is still open. That will make things much faster,” Leverle commented as he led Sofia into a tall building labeled ‘Central Administration’.