Sofia gave Pestle a quick mental note on where to find five of the cores, and returned to the physical realm just in time to watch Pareth teleport in front of her and stop the flying swordsmen’s coordinated attacks. Two of them were blocked by his hammer, but the third’s sword cut through his shoulder, severing his right arm and slicing a few ribs. That singular hit was over twenty three million health points.

That would have activated the one-hit protection.

For Pareth, it was just a bone wound, almost fully healed in a single second because he stood inside of Sofia’s close aura.

Pareth kicked one of the swordsmen away and the other two flew back, while down below Pestle just crushed the core of the annoying group of mages the kept pecking at Sofia’s mana with their spells.

Just then another volley of arrows flew toward Sofia and Pareth.

Focus on the swordsmen, I take care of that!

Since the arrows were coming from an angle below, they were hard for Pareth to block with his shield, so Sofia dealt with it in the way that would cost her the least mana. As the arrows reached them, she summoned bone wall after bone wall from her reserves, holding them in the air with her aura. The arrows pierced through several of them, but as Sofia kept pushing away the outer layer and stacking more and more bone walls, they entire volley was eventually absorbed. She then let the wall fall to get rid of the cursed mana now entirely covering these bones.

At the same time, the swordsmen had attacked again, but Pareth had stopped two of them using his chains while his hammer crushed the third one to a spirit mush.

Taking a half-second trip into the spirit realm to confirm the new spots were Sen’s mana rock cores were, Sofia threw her bolt through the one of the flying swordsman closest to her, before disabling all of her mana-consumming skills.

[Heat Death] absorbed a lot from those two swordsmen, I only need a few seconds to get back to full!

Bookie was currently hugging Sofia’s back, still focused on maintaining the troops on the ground, putting pressure on the archers to prevent them from shooting at Sofia too often. Sofia called out to him, “Hey. Do you have enough fog for the Mer?”

“G- give me a few seconds!” Bookie answered.

“Perfect.”

Down on the ground two other swordsmen grew wings, while the third one broke the two chains holding him anchored to Sofia’s bone cube, and took some distance from Pareth. At the same time, a group of archers’ bows turned to staves, starting to channel a spell together.

Siege magic now?! Pestle, leave the other archers, focus on the mages! Bookie split the soldiers, put some pressure on the remaining swordsmen!

Sofia barely had time to give her orders as the trio of swordsmen got ready to launch a coordinated attack again.

Pareth, I deal with the judgement one, stop the other two!

Their ghostly swords aflame with mana, the flying swordsmen lunged at Sofia like birds of prey. Pareth stood at Sofia’s side ready to intercept the attack. After Pareth successfully stopped the other two, the slowed swordsman arrived last, his sword aimed straight for Sofia’s head. Grabbing her staff with both hands she had assumed a guarding stance. When the sword reached her, she raised her arms. Her armguard caught the sword, the dragon scales completely unscathed, and she struck back. Standing so close to the clone, her mana senses could locate the thing’s core even without seeing it directly. Her staff traced an arc through the swordsman’s body, briefly lighting up with a low-mana explosive bolt, before crashing against an invisible core with a bang.

Pareth and Sofia’s victory was brief, as another salvo of cursed arrows came from below.

Follow me!

Sofia summoned herself behind the two swordsmen Pareth was blocking, and he teleported straight to her. The cursed arrows pelted the swordsmen instead of them, and Pareth finished them off with one swing of his hammer.

I’m full! Bookie!

“On it!”

Bookie’s book form opened, a page tearing itself off of it, draining all of his fog and Sofia’s mana. The chimera skeleton formed mid-air, falling to the battlefield down below in a violent crash amidst the Sen shieldbearer ranks. Sofia did not use it often because of how expensive it was, but she knew just how powerful the beast could be. Its rampage started immediately, causing chaos amidst the Sen ranks. The lion’s maw and paws mangled one Sen after the other, the snake was like a sentient shield flailing around and blocking attacks from all directions with its tough scales, spitting clouds of acid here and there, and the goat head cast spell after spell, unleashing thunderbolts and fireballs at the targets the lion couldn’t reach.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

After furiously attacking it for several seconds, Pestle finally got through the mana shield protecting the circle of mages casting siege magic, and the goat head immediately did its part. A twisted circle of mana appeared under the mages’ feet, and their spellcasting was interrupted, prompting a violent backlash that destroyed the entire group.

Sofia thought she was finally gaining the upper hand, when all the remaining Sens started to split again and again, increasing their numbers to thousands in a matter of seconds.

What the hell!!!

Seeing them all readying their bows, aimed at her, Sofia quickly summoned a new bone slate under her to give it the permanent frame blessing. Pareth stood next to her as the arrows flew everywhere. But this was only a distraction, giving time to the Sens to fuse back into three different beings. Pestle and the chimera tried to stop it, destroying as many clones as they could, but they could only delay the fusion slightly.

There were now only three monsters, no longer keeping Sen’s traits. One was an angel-like blurry figure, wielding an extremely long sword that seemed to leave space reeling wherever its blade passed. The second was a blank-faced man hugging a mirror almost as tall as him, and the third one was a creature Sofia had only recently learned the existence of, a Hydra.

The angel’s coming our way, Pareth, he’s for you! Bookie, Pestle, hold the hydra! I take mirror-man.

Leaving the bone platform in the air for Bookie to stay on, Sofia flew down and landed in front of the fairly isolated man with a mirror. She had wanted to start the fight with a drop-kick, but upon noticing how weird the ambient mana was around the man, she had changed her mind.

Too little mana, I need to be careful…

The faceless man seemed to smile, his blank face contorting creepily. Sofia’s face was reflected in the mirror, and the mirror man’s shape started to change.

Sofia decisively shattered the mirror with a punch, but the damage was done, in an instant, the man had morphed into a ghostly copy of Sofia, items and aura included.

You can’t be serious!

Sofia’s aura had to be fully mobilised just to stop her own bones from being turned into splinters. While explosive bolts appeared in the fake’s hands.

[Title changed to ‘Demon’]

[Title change function is locked for the next 24 hours]

The title changed, Sofia’s strengthened aura easily overpowered the copy’s, and she was able to move again. She jumped back, barely avoiding the copy’s bolt-covered staff strike.

Sofia herself threw two quick piercing bolt toward the copy’s mana heart, which she could easily guess the location of, but they were [Heat death]ed away.

You’re wasting mana, She criticized the copy in her head. Her own mana having hit rock bottom again, she caught her heart out of her chest and transformed, letting the fake hit her with its bolts.

Useless.

The two explosive bolts pushed Sofia back, but did little to her health, and even less to stop her demonic transformation.

The fake Sofia stopped in her track. Sofia’s transformation gave it a few moments to freely cast anything. The copy’s entire mana pool disappeared as it used Sofia’s signature skill. The ghostly image of the plasma destroyer starting to manifest above it.

Stupid.

Chimera, cancel.

While busy fighting the hydra, the chimera’s goat head stopped spellcasting for a second to follow Sofia’s order. A messy circle of mana appeared around the copy, and her signature skill was interrupted. The backlash was absorbed by her scepter, but the mana was wasted.

Now you transform. Sofia predicted as the copy’s mana hit zero. And the copy did exactly that, her heart bursting out of her chest.

Sofia’s demon form was finally complete as the copy bit into her own heart. Then, nothing happened.

You need Mother’s essence to transform, you complete moron!

Sofia had guessed the copy hadn’t copied the essence, because despite copying the admin key, the flames of victory were nowhere to be found on Sofia, meaning either Anna’s essence in the dagger or Victory’s essence was missing. She dashed forward, her hand plunging into the hole in the copy’s armor made by her bursting heart. The copy’s mana heart moved to escape her grasp, but Sofia knew herself well enough to predict where it would go. Catching the mana heart in the copy’s neck, she crushed it.

VPPV was entirely useless without essence, meaning no one-hit protection, and the unlife runes would not work for someone without a proper physical body. The fake Sofia’s appearance shattered like a broken mirror, revealing the faceless man within. Sofia still had her hand in his chest. From so up close, she had no trouble locating the nine hidden mana rock cores inside of it. The mirror man tried to jump back and flee Sofia’s grasp, being a ghost, after all, she could not hold him down. But the slender wooden hands of a ghostly Nymph crawling up from underground could.

With no obstacle, Sofia’s demon claws ripped through the faceless man’s inside, destroying one mana rock after the other.

One down!