Sofia stopped for just a second to decide who to help next, and this short pause spelled her death. She felt the attack coming from above, but with too little mana for [Heat Death] she could only try to [Regret] away, which didn’t activate fast enough.

Three seconds later she was back up. Leaving Bookie and his skeletons to keep dealing with the hydra, Sofia directly flew up toward the angelic figure. Pareth had the advantage, it seemed, having capitalized on the enemy's mistake of targeting Sofia. He parried blow after blow of the angel’s absurd sword with a copy of light of that same sword, weaving in an [Arclight] every so often when there was an opening.

Sofia flanked the angel, and as it attacked Pareth again, the three-headed skeleton disappeared. Reappearing near Sofia, Pareth’s sword crashed down against the side of the angel, and as it turned to face his enemy, Sofia disappeared.

[Regret]

Pareth’s sword having fully sliced through the ghostly figure, which seemed to have sustained minimum damage from it, he smoothly transitioned to a follow up strike.

The angel tried to block. Pareth disappeared again and his sword cut through the angel again from behind.

Turning around in a flash, the angel’s sword drew a wide arc through the air. Pareth barely managed to block, the armor on his right side shattering from the force of the blow, but Sofia was no longer there.From above, she drop-kicked the mana rock hidden in the creature’s head into oblivion.

The ghostly angel’s eyes lit up under the assault. It, too, teleported away, unleashing a blast of pure mana in Sofia and Pareth’s direction.

[Summon Self]

This is what killed me before.

Sofia teleported straight up out of the way, while Pareth disappeared in a flash of light. This attack aimed at Sofia was the ghost’s second stack of Judgement, allowing Pareth to [Divine warp] behind him. Pareth struck again, but this time, his sword crashed against a spherical mana shield. The shield cracked but it gave time for the angel to riposte. With another wide spin attack he split Pareth in two at the waist.

Sofia stared at Pareth’s health, wich went down almost a hundred million, and did not start going back up.

Healing block?!

From where she was, Sofia could barely influence Pareth’s two halves to stay together. It was messy, but she glued his spine back together while he blocked the follow up strike from the angel, bringing his health back up by quite a lot. In between two strikes that forced Pareth to back up; the angel’s back suddenly split open, releasing two smaller copies of itself, holding nets. They flew straight for Sofia, nets spinning above their head.

Try.

The closest one threw its ghostly net at Sofia. It was much faster than she had anticipated, but still manageable.

[Regret]

Appearing behind the other’s back, Sofia plunged her hand in its chest.

The small angel died, his net disappearing with him. The other one turned around, unleashing a weaker version of the bigger one’s mana blast.

I survive this.

Sofia flew through the attack. Her health dropped by half, but the angel was unable to react in time to the unexpected counterattack. Like the other one, he died, his mana core crushed between Sofia’s claws.

…

“It looks like the angel’s just about dead!” Nex commented, “The split focus was a mistake, failing to finish off Pareth with the first few mana storms is costing him dearly, now the two against one is completely unmanageable! It’s probably soon time for his final gambit! What do you think, Sen, is your imprint holding up as well as you would have?”

“Probably, yes. It is hard to get back into the mindset I had when I was that young. If you asked me to take control of the imprint I would have definitely fought very differently, now, but I did not have three thousand years of experience back then. Still, this is not over quite yet.”

Against Pareth, the main angel had switched to only blocking, trying to preserve his mana shield. Sofia gave the hydra down below a quick glance while she waited for the cooldown of [Regret].

Before it could come back online, she felt strange but familiar mana movements.

Something’s gonna explode?

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She easily traced the source back to the angel feverously defending his mana shield.

PARETH!

Pareth immediately dropped everything, teleporting to Sofia. She stored him inside of the painted halls just as the sky turned white. The angel’s remaining mana cores exploded. Sofia was blasted away into the horizon by the initial shockwave. She had so much resistance to explosions, this had barely hurt her, but she was quickly losing sight of the arena.

She used [Regret] has soon as she could, reappearing in the heart of the explosion’s fireball, [Singularity Edict] preventing all damage.

Not quite as strong as my bolts but certainly faster to use…

Can’t see…

She connected to Crowie’s vision token, giving her a point of view from the sky outside of the explosion. Pestle and the Chimera were still fighting the hydra, struggling to contain its head which had somehow grown in number from three to about forty while Sofia had been fighting the other ghosts. Very few of the Kidjikkiks were still fighting with them, most either stuck under the hydra’s imposing body or thrown off to the base of the mountain.

It looks like it’s getting weaker…

Pareth left the halls staging in the air next to Sofia, watching the battle below.

“It will die soon,” Sofia commented, “Sen is preparing something else. He’s draining the hydra, but I can’t quite follow the mana from here. He’s trying to cover his tracks.”

Pareth glanced at Sofia then back at the hydra, he couldn’t say anything but Sofia could guess what he thought.

“Yeah we could find him if we go down. But the hydra is dangerous at close range. Bookie would have lost if not for the sunlight. Whatever Sen is preparing, my mana regeneration is probably more valuable, even if I’m on a timer now. And don’t worry, Crowie is searching for us.”

As the skeletons kept attacking and Sen kept stealing his hydra’s mana from far away, the hydra started to slow down, its extra heads crumbling one by one. Before long, the ghostly hydra completely disappeared, dozens of manaless rocks falling to the ground.

Good job. Now come back. Everyone inside the hall.

Yes Pestle, you too. Just in case what Sen is preparing is a big attack, you can all come out he gets my second rune.

The skeletons who could all followed the orders except for Crowie who had his own mission. And Sofia returned to the ground alone, her mana senses looking for Sen, who couldn’t be very far to have been draining the hydra.

Probably in that temple below.

Sofia connected her vision to Crowie who she could feel was now in the temple.

Yes, as expected.

Crowie had left his vision token on the ground, he pointed at a closed door with an extended wing.

Sen must have noticed by now that the key to the invincibility was sunlight.

Flew back to the hole she had punched into the side of the temple before and entered through there, kicking open a few doors before reaching the place she felt Sen hiding in.

Found… Nevermind.

Sen was here, not looking ghostly at all, sitting on the floor, he seemed weak and powerless.

Fine. I’ll play along.

A piercing bolt appeared in Sofia’s right hand, she purposely fed it as little mana as possible. “Giving up already?” she asked.

“I am just one man, after all, many one man, but one man still. It is pretty rare but I was outnumbered, for once,” Sen answered.

“Many one man, yes. The angel was actually dangerous,” Sofia praised, “Maybe if you’d controlled your three big summons instead of letting them act on their own, they could have stood a chance.”

“A single brain can only do so much.”

“I guess so.”

“Ahah…It looks like you are not quite buying it, huh,” the fake Sen awkwardly laughed, slightly leaning back with his hands on the ground behind him.

“Still buying time even now? Is your cast that long?” Sofia asked, dispelling her bolt.

The fake smiled, “I am just about done.”

“Good. I hope you are,” Sofia answered, having finally managed to find the real Sen’s position by following his link to the fake she was speaking to.

[Regret]

Sofia was teleported three floors down into the temple. Even that was not enough, so the Nymphs appeared around her, taking her through five more floors, until she entered a very wide dome-shaped room with painted walls and a vivid circular tiled fresco going all the way around the floor, depicting a violent fight between a seven-armed black shadow and a gigantic dragon.

Historic events hidden in plain sight?

Sen was near the center of the room, also observing the floor’s fresco.

“I thought you would attack as soon as I enter the room,” Sofia called out from above, slowly descending.

Sen looked up, bright blue light shone from inside him as if his insides were aflame with mana, it escaped from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth as he spoke. “Would it help me win?”

“Probably not.”

“No reason to be rude, then. This is my strongest spell. If this doesn’t do it, you win.”

“Should you really waste this much time when your soul is burning?”

Sen smiled, “A few seconds won’t make a difference, not bringing the skeletons?”

“They are here.”

“Alright then. Hard to believe I have had to use this four times today.”

Sen’s mana surged violently, his hair standing up on end defying gravity as every part of his body shone bright blue from his burning soul. A ghostly flaming sword appeared in each of his hands, and he took a static fighting stance, as if waiting for Sofia to signal she was ready.

Sofia cast a piercing bolt in each hand.

“Show me what you’ve got, Sen!”