Huh? Didn’t I just die?

I can’t feel anything at all… But I’m still conscious?

Is it because they were attacks of light? No time… Only three seconds…

Two runes left. I still have a few cards to play. But the sun is almost gone, so to start with…

Sofia’s senses returned like an electrical shock. The first thing she saw as she opened her eyes was Lilith’s massive open palm, hot and smoking, centimeters away from her face, while the sky was brightly lit by an arc of explosions out in space.

She attacked while I was still invulnerable! This is our opening!

Pareth and Pestle appeared around Lilith, while Sofia tried to grab the hand in front of her.

Lilith tried to fly back, but Pareth’s chains of light grabbed and wrapped around her limbs while Pestle latched onto the mechanical giant’s head. Sofia managed to grab the hand. It fired a strange beam at her, blasting a clean hole through her torso, Sofia’s mana heart had moved to her head, so she couldn’t care less about the blow. She had long noticed how well-insulated to mana Lilith’s plating was, but with direct contact, it was much easier to send mana streams through the narrow gaps in the joints. Sofia pumped Lilith full of mana.

Strike now!

Internal explosions rocked Lilith’s mechanical body, as Pareth and Pestle finally landed effective blows. Furiously clawing at the robot’s face, Pestle managed to hollow its head, scraping through layer after layer of metal and strange mechanical bits, while Pareth’s sword struck the armpit of Lilith’s left arm, penetrating deep into the joint, and severing the limb.

That was all the time Sofia could hold, she was already out of mana. Lilith regained some control, and Sofia could tell that the robot’s insides were repairing themselves somehow. Lilith forced on and easily broke the three chains still latched to her body through pure strength. She grabbed Pestle away from her hollowed head, and used her as a shield to block Pareth’s next attack.

That was far from enough!

With no mana left, Sofia jumped back, and tried to retrieve Pestle with her eye. Lilith had too firm of a grasp on the currently still invulnerable fairy, so the relocation failed.

Pareth attacked again, and Sofia could tell Lilith was preparing something else. Thankfully, the robot now had three stacks of Pareth’s Judgement on her, and while whether the anti-healing worked against her was questionable, it was undeniable that she took more damage and was much slower than before. Sofia unsummoned Pestle at the last moment, and Lilith who tried to block the sword strike with the Fairy skeleton ended up receiving a direct blow against her one remaining hand. It did not go deep, but it sliced into her palm, likely disabling the weapon that had just carved a hole through Sofia.

Keep the pressure! She made a mistake coming so close and we’ll make her pay for it!

At the same time, Sofia paid attention to the falling left arm of Lilith, worried about a surprise attack. But strangely, it seemed to disintegrate as it fell, its insides turning into a volatile gray dust while the external plating kept plummeting down.

Bad feeling about this.

Issues kept piling up, as something appeared, flying in at great speeds from a distance.

Pareth, to me!

Pareth teleported mid-swing, narrowly avoiding Lilith’s plasma-coated sword which had flown back to her hand, and would have pierced through his back. Armed again, Lilith immediately went on the offensive again, Pareth deflecting the blows however he could. He now had a slight advantage in speed, but he still lost in strength. Sofia wanted to help, but at the same time, the gray dust coming out of the fallen arm reached her legs, and her legs, in turn, started becoming gray dust.

It’s like dust-form rot!

Sofia watched her health trickle down as the bottom of her bone armor and her feet disappeared in a scarily short time.

Pareth should be immune to this, but I’m not!

Sofia started casting a piercing bolt, slashing at the dust. The hot plasma burned the dust to a crisp, but there was a lot, and some was already on her.

It’s eating me from the inside already. Bad.

Sofia pulled her dagger out of her armguard and with her left hand, and decisively severed her two legs, while preventing the rest of the dust from floating too close to her with the bolt in her other hand.

Any more damage an my racial is going to get me stuck in place again.

Her danger senses flared up again.

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Sofia just had time to see through Pareth’s ribs and shattered armor that something in the middle of Lilith’s chest had opened. Something, in front of which Sofia and Pareth were perfectly lined-up.

FUCK!

The seemingly boundless energy that allowed Lilith to unleash attack after attack poured out of her chest like a torrent, engulfing Sofia and Pareth.

Pareth summoned his shields of light in the nick of time but they were as good as paper in front of the all-consumming power.

Sofia found herself in a completely senseless void again.

Did the runes spontaneously evolve into ‘not losing consciousness’?!

Fuck… Pareth… Can you possibly survive that? If you don’t, this might be over…

If I transform now… Five minutes likely won’t be enough to both finish Lilith and kill Jin.

But if I don’t… Without Pareth’s judgement her speed almost doubles, so I’m as good as dead, aren’t I? Only one rune left, almost no mana, and the avatar form is far from ready…

Alright, I have a plan. I just need to trust that Pareth survived, somehow.

As soon as I resurrect… Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs noveⅼfire.net

When Sofia’s senses started to return, before even being able to see the situation around her, she immediately warped herself into the painted halls. This was usually a bad move, as from the outside, it left a faint rift that anyone with space magic could use to invade the halls, and any strong enough attack would damage. What would happen if the rift was destroyed was still uncertain, but Sofia was convinced it would be nothing good. Now, however, Sofia was hoping that Lilith would be busy with Pareth and not notice the rift.

YES! HE’S ALIVE! Sofia could feel her connection to Pareth, it was a bit shaky, but it was there. Soul damage? He must have used [Divine Warp] to get out of the attack and [Greater Heal] to get himself back to a fighting state. Nice!

Please hold a bit longer!

A piercing bolt appeared in each of Sofia’s hands, and she started killing all the skeletal thralls in the halls. Every skeleton she had accumulated through the trial so far, she mercilessly slashed down, until the skill was ready.

FINALLY!

Ripping her heart out of her chest, Sofia activated her two transformation skills at once.

The excruciating transformation clouded her mind, but she was ready for it. This time, as her body twisted and morphed, she chomped down on a [Crystallized suffering] crystal. The pain got even worse, but the added processing helped her thoughts become clearer.

NOT! ENOUGH!

With trembling hands, she summoned the entire stock she had prepared for this last event, three more crystals.

She ate them all.

Sofia screamed so loudly that the sound pierced through the rift, echoing through the empty crater above with Pareth was in a deadlock against Lilith, blades clashing against one another again and again in a deadly dance.

Sofia’s transformation was over yet her body continued to change, purple crystals burst through her demonic skin, piercing her all over. Her mind had never been so clear, so she knew, it was too much. She died, her soul torn apart by the suffering crystals. For once, she felt her consciousness actually slipping away.

Pareth… Please hold… Three seconds…

She opened her eyes again in the painted halls. The rift had taken a hit, and it showed, the halls were on the brink of collapse, the walls were crumbling, pillars cracking, and in some place the shattered floor showed the dark abyss of the margin’s void outside.

Sofia emerged from the halls.

In a fraction of a second, she froze the toybox. With no runes left, she could not leave anything to chance.

In the mana vision of the trial, Lilith shone brightly, the mana used to simulate her clearly in the hundreds of millions. Pareth was still holding his ground between her and Sofia, but he was in a sorry state. With Sofia away, he had to protect the lingering wings of his bone armor to be able to fly, and that had costed him greatly. His mana was almost entirely gone, and aside from the wings, nothing of the armor remained. His main head was gone, and so was his right arm and leg, with several other bones having been severed by Lilith’s blade.

Lilith was mid swing, and if Sofia did nothing, it would probably kill Pareth, as the blade was perfectly lined-up with his mana heart.

Sofia desperately scanned Lilith’s mana body for anything resembling a core or a weak point.

As far as she could tell, there was none.

Then we only have one option.

With the time she could maintain the freeze running on fumes, Sofia scanned the sky.

I see you.

As soon as the toybox’s time unfroze, Sofia disappeared.

[Regret]!

Appearing in front of Pareth, she caught Lilith’s blade.

She could feel the blade’s core biting into her armguard's dragon scale. But the blade was stopped.

I’m immune to plasma. Sofia thought, a smirk on her face.

Within Sofia’s close aura, Pareth instantly started recovering his health.

Sofia activated the third tier of [Runeforged Overlord] as Lilith tried to kick her away from her blade. Her crystal-covered tail slammed against Lilith’s leg, stopping the blow. Sofia’s tail was numb, but damage was minimal.

The center of Lilith’s chest opened up again.

Pareth!

Pareth grabbed Sofia’s back, using [Divine warp] to reappear behind Lilith. The energy discharge attack missed its targets entirely.

Sofia then unleashed the spell she had been charging from the moment she had left the halls, before even she had used the freeze. With all the information she had, she could now make her decision.

Calamity of Spirits!