Chapter 981 - His magnificence

Bad news rarely came alone, as Sofia felt the leviathan-like creature on the other side stir in response to her mana senses probing the area, the few Myriad eyes she had left on the way down the facility just to be safe started pinging her one after the other.

Switching from eye to eye, she managed to catch a glimpse at what was triggering it all, a strange creature cloaked in moving shadows, like swimming in a swaying black fire. Countless lesser shadows followed after it through the walls.

Is that the dream eater?! Here and now?!

How–

We’re getting surrounded…

“Pareth, climb back up with Gabriela. You protect her and tackle the dream eater for a bit. I’ll deal with what’s down here. Whoever is done first joins the other.”

“The dream eater?!” Gabriela repeated in shock.

“Coming from above. It should still be safer than what’s here so you go with Pareth. No time to lose, get going!”

Pareth did not need to be told twice, he grabbed the panicked scientist by the waist and ran back to the elevator.

Not wasting any time watching him leave, Sofia prepared herself, coating her staff with a piercing bolt.

“Tskk. Where the hell are you, get over here!”

The Abereth appeared out of nowhere and spat a truesight pill at Sofia’s face.

“Good,” Sofia said, catching the pill into her eye mid-air. “Now do your actual job and help with some impaling of a ‘sinner’ will you? Follow me.”

To what extent the ominous spinning monolith could really understand what she meant was a mystery, but Sofia had suspicions that the item was smarter than it let on. As a last bit of preparation, Sofia put on her ‘new’ Infinite Bloom charm, leaving behind a trail of mana petals as she punched through armored door after armored door to reach the deepest part of the containment area.

There were still two doors to go when the entire place started shaking. At first Sofia thought it was Pareth engaging with the dream eater above, but she actually felt vibrations coming from below.

The ground cracked, a pillar of squirming black maggots all clumped together erupting under Sofia’s feet.

[Regret]

Sofia reappeared a few meters away, while the pillar of black maggots immediately slammed down toward her like a heavy living tentacle.

She reflexively side-stepped the attack. As the tentacle hit the ground instead of her, hundreds of maggots fell from it, jumping directly toward Sofia. Bone spikes erupted from her armor like spears impaling the disgusting creatures while she swung toward the fallen tentacle before it could get back up. The bolt sliced through the tentacle with ease, and the following burst of light from [Spine of the Black Sun] finished burning all the maggots on the surface to a crisp. The maggots making up the deeper layer of the tentacle were still alive and digging their way out, when several other tentacles started piercing through the walls, ground and ceiling.

Not taken by surprise this time, Sofia could evade without using [Regret], she struck fast, quickly clearing the room, but some maggots still managed to get to her, digging into her armor and flesh. Each time a maggot bit, she could feel her soul shake in a strange way. Her blood killed them relatively quickly but the unfamiliar type of spiritual damage felt dangerous.

More are coming.

With a shoulder charge, she plowed through the two remaining armored gates as maggot tentacles pierced the walls behind her, and she finally arrived inside of a huge spherical room, face to face with the fake Leviathan. Human and monstrous corpses were stacked up high together, flesh bursting with an unending tide of black maggots that drowned the bottom quarter of the spherical room. Above it all was a gigantic head with squirming, wrinkly skin and a caved-in face with distorted features and a toothless smile that reached above its eyes.

This chapter was taken without the author's permission. The author's official page is where the story is published and their work is supported.

A wave of unease washed over Sofia as her gaze was naturally drawn by the black abyss in the head’s uneven eyes.

[You have been affected by ‘negative status effect’*116, but you are immune.]

For a brief moment the tentacles had stopped as Sofia hovered above the beast, surrounded by a large cloud of mana petals.

Since it talked at the entrance then…

“Were you hoping I would just fall into the pile? Look at yourself, is this really what you wanted to become?”

The creature’s smile became even wider. “I HAvE bEEn BlESseD By HIs maGNIfiCENce, YOu cANNOt UndERsTanD!” Its distorted voice shrieked through the throats of the countless piled up bodies as much bigger maggot tentacles than before erupted from all over the room.

Sofia invoked the skull choir, five Alpha Stormhoof skulls appearing around her, horns crackling with electricity. Target the head.

With her staff changing to its greatsword form, Sofia planned to handle the tentacles while the choir attacked the head directly from a distance. Lightning gathered between the skulls’ horns, and shot toward the head, only for two of the largest tentacles to get in the way while others surrounded Sofia.

In a quick-paced aerial battle, Sofia moved swiftly between the tentacles, slicing them down when she found an opportunity, but even with the bursts of light killing maggots by the thousands, more and more kept flowing endlessly from the pile of bodies below. More tentacles kept appearing until Sofia was forced to use [Regret] to avoid them, wanting to aggressively move closer to the fake Leviathan’s head.

But the spell failed, negated by stronger magic. In the instant before the tentacles collapsed onto her, Sofia managed to follow the trail of mana and caught a short glimpse of a tiny tentacle on the other side of the room. The maggots had piled up together into the vaguely female form of a short woman with long ears.

The blow was brutal, the tentacles collapsed onto Sofia together, blasting her body to bits and batting what remained into the sea of maggots below.

So that’s what the maggots were really eating…

Stealing my memories.

You dare to copy Astelia like that?

Just a head and an arm completely submerged, Sofia could only let the maggots burrow deeper into her neck and shoulder as she channeled ten million mana into her cast.

Disgusting.

[Nova Legacy Beacon]

A bright light pierced through the squirming sea as Sofia ignited her bloodlight. With the sound of glass breaking, a nova of light spread through the room, seemingly not doing much, and a tall pillar of light was created, like a flagpole marking the resting place of a hero.

For three seconds, Sofia was gone. Then she opened her eyes, still submerged, her sub-stats doubled for nearly fifty seconds to come.

She immediately cast and detonated an exploding bolt to get herself out of the maggots, sending them blasting into all directions as she flew up directly toward the tentacle mimicking Astelia.

The creature’s larger tentacles tried to stop her again, but they failed to account for her doubled speed. In just an instant, Sofia was about to reach the copy. Raising a hand, it tried to use another one of Astelia’s skills, but the mana disrupting effect of the [Nova Legacy Beacon] still had yet to fully disperse. Whatever spell it was, it failed, and Sofia staff plunged directly into the fake’s chest. She channeled an explosive bolt. The lingering mana disruption only made the explosion stronger.

As the fake exploded, Sofia let go of her staff, reaching into the void. She wanted to use the instant where time seemed to slow down when she tore open space with [Roaming Free], just a little bit was enough. She found what she was looking for, and pulled her hand back.

With a swift gaze, she retrieved something out of the air. A black marble that the explosion had sent flying alongside countless maggots. To emulate the magic of someone above level 250, a mana heart was needed, that was a rule not even gods could bypass, sure enough, this copy was no exception.

The monster shrieked at the loss, making the entire mountain shake.

The bigger tentacles finally caught up to Sofia, but without the fake Astelia to stop her, she was free to use [Regret] to avoid them and reappear directly above the entity’s head.

There she instantly prepared to use everything. She summoned a large amount of blood in the air for the Abereth to use, re-summoned the choir that the previous tentacle slam had destroyed along with her, and channeled two Skewering bolts at once.

The creature only froze for an instant before the tentacles all turned toward her again. Most directly lunged in her direction while two on opposite ends of the rooms were slowly consolidating into vaguely-human shapes again.

Sofia, the skulls and the Abereth all unleashed their attacks together at once, slamming into the fake Leviathan’s skull.

Let’s see how many more of my memories you can impersonate before I finish you!