Chapter 47: A fine night to die twice

Chapter 47: A fine night to die twice

The rituals instructions were quite simple. The basics had, after all, already been laid out in the pages before the skeleton summoning ritual.

The 'Sabbath of the hollow heart' had been inscribed in gold in the back cover of the grimoire, and Sofia had very vivid memories of the mad thing. A few diagrams illustrating the ritual circle and the process had accompanied a dozen lines of explanations.

The sabbath is to be conducted at night in a place of abundant mana.

The ritual circle is to be formed with human skulls.

The necromancer is to offer the freshly hollowed out heart of a willing and knowing sacrifice.

The sacrifice must not be of a level beneath that of the necromancer.

The sacrifice is to carve out their heart themselves, under no external influence and place it on the pedestal.

The sacrifice has to die.

The ritual heart must absorb the essence of nearby undead creatures.

The ritual heart requires a million levels worth of such essence.

Upon complete absorption, the ritual heart will beat again.

The necromancer is to consume the ritual heart raw.

The ritual heart must be swallowed while the necromancer falls to their death.

The necromancers violent death shall complete the ritual and initiate their rebirth.

Thus will be born

The princess delicate hands placed a skull in between two others on the dusty floor. Taking a step back, Sofia checked the ritual circle one final time.

Looks correct

Am I really about to do this?

There are so many ways this could go wrong.

Her mind went back to Kuli and the strength of someone at level 299. Despite heading straight for the dungeon when she saw the opportunity to conduct the ritual, Sofia had been racking her brains to find a better way to handle the stone mage Hero.

However, no matter what shenanigans she theorized, nothing could make up for the gap in power. It turned out Duke Armand was level 241, which was already impressive, but also a whole league below what they needed. Each trial, like this one, represented a large growth in power; from Kulis own words, each passed filter was an exponential growth for the person.

Each trial only served to increase the gap in power. For a level 99 person to somehow kill a level 100 plus wasnt so uncommon. For a level 199 to defeat someone at or over level 200 was already an almost unrealistic goal. For a level 249 to beat even a level 250 fresh out of their trial

Kuli had explained a lot of things in detail, prompted by Aliths incessant questioning. Enough for Sofia to estimate that in this case, the dukes chances at winning were right about none.

So the only good option she had was the ritual. Of course she could also give up on everything, throw the seal away and go hide alone. Waiting in the middle of nowhere for the storm to pass. But could she really? If they managed to track them all the way to this remote dungeon... Then it wasnt hard to imagine that she would be long dead if she tried something so simplistic like hiding in a forest.

Sofia re-centered her thoughts.

She realized she was unknowingly trying to buy herself more time.

Before falling too low, Sofia saw Nyse collapse on the stairs.

Oh thank god he didn't jump after me. Maybe the sight shocked him too much. Or was the heart interfering with his skills? I'm pretty sure he can fly.

Past this last distraction, she focused on consuming the heart. Clearly the ritual had changed the thing already, and it couldnt even be called a heart anymore. It was absolutely disgusting, and the fall didnt help, but somehow, she managed to rip through the fleshy ball and swallow it down during the fall.

Although everything was black from the lack of light, feeling the rancid air pushing back against her, she could tell the ground was almost there.

This cant hurt more than what came before.

And it didn't. For the second time in less than half an hour, Sofia died.

Did it fail?

Lost in complete darkness, she didnt feel a thing. It was as if her thoughts were all that was left of her.

Am I dead? Like really dead? Can dead people think? The first time felt more like passing out. The ritual must have actually done something. Is it just slow to complete?

Im really going completely crazy But what choice do I have A level 299 stone mage. If I dont go this far wont I end up as a human skewer on a rock pile?

Even if the ritual works as expected, can I even compete, as a level one?

Worst case I should at least be strong enough to try to escape. Thinking back on it, the additional task of taking revenge sounds very easy compared to surviving this

Can I still see my status?

Age : -1

Class : [Princess]

Level : 1

Health : 0 / 89640

Stamina : 0 / 89640

Mana : 0 / 89640

[ERROR]

[Skills module unavailable, please try again later]

I just found a cure for aging is the good news.

The previously missing name appeared while she was taking in the weirdness of her status, accompanied by a system message.

[Congratulations, you have received a new name!]

Vakariazrehafin Aphenoreth

Followed by a peculiar second line :

Daughter of Sorrow