Bookie observed the cards, “So we’re taking Reignited Ancestry once and then Infinity Engine twice?” he asked after taking time to think things through.

“Almost, we are doing it the other way around,” Sofia corrected, “Infinity engine twice first, because out of everything, the most important part to grab is the second level of it to cancel the [False Immortality] downside. The order only matters if we do not complete the third level, but considering how hard the first one was, we have to expect a possible failure.”

“But then… Why not take all the Infinity Engine? Object skeletons would be nice but if we have to sacrifice the mana regeneration effect for it…”

“I have the mana pearls for that,” Sofia explained, “It’s true that the effect does not last long and the pearls currently take forever to grow, but the more mana I have the faster they will come, and there’s still ambient mana around us most of the time, so it’s not like this is a constant issue. And if you want to know why I’m not really considering the Internal World one, it’s because we already have Zangdar. I want to build a nice home there after the trial when we have enough mana.”

Bookie thought seriously about it, and then, to Sofia and Pareth’s surprise, he changed his mind, “I think we should get only the Infinity Engine.”

“Huh? You don’t want the object skeletons?”

“N- No, I want them but…”

“Then what is it?”

“I think Sofia will need the Infinity Engine more, because you have too much mana. Even with ambient mana it could become not enough. And me and Brother Pareth both need the ambient mana too, so if we always stay together, any place we go to when we’re older will become all dry and uncomfortable…”

Sofia was a bit taken aback by Bookie’s theory. That was true, right now when there was ambient mana, it was always more than enough to fuel her regeneration, but what about in a filter or two, when she starts having ten times more mana and an even faster regeneration? That was something she had never thought about, because until now, she was operating at a very small scale. But now that she gave it more consideration, whenever she had met higher level people, they were pretty much never actively absorbing the ambient mana.

Especially Erredis, she had so much mana that it was almost pushing me back when she transformed. If she were to absorb the ambient mana to fuel that, the moon would have been completely dry…

“You make a very good point, Bookie… Just because it is not a problem now does not mean it won’t become one later… But we’re giving up the skeletons then, are you really fine with that?”

Bookie nodded, “We can find another way later! Maybe we can find a real bone fairy to do it for us!” he said, clenching his fists.

“Alright then. Pareth, Mr Scribe, any objections?”

Sofia took the lack of answer for a yes, and grabbed the [Path of the Infinity Engine] card. On the altar, mana heart started to change form, like a real beating heart, it changed step by step, becoming more slender and elongated, twisting on itself. It became two short spirals, slowly rotating around and within each other, it looked hypnotizing, it was like the spirals were constantly being pulled apart, yet they never actually moved.

After a while, Sofia managed to avert her eyes and stop looking; “And that’s that done. We don’t have to change anything for the second ritual, it’s just more offerings, and another defense phase, it seems. We’re using the Destroyer’s soulstone as the main offering this time. It’s honestly great news that we do not have to get more imprints, because we’re going to run out of time at this rate. We need better defenses. If my calculations are good, we still have around a hundred and twenty days before my heart sets, so get me the Engineer out, let’s get to work.”

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Two months later, Sofia stood at the top of her sky tower. This was a huge bone tower with a hollow center built around the altar. As long as the space delimited by the four pillars had access to the open sky, there would be no issue. The tower’s main goal was to provide the best possible vantage point over the battlefield, as well as a way for Sofia to quickly pick up altitude even at night without ambient mana to fly, thanks to a gravity-powered lift. A big mass of bones held by a bone chain served as a counterweight to make the lift go up with a swing of a lever.

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The plains around the hill were unrecognizable. The digger Kidjikkiks and the sandworm skeleton had carved out gigantic trenches around the hill fortress. The trenches were entirely coated in bone, and filled with serrated bone spikes. There were also ritual circles for the [Curse of slowness], which Sofia had learned at the academy, engraved all around the base of the hill.

The hill fortress itself had undergone a major redesign, with it having an actual roof this time, albeit pierced by the tower for the opening of the altar, and it also had higher, thicker walls, with several layers of bone interwoven in special patterns for added structural integrity.

For the more distant plains, where the Sunless had appeared the first time, Sofia had carved and filled thousands of mana-storing ritual circles. This had been the most time-intensive thing to prepare. It drew a complete circle around the plains, and was the most critical part of Sofia’s defense plan.

Lastly, the fortress, the trenches, and their surroundings were all covered in a thick freezing mist from the [The Overflowing Chalice] she had gotten at the same time as Bookie’s own skeleton. She had tried it against the Sunless drones, and while the freezing effect itself did nothing to harm the Sunless the mist also contained a slowing effect that did affect them, and worked exceedingly well together with the curse of slowness. Both of them together could slow the advance of the Drones to a crawl.

Bookie had already summoned and positioned all of his skeletons, and now Sofia was watching her mana climb back up while the sun slowly made its way down the horizon.

“The defenses are set,” she muttered, watching over the silent plains. “Now we wait.”

When dusk came, Sofia stepped onto the lift and took off the saint set anklet. With her weight doubled, the lift quickly started going down. She reached the bottom and the lever automatically swung back, locking the platform on the ground level.

“Let’s get to it. Time to place the offerings.”

Sofia’s mana heart went first on top of the altar, with the Destroyer’s soul stone below it where the Chimera’s stone had been before, then she moved on to the pillars.

The northern pillar, a representation of my flaws. Sofia placed a golden bone on the pillar.

The southern pillar, a representation of my strengths. Sofia placed a blessed bone on the pillar.

The eastern pillar, a representation of my past. Sofia placed a bloody, pointy bone on the pillar.

And the western pillar, a representation of my dreams… Sofia placed a bunch of bones on the pillar.

She could not stop smirking the whole way through.

Did the offerings have to all be bones? Of course not, but she found it funny that she could do it and it would work, so she did. She quickly checked the outside through her bone tokens in the fortress walls and the mood around her changed. I need to hurry up.

“Attention everyone! The sun is coming down, we can expect a longer or a tougher fight tonight, let’s all do our best!”

Bookie was the only one who could audibly answer, he cheered from his position at the top of the walls.

Sofia kept monitoring the horizon, waiting for the exact moment. She felt nervous, the first night had been a very close call, and despite all of her preparations, she was not extremely confident about the second night, let alone the third. She bit her nails, an old bad habit that she thought she had gotten rid of, as she found it too unladylike, only to realize her nails were currently just bone anyway.

I should just put on the armor already…

When the last ray of sunlight disappeared, she activated the ritual and kicked the lift’s lever, propelling her all the way to the top of the tower just as the beam of light from the ritual flared up and illuminated the sky.

They started appearing from everywhere, millions of them. Drones, amalgams, homunculus, and even bird-like flying Sunless, gliding high above like dark shadows across the night sky.

“It’s much worse than I hoped,” Sofia whispered as she surveyed the approaching army of dark creatures.

She tightly gripped her scepter, her bone body creaking from her unsteady control.

“No matter, we have prepared as much as we could… Let’s do our best.”

That night again, the Sunless attacked.

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