Chapter 572: Chapter 565: A hero with a plan

“The energy to mass conversion is really completely screwed…” Everelle commented while Velania thought about her next word.

“From what I know my angel bolts are basically one of the most efficient mana to energy conversion,” Sofia remarqued, “so not all magic is made equal, I guess?”

“Right… I’m going to need to do some math…”

Velania interrupted the discussion with her next word, “Armchair!”

‘Armchair; 58’

A circle of twelve armchairs appeared, spaced evenly around the orb, some of them landing on and activating bear traps with loud bangs.

“Why chairs?” Sofia asked.

Velania giggled, “I wanted to sit down for a bit and it’s the right amount of mana.”

“You won’t be able to sit for long I think, I got a few rounds figured out already,” Sofia proudly said, putting her hand on the orb, “Red sand.”

I still don’t get how to make spatial storage items with it, but I know one grain can absorb a hundred points of mana, so...

Sofia had a moment of doubt, but her word was accepted.

‘Red Sand; 100’

The white room instantly became a red desert, with several meters of sand gushing from the ground, pushing everything up, from the armchairs to the orb on its pedestal.

“Oh! The red sand! Some people used to make anti-spying glass with it,” Velania commented, “I think they stopped using it because the glass always came out blue and that made the house interior all monochrome from the blue light.”

“We use it to make the storage items now,” Sofia explained, she had shown her storage ring to Velania the day before so she knew what that was about.

“Well, I should keep going. For your information, the traditional Escalation games actually tend to end pretty early, because both sides know what they are doing. But I really only played once with Romuald so… We’ll see how much we can push it! For now… Nebulene!”

Hey I know this!

‘Nebulene; 186’

As Sofia expected, a thin cloud of green gas appeared around the group, engulfing everyone. This was one of the neurotoxins Sofia had considered using for VPPV leveling, actually the defense mechanism of a magical plant. She never actually ended up finding a supplier for it before the leveling was over.

Velania looked at Sofia then at Everelle, “You are both unaffected?”

“We both aren’t exactly human anymore,” Everelle pointed out.

“I- I know but still. The anatomy of the Apostle…”

“As you can see with the horns, my anatomy isn’t exactly what it used to be. And for this round… Velania cookies!”

“W- what?!”

‘Velania cookies; 363’

Golden cookies started falling from the sky.

“I was paying close attention when I tried it, so I kind of just memorized the mana contents. I thought it was closer to 310, but this works, so all good,” Sofia said, grabbing one of the falling cookies as many of them fell into the red sand. ṛ

Velania seemed to blush a little, contrary to Sofia she did not touch the cookies.

Everelle grabbed a cookie and consumed it. “Puah! What the fuck?! Are they packed with soil?!” she complained, spitting crumbs out, making coughing sounds. She did not even have a proper mouth to begin with, so it was a wonder how she could make anything go in or out of her complete pitch-black oil-like body, let alone cough somehow.

Velania blushed even more.

“Y- You shouldn’t eat them…”

“Someone could have warned me earlier,” Everelle scoffed, clearly turning in Sofia’s direction, her ‘hands’ on her ‘hips’.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“It’s not that bad,” Sofia said, throwing the entire cookie in her demonic mouth and chewing a bit. “I mean… It does taste like dirt, but who’s never eaten a little dirt when they were young?”

Sofia realized that she had said something strange when her remark was followed by an awkward silence.

“Well… I was an orphan so… You know… You do what you…”

“Uwah, the time!” Velania said, jumping from her armchair, she touched the orb, “Arrenham’s Shackles!”

‘Arrenham’s Shackles; 700’

The mana around the ground became all clumpy and sticky, and Velania explained with enthusiasm that this was a slowing curse developed by the necromancer who helped Ackenohh with his Apostle ritual. At the mention of the previous apostle, her enthusiasm disappeared as fast as it had come. Sofia tried to prevent the mood from souring by quickly continuing the game with one of Alith’s skills as her next word. “Lady double.”

‘Lady Double; 1000’

A second Sofia appeared next to her, and started running away in a random direction. “There goes the second me…”

As Sofia and Everelle were busy looking at the clone running away, Velania promptly decided to play her next word. “Freezing fog.”

‘Freezing fog; 2000’

A glacial fog covered the surroundings in an instant, and, reacting with the strange curse formations of Arrenham’s shackles through some weird interaction, it started snowing.

The snow still had the sticky properties of the curse, and it quickly started accumulating on Sofia and everelle.

Sofia tried to swipe the snow off from her face only to find it stuck to her hand instead, meanwhile, Velania seemed protected by an invisible shield. “That might be a bit annoying… Do I have some kind of fire spell for 4000… Oh wait no I know just the thing. Curse ward.”

‘Curse Ward; 3500’

The ritual manifested as a large engraved bone-slate Sofia quickly fed it some mana and the cursed snow started melting away instantly.

“What are these runes?” Velania asked, pointing at the ritual circle, “A new language?”

“Avian runic system, about four thousand years old I think,” Sofia answered, “A lot easier to read than the old runes.”

“I can see that. I-... I would love to learn more about that later, if you can teach me.”

“Pretty sure I still have a few books about it somewhere in my storage ring, I don’t mind letting you have them,” Sofia offered, “What’s your next move?”

“I would really appreciate that. Then… Underworld water.”

I’m immune to cold damage, is she trying to turn me into an ice block?

‘Underworld water; 6000’

The water came like a wave, a torrent gushing through the snow and sand, creating a wild flowing river on the right side of the terrain, taking a few armchairs with it. It seemed to react strongly with the freezing fog, as stalagmites of ice instantly started to form everywhere.

Sofia had to move around to avoid getting impaled by the stalagmites forming directly under her, but everything around her was starting to turn to ice. The battlefield had changed to an icy hellscape in just a few seconds, and Sofia had lost sight of Everelle and Velania.

The orb hasn’t moved. Since it was only a few meters away, Sofia punched the walls of ice forming in front of her. She couldn’t attack Velania but attacking the summoned objects wasn’t a violation of the rules. She quickly tore a path through the ice and reached for the orb.

“Angel bolt.”

‘Angel bolt ; 10 000’

It only took a second for the crackling of thunder to echo from above. The game room was then completely drowned in countless explosions as the bolts rained.

These were 10k mana explosions, too weak to harm anyone present in the room, but strong enough to completely get rid of the ice and most other things.

About twenty seconds later, when the explosions died down, all that was left were the three women, the orb on its pedestal, the underworld water torrent to the side, and the red sand partially turned to blue glass on the ground.

“I suppose ice was no good…” Velania commented.

“That was already quite something for the amount of mana we’re working with,” Everelle said, sitting down in the sand full of glass shards, “Let me get my first word in next, Sofia.”

“Plan hasn’t changed?” Sofia asked.

“Nope, still the same, will depend on the results of that first word.”

“I wonder what you have in mind that could stop me,” Velania said, “but good luck.” She then walked up to the orb once more, “Soulfire.”

‘Soulfire; 20 000’

Though nothing appeared, Sofia soon started to feel a bit hot.

“Ugh, this feels like having a fever, this sucks,” Everelle complained.

“Sorry…” Velania apologized, scratching her scarred arm.

“I’m not really taking any damage though,” Sofia noted.

“Me neither but it’s still uncomfortable. Well, whatever, this is nothing compared to… Ugh, shitty memories. Anyway… Time for my first of three words,” Everelle continued, standing up, she walked up to the orb, “Operator terminal.”

‘Operator terminal; 35942’

Dozens of book-sized metallic slabs fell from above, most of them crashing into the sand, some into the nearby river, each of the three women caught one.

One side of the slab lit up on contact with Sofia’s hand, sucking in some of her mana. A few words appeared on the slab’s lit surface.

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