Chapter 1259: Holy Mother

We had safely reached the depths of the facility, but Fran was tilting her head.

「No traps or anything.」

She seemed to expect various traps and mechanisms preventing intruders for entering the important facility. However, Apollonius responded with exasperation.

「If the place was covered in traps, how could the researchers do their job in peace?」

「I see.」

The building was currently devoid of researchers, but there must have been many conducting various experiments here. Indeed, dangerous traps would be dangerous in an area with so many non-combatants.

「There’s an even stronger barrier past this point. I don’t know what lies ahead because of the presence and mana interference effect.」

It seems we have no way of sensing whatever awaits us, no matter how formidable they might be.

「Back when we got resurrected, that room only had the Holy Mother stuck in there.」

「Stuck?」

「Yeah. The Holy Mother can’t move properly by herself. She apparently always gets carried around by other undead.」

The Holy Mother apparently couldn’t maintain her existence without a magical tool called the “Coffin” and had difficulty moving. Was her combat ability not very high?

『Either way, we won’t know until we go in. Apollonius, lead the way.』

「Please.」

「Alright then, let’s go!」

Apollonius infused mana into a device beside the door, and the massive iron door slid open. As expected from a research facility, there were many technologically advanced mechanisms.

On the other hand, the inside of the room was very “fantastical”.

There was a gigantic magic circle with a diameter of around 100 meters drawn on the floor, with a 10 meter tall crystal-shaped magic stone levitating quietly above it.

And more importantly, there was something right behind the crystal.

There, lying in a slender stone coffin, was a mummy. It was the type without bandages, resembling the mummies excavated from the pyramids.

Immediately upon entering the room, we felt an overwhelming surge of magical power. Earlier, I had guessed that she had little to no combat ability. Well I was completely wrong. The mummy before us was undoubtedly Threat Level A.

However, I could sense no hostility from the mummy. On the contrary…

「I have been waiting for you, Black Lightning Princess-dono.」

A gentle female voice echoed throughout the massive underground room, the source of which was the mummy placed there. Her mouth was not moving, but we could hear her voice clearly.

After recognizing that there was no hostility, Fran asked with a somewhat surprised expression.

「…Who are you?」

「I am the one who many call the Holy Mother.」

『Like I thought!』

Given her vast amounts of mana and perfect control over the magic circle, there could be no doubt as to her identity: the Holy Mother, second seat of the Black Skeleton Corps.

Fran replied cautiously.

「…Why did you make Apollonius go easy on me?」

「Before answering that, allow me to return this girl to you.」

「…! Persona!」

A small, unconscious girl descended slowly from above. Fran ran over and lifted up Persona.

Despite Fran calling her name, Persona did not open her eyes. She did appear to be breathing though…

Not even healing magic was enough to wake Persona up. Moreover, her stats were now visible to me. That’s when I noticed that her status was now listed as “Soul Debilitation.”

「Is Persona okay?」

『There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong physically speaking…』

Upon taking a closer look at her stats, I noticed a significant difference. A certain skill was nowhere to be found.

『Source of the Data God… is missing?』

Source of the Data God was the Extra Skill that Persona was said to have. Its absence must be why Appraisal started working on her.

Was the Soul Debilitation state also related?

「All I could do was spare her life.」

「What do you mean?」

「Alchemist Zelyse——No, Sword Zelyse now. He was the one who stole the girl’s skill.」

「You mean Source of the Data God?」

「Yes. Source of the Data God has been transplanted into that giant artificial magic stone.」

I attempted to check the magic stone, but I couldn’t see anything. This wasn’t like the “White Sheet” thing that I saw with Persona. The magic stone was simply too powerful for my appraisal to work.

「The magic circle drawn on the floor regulates the magic stone and connects the Source of the Data God to me. That way, I can pick up information about powerful individuals and soldiers from the vortex of information sleeping in the earth, allowing me to reproduce and modify them. The reason they have been turned into zombies is because I only have the ability to control undead.」

The Holy Mother continued to explain the situation.

Apparently, skills are engraved in the soul. Thus, having a skill stolen will result in a weakened soul. If extreme force is used in the theft, the soul may sustain heavy damage.

The stealing of skills via Skilltaker is likely accounted for by the skill system. That makes it relatively safe, so it won’t cause such issues.

Those who I steal skills from are at no risk of death, but it seems whatever method Zelyse used was a bit of an exploit.

「I couldn’t completely repair the girl’s wounded soul. Even with the Source of the Data God, interacting with souls is still difficult.」

I remember hearing that souls belong to the domain of the gods, so it makes sense that they’re hard to manipulate. However, using a skill bearing the name of a god seems to have allowed her to make a minor repair.

「However, I did manage to close the wound in her soul. She should wake up eventually with natural healing, though I cannot say for sure when that will be…」

Fran sighed a breath of relief upon hearing this. However, she soon tilted her head.

「Why did you save Persona?」

「…Why indeed? Perhaps because I saw a bit of myself in a girl constantly abused by others.」

Despite being a mummy, she somehow looked sorrowful.

「Oh, and about my reasons for going easy on you. I know that you have dominated Avenger, and that it was done through evil energy. Therefore, I thought you might be able to do the same to data reproductions sourced from evil energy.」

「…? You wanted me to dominate Apollonius and the others?」

「Yes.」

「Why?」

「Fufu… Because I am simply tired and I want to rest.」

Simply hearing the whispers of the Holy Mother made the air around heavy. Her words carried deep grief and darkness.

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