Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Fallen Priest Lucia
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“Who... are you...?”
The nun stopped crying and turned her head with a crunching sound. It was an effect no human neck should ever make.
“Is someone... there...?”
Only after the nun’s head had fully swiveled toward me could I clearly see her face.
It was grotesquely hideous. The skin on her right cheek was half-rotted and festering, and a black liquid overflowed from between her tightly shut eyes, dripping down her cheek and jaw to the floor.
It almost looked like she was shedding tears. In reality, though, it wasn’t tears—it was the black liquid inside her body forcing its way out.
Even with her entire body rotting away, her features were remarkably beautiful. She must have been quite the beauty before ending up like this. Of course, none of that mattered now.
“Aah... If someone’s there... please help me...”
The nun staggered to her feet. From the impact, a clump of rotten flesh slid off her body. The spot where the flesh had fallen away was immediately filled with black liquid.
Her body began to blacken in patches. In proportion, her human skin dwindled away. With each step she took, rotten chunks of meat squelched.
“It hurts... It’s agony... Please... show me mercy...”
Along with her desperate plea, her outstretched right arm collapsed limply. Her spongy, blackened limb dissolved into the ground as if being absorbed.
A new arm sprouted from her half-melted shoulder. But even as the severed part regenerated, the decay showed no signs of stopping. More black liquid piled onto the existing ooze.
The nun’s right arm ballooned in size in an instant. It was no longer something that could be called a human arm.
“Why... why won’t you help me...”
The nun bowed her head deeply. Sobs leaked from between her pursed lips. She looked utterly pitiable, but there was nothing I could do.
How could I help someone whose body had long been corrupted, clinging only to scraps of memory and driven by instinct? This nun had been devoured by the abyss ages ago.
If granting her eternal rest counted as helping, that’d be another story.
“So that’s it.”
Her deeply bowed head slowly lifted. Her voice had turned icy cold. A grinding of teeth echoed from between her lips.
“You’ve come to mock me. To come and humiliate me further in my suffering...”
The sobs turned to rage, the pain to hatred. Her already swollen right arm grew even larger. Her entire body was on the verge of being buried in her shoulder.
As if that weren’t enough, black liquid tore through the bare skin of her back and surged upward. The writhing mass took the shape of a human arm and slammed powerfully into the ground, announcing its presence.
“Then...”
The nun glared at me with eyes wide enough to tear. Her eyes were entirely black.
“I’ll make you suffer the same pain as me!!!!!!”
Her gaping maw revealed densely packed teeth. If this were a game cutscene, the OST would kick in here, signaling the boss fight’s start.
This nun was the boss of this place, the Rune Dungeon: “Fallen Priest Lucia.”
The word “fallen” carried double meaning here. She had literally fallen from the bridge and survived, becoming this wretched state—and she had fallen from faithful priestess of the gods to heretical god-hater.
I calmly assumed a stance. I hadn’t used the bloodstained sword’s special ability yet. There was no need to attack Lucia right now.
In phase 1, it wasn’t an attack power buff I needed. Weapons could only hold one buff at a time.
Lucia approached me, using the arm sprouting from her back to stomp across the floor. Her main body, the nun herself, dangled in midair, flapping around like laundry on a windy day.
Her abnormally enlarged right arm spread wide. A sweeping pattern. I watched her movements closely and rolled backward the moment it began to twitch.
The arm swept across an enormous area in the blink of an eye. In vanilla mode, the pattern would end there, but in hardcore mode, it was only just beginning.
The nun’s main body’s legs planted into the ground. In exchange, the two arms from her back shot upward. By normal logic, you’d think she’d smash down with them.
But that was a feint. I looked not up, but to the side. The right arm that had just swept the floor was swinging again.
This time, I swung my sword to deflect the right arm. As my body was pushed back with a clang, I rolled a couple more times to evade. Only then did Lucia slam down the arms she’d raised.
—Kwachik!
I widened the distance further. Blocking the downward smash with a parry would leave you wide open for the follow-up. It was similar to the headless armored knight’s charge pattern.
The arms embedded in the ground split into tentacles that lashed out wildly in all directions. It was an attack timed for the parry’s recovery frames. Getting hit meant instant death, obviously.
While Lucia was doing that, I scanned the surroundings.
“The holy catalyst...”
In the game, items were marked, but here, I had to spot it with my own eyes. It was definitely somewhere in the boss room.
“Why? Was this form not enough? Do you want me to break down even more here?”
A wail laced with anguish erupted. I distanced myself from the rampaging right arm whipping everywhere and circled the boss room toward where the holy catalyst might be.
I didn’t know if it was due to her body structure, but Lucia never ran during the boss fight. She had other ways to close the gap with the player.
Of course, if you got cocky from the distance and tried chugging a potion, a sniping pattern would nail you, sending you flying into a statue.
“There it is.”
As expected, the holy catalyst was in the exact same spot as in the game. I snatched it up quickly. The moment I picked up the holy catalyst, a loud bang! echoed from behind me.
I spun around. Lucia’s form had vanished completely. Confirming that, I counted to two in my head, then immediately rolled to the side.
A much louder kwang! rang out as Lucia’s body crashed down. Black liquid splattered everywhere from the impact site.
While the boss was righting herself, I examined the holy catalyst. It was thoroughly soaked in black liquid, its original color nowhere to be seen—but this would do.
Holy catalyst in my left hand, bloodstained sword in my right. Focusing power into my left hand felt like drawing something in. The blackened catalyst began emitting a murky white light.
Halfway successful. Following the game, I brought the holy catalyst to the crossguard just above the bloodstained sword’s blade, then slid it upward along the edge.
Dull golden light enveloped the bloodstained sword’s blade. It wasn’t the perfect gold Stella wrapped around her mace, but it was recognizable as sunlight.
The other half successful too. I tucked the holy catalyst back into my belt. This was the core of phase 1 against Lucia: the so-called “Blessing Enchant.”
Phase 1 Lucia had insane resistance to physical attacks.
Even with the bloodstained sword’s attack buff infinite, it’d take me over two hours of plain hits to bring her down.
Conversely, blessed weapons or holy spells dealt massive bonus damage. A priest stacked with buffs could clear phase 1 with just two holy spells.
That’s why a special-ability enchant holy catalyst conveniently dropped in the boss room.
“I’ll need one more somewhere besides here.”
That was for after defeating Lucia. I pulled out a potion, downed it, and tossed the vial aside carelessly.
Using the holy catalyst just now had shaved off a good chunk of my HP, so this was to top it up. Best to heal during openings like this.
To let even characters with zero faith or holy power stats use the buff, this holy catalyst’s special counted as black magic. In lore, it was because the catalyst was tainted by the black liquid.
Black magic dealt far more damage than normal spells of the same tier, but at the cost of extra mana and HP per use. Higher tiers consumed more HP.
Unlike the bloodstained sword’s buff—which scaled inversely with fixed damage deduction—the lower your HP stat, the worse off you were. For me with a base stat of 1, each cast was practically a mortal wound.
You could even die from it. Cast black magic with low HP, and it’d drain you to zero, dropping your character flat. Treated the same as normal death, of course.
I had no desire to suicide in such a flashy way.
I pointed the bloodstained sword forward. Dull gold, half-blackened, gleamed faintly from the blade. Up until now had been prep; this was the real start of the Lucia boss fight.
“Kyaaaaah!!!!!!”
Lucia let out a shriek and charged at me.