"Who are you…?"
The nun who had stopped crying turned her head around. It was a sound effect that should never come from a human throat.
"Is there anyone there...?"
It was only after the nun's head was turned fully toward me that I could see her face clearly.
It was a hideous face. The skin on his right cheek was half-rotted and torn, and a black liquid overflowed from between his tightly shut eyes, dripping down his cheek and chin to the floor.
It almost looked like she was shedding tears. In reality, it wasn't tears, but rather a black liquid that filled her body and overflowed outward.
Even though her entire body had rotted away, her facial features were still quite pretty. She must have been quite a beauty before she became like that. Of course, it was all meaningless now.
"Ahhh... If there's anyone out there... Please help me..."
The nun staggered to her feet. The shock caused a mass of rotten flesh to flow down her body. The places where the flesh had fallen off were immediately filled with black liquid.
Every part of his body began to turn black. In proportion to that, his human skin gradually shrank. With each step he took, the rotten flesh made a crunching sound.
"I'm in pain… I'm suffering… Please… have mercy on me…."
The right arm, extended with a desperate plea, collapsed helplessly. The limp, blackened, rotten body disappeared as if absorbed into the ground.
A new arm sprouted from the half-melted shoulder. But even though the severed part had grown again, the recovery showed no signs of stopping. Black liquid clung to black liquid again.
The nun's right arm grew in size in an instant. It was now difficult to even call it a human arm.
"Why… why don't you help me…."
The nun bowed her head. A sob escaped her closed lips. She looked extremely pitiful, but there was nothing I could do.
How could I help someone whose body had long ago been tainted, who held on to only a handful of memories and acted on instinct? That nun had long been consumed by the abyss.
If anything, it would help me find eternal rest.
"I see."
The head that had been bowed down slowly rose. The voice had suddenly become cold. The sound of teeth grinding came out from between the lips.
"You came to mock me. You came to further humiliate me while I am suffering like this…."
The sobs turned to anger, the pain turned to hatred. The right arm, which was already swollen to the point of bursting, grew even larger. The entire body was buried in the shoulder.
As if that wasn't enough, a black liquid spurted out from behind the nun, tearing at her bare skin. The black liquid, which had the shape of a writhing human arm, powerfully stomped on the ground to announce its presence.
"then...."
The nun opened her eyes wide and looked straight at me. Her eyes were completely black.
"I will make you suffer the same pain as me!!!!!!"
A gaping mouth revealed a dense set of teeth. If this were a game, the cutscene would have ended here, the OST would have started, and the boss battle would have begun.
That nun was the boss of this Rune Dungeon, 'Fallen Priest Lucia'.
The word "fall" here had an ambiguous meaning. It meant that he had literally fallen from the bridge and survived to become like that, and it also meant that he had fallen from being a priest who served God to becoming a heretic who hated God.
I took a calm stance. I hadn't used the special ability of the bloody sword yet. There was no need to attack Lucia right now.
In phase 1, you should use something other than an attack power buff, since you can only apply one buff to a weapon at a time.
Lucia approached me with brisk strides, her arms reaching out from behind her and pressing against the floor. Her actual body, the nun, was hanging in the air, swaying back and forth like laundry on a windy day.
The abnormally enlarged right arm spread wide. Sweeping pattern. I watched the movement closely, and rolled back when it started to twitch.
The arm swept across a huge area in the blink of an eye. In vanilla, the pattern would have ended here, but in the dungeon mode, it was only just beginning.
The nun's legs sank to the floor. Instead, two arms rose up behind her. Common sense would have you think that she would strike with those.
But it was fake. I looked sideways instead of up. The right arm that had just swept across the floor was swinging again.
This time, she swung her sword and knocked away his right arm, and as soon as her body was pushed away with a thud, she rolled over a couple of times to avoid the attack. Only then did Lucia bring down the arm she had raised.
-Whack!
I opened the distance further. If I parry that downward thrust, I will be completely exposed to the follow-up attack. It was similar to the charge pattern of the headless armored cavalry.
The arm stuck in the ground split into several tentacles, which spread out in all directions and swung in the air. It was an attack that came in after the deflection delay. If you got hit, you would die instantly.
I looked around while Lucia did that.
'The Divine Catalyst… … .'
In the game, the items are displayed separately, but that's not the case here, so I had to look for them with my own eyes. For now, they'll definitely be inside the boss room.
"Why? Wasn't this appearance enough? Do you want me to get ruined even more here?"
A scream of anguish burst out. I distanced myself from the right arm that was swinging wildly in all directions, and ran around the boss room to where the Divine Catalyst was likely to be.
Perhaps it is because of her physical structure, but Lucia never runs during the boss fight. Lucia has another way of closing the distance between herself and the player.
Of course, if you try to drink the potion recklessly while keeping a lot of distance, you will be hit by the immediate attack pattern and then be shot back into a statue.
'there is.'
As I expected, the Divine Catalyst was in the exact same spot as the game. I quickly picked it up. As soon as I picked up the Divine Catalyst, I heard a bang! behind me.
I turned my body back. Lucia had disappeared without a trace. After confirming this, I counted to two in my head and immediately rolled to the side to escape.
With a much louder Kwaang! sound than before, Lucia's body fell to the ground. Black liquid sprayed everywhere from where she landed.
While the boss was adjusting his posture, he examined the sacred catalyst. Black liquid had seeped into every nook and cranny, and there was no trace of its original color, but this was enough.
He held the Divine Catalyst in his left hand and the bloody sword in his right. He concentrated his strength in his left hand as if he was gathering something. The blackened catalyst began to emit a dark white light.
Half the battle was won. I placed the Divine Catalyst just above the crossguard of the bloody sword as seen in the game, then pushed it upwards, grazing the blade.
Then, a dull golden light enveloped the blood-stained blade. It wasn't the perfect golden color that Stella had used on her hammer, but it was enough to make out that it was sunlight.
With this, the other half is also successful. I put the Divine Catalyst back on my waist. This was the key to the first phase of the Lucia boss fight. It's called the Blessing Enchantment.
Phase 1 Lucia had incredible resistance to physical attacks.
If I were to defeat Lucia with just normal attacks right now, I would have to keep hitting her for over two hours, even if the attack power buff from the Bloody Sword lasted indefinitely.
On the other hand, blessed weapons and divine spells deal a huge amount of additional damage. A cleric who has wrapped up a lot of buffs can even get through phase 1 with two divine spells.
That was also the reason why a sacred catalyst with an enchanted special ability suddenly appeared in the boss room.
'I need one more besides this one.'
That's something I'll think about after I defeat Lucia. I took out the potion, drank it, and threw the bottle away carelessly.
I used the Holy Catalyst just now to replenish my stamina, which would have been quite low. It's better to replenish this in advance when you have a chance.
In order to allow characters who have not raised their Faith or Divinity at all to use the buff, the special ability of this Divine Catalyst was treated as black magic. According to the setting, this is because the catalyst is contaminated with black liquid.
Black magic was much more powerful than regular magic of the same rank, but it consumed a small amount of mana and HP when used. The higher the rank, the more HP was consumed.
The exact opposite of the buff from the Bloody Sword was that the amount of HP reduced was a fixed value, so it was disadvantageous for those with lower stamina stats, and for someone like me who only had 1 stat, each spell was like a fatal wound.
You could even die from this. If you use black magic while your health is low, your character will collapse with your health reduced to 0. Of course, that is treated the same as a normal death.
I didn't want to commit suicide in such a novel way for no reason.
He aimed his blood-stained sword forward. The half-blackened gold on the blade gave off a soft glow. Up until just now, it was just a simple preparation, and now the real Lucia boss fight begins.
"Kiaaaa ...
Lucia ran towards me screaming.