If you were to pick the most difficult boss to defeat in the Blizzard series, the boss whose concept and pattern completely change with each phase would be ranked first.
If you die dozens of times in Phase 1 and then go into Phase 2, you will not be able to adapt to the completely changed concept in Phase 2 and will die dozens of times again. Then, when you think you have adapted to Phase 2, you will most likely forget about Phase 1 and become a repeat player.
The World Eater, the de facto final boss of Blizzard 4, was a prime example. It had 4 phases, and the patterns and concepts changed in each phase, making it extremely difficult to adapt to them.
'The Fallen Priest Lucia', or 'Priest Lucia of the Sun' also belonged to that category.
In phase 1, he was a boss who lost his mind and fought like a monster with an ugly, mutated body, while in phase 2, he tore off his own mutated right arm and fought like a human.
As the Blizzard series reached its fourth installment, the number of bosses with different concepts for each phase naturally increased, but the reason Lucia's recognition was the greatest was because of her touching story.
Lucia's boss battle is the process of a priest who lost his reason after being consumed by the abyss, regaining his sanity through faith, and meeting a humane end.
It was a process that was worthy of being called a hymn to humanity, so it was natural that many people liked it.
Of course, the story is touching, and those who couldn't break Lucia even after being beaten to death and were shot into statues dozens or hundreds of times were shaking their teeth.
-Kwaang!
The sword of light swung vertically, creating a huge shockwave. The golden light that formed the holy sword was originating from the sacred catalyst held in Lucia's left hand.
The sword that had been thrust down disappeared into a bright halo of light, and the divine power began to gather once again in the catalyst. I was thinking of closing the distance, but I waited patiently, not knowing what pattern would pop out next.
The halo of light changed into a huge spear. Lucia raised her arms and took a spear-throwing stance. It was a pattern that allowed me to get close. I quickly moved my feet.
It circled clockwise around Lucia, then a clear, tinkling sound echoed and its left arm moved, throwing a spear that rolled once and dug deep inside.
The Holy Spear exploded after landing exactly where I had just been. I was already out of range of the explosion, so I ignored it and swung the blood-curdled, bright red blade at Lucia.
Now that there was no need to enchant with the Divine Catalyst, it was time to take advantage of the Bloodstained Blade's special ability: the attack power buff.
Because I had been consistently using potions since Phase 1, it became impossible to replenish my stamina, so the buff applied now was the last.
"Ugh!"
Lucia, who was hit by the bloody sword, stumbled violently with a "ugh" sound.
In Phase 2, Lucia's resistance to divine attacks increases dramatically, while all other reduction rates drop to the level of a normal human boss. This is the complete opposite of Phase 1.
If a priest-type character could easily eat up the first phase, he would have to worry about the second phase unless he prepared another means of attack.
Lucia couldn't even put up a proper fight and just kept whining and getting beaten as I hit her. This was the kind of thing that happened because she was a boss with extremely low toughness.
But I couldn't keep hitting her until she died. I hit her exactly four times and then rolled away. As soon as I did that, a golden divine explosion occurred near Lucia.
The pattern was to snipe at people who were close to the boss and just left-clicked because the boss's toughness was low.
In vanilla, there was at least a little bit of pre-delay, but in the mod, it was practically an instantaneous, non-cast attack, making it nearly impossible to see and avoid.
It meant to hit it appropriately and then it would go away.
"The sun is watching over me..."
A prayer flowed from Lucia's mouth.
He knelt on the floor as if worshipping God, then bowed his head as if offering something, and raised his left palm upward.
The sacred catalyst placed before the kneeling figure shone brightly. Divine power overflowed, blocking my approach, and a round sphere of golden light appeared on the ceiling of the boss room.
The small sun rose to the highest point. Lucia raised her body to match it. The sacred catalyst in her left hand was still shining, though she had not picked it up yet.
The light changed into the shape of a sledgehammer. Slowly, Lucia took a step forward. At the same time, a sphere that had split itself into several pieces began to shoot out toward me.
'… … It's already too late to turn counterclockwise.'
I looked up at the blazing sun and quickly calculated which direction to dodge in. It was a pattern similar to the final struggle of the Human Butcher, the boss in the tutorial area.
That is, if Lucia isn't running right in front of you.
Lucia reached me in an instant. Unlike the first phase where she never ran, in the second phase she used jumping, teleportation, and even running without hesitation, trying to kill the player.
Ignoring the sun setting to the right, I ran just as fast as Lucia, putting distance between me and the small sun, and then rolled forward just before it hit me. I heard a bloody explosion behind me.
As the light struck for the second time, Lucia swung the hammer she had created with the Divine Catalyst. At the holy sword, at the spear, and this time at the hammer again.
In vanilla, I only used a hammer to faithfully follow the settings, but when I entered the Dark Mode, I became a Weapon Master who could create all kinds of weapons for some unknown reason.
'The game is dirty.'
After praising Lucia inwardly, I deflected the sledgehammer that was coming down on me as if it was going to crush my head. Since the moveset for swinging the sledgehammer was shared with Stella, it wasn't too difficult.
-Boom!
A halo of light exploded right next to me, but I ignored it since it was out of range anyway and focused on blocking the hammer.
After deflecting the last attack of the triple attack, I stopped being pushed back, checked the location of the spherical ball that was about to strike, and rolled away in the opposite direction.
The attack that explodes that spherical sun is a spell type attack, so it can't be properly defended against by deflecting it. Even if it is deflected straight away, the spell damage will still penetrate through.
Even if you're unlucky, you might not be able to roll because you're so exhausted from fighting that you can't even roll because of the hammer. After that, of course, it would be a disaster.
In fact, it would have been much better to roll away from the weapon Lucia was swinging rather than deflect it. However, given the circumstances, there was nothing I could do.
'I don't know how much the inspiration gauge has built up. I can't avoid bouncing the next attack.'
I thought that if I used the deflection skill once, or at most twice, I would be affected by the effect. In order to completely block the status effect, I absolutely had to have a shield with 100% resistance.
In a situation where there is no attack power buff, you can kill time by running away or moving around even if you are affected by the buff, but now that the buff is still there, you can't do that.
The small sun, which had poured out all its power, began to blink and then slowly faded away. Thick darkness fell over the boss room. Only the sacred catalyst in Lucia's hand served as the sole source of light.
At that moment, the blood surrounding the blade began to flicker and shake. It was a sign that the attack power buff was running out of time.
'already?'
I glanced back at Lucia. Her gait was fine, and there were no visible injuries, so I couldn't tell how much strength she had left.
'Isn't it time to catch up now?'
That damn HUD makes me sad every time I think about it.
I was really frugal with my attacks while the attack power buff was active, except when the pattern didn't help, but I couldn't check how much health was left.
It was virtually impossible to drag out Phase 2 Lucia into a long battle. This was because the divine spells she used included recovery. And they also increased her health by a percentage.
If there was no way to stop recovery by giving stiffness, it was common for it to go from being completely healed to full health. And now, I had no way to give stiffness to Lucia the moment the attack power buff was gone.
'Ugh. Can't help it.'
According to my calculations, I should be able to catch it before the attack power buff runs out if I just hit it a few more times. I could just assume that this was my last chance.
I rushed at Lucia, focusing all my consciousness on the Divine Catalyst. I deflected the hammer, dodged the Holy Spear, and got right up to her head on. Normal attack, normal attack, and more normal attack.
'...now.'
And then, the moment it showed signs of causing a divine explosion, it rolled to the side.
I dodged the divine power that burst out in all directions with my whole body intact, then clung to Lucia again and swung my sword. Lucia was busy groaning and staggering every time she was hit by an attack.
Since it was such a risky action, I tried to avoid doing it if possible, but since the calculations went wrong somewhere and a forced time attack started, it was an unavoidable choice.
'If it weren't for this situation, I wouldn't have even looked at you, really.'
I grumbled to myself even after dodging the attack.
As you can see from the expression that it is 'virtually' close to an instantaneous no-cast, it is not completely impossible to avoid it by rolling as long as you have the reaction speed.
It's because the evasion difficulty is so damn high that even the most experienced players can't even try it recklessly since it's a technique that's over 95% close to prediction.
Anyway, I succeeded in my first challenge, and now all that was left was to pray that I could maintain my concentration like before until I cleared Lucia.
"Ahhhh...!"
Lucia let out her final scream. The golden light in the sacred catalyst began to slowly fade.
'Wow, I can't do that twice.'
It seemed like Lucia really didn't have much stamina left, so when I started to charge at her in earnest, she couldn't hold out long and collapsed. Honestly, when the recovery pattern came out at the end, I thought my heart sank.
It's a good thing I lost all my stamina between the time I tried to use recovery, otherwise I would have never been able to break it.
There was a thud as a human body collapsed. No, it was something that was difficult to call a human body anymore. The entire body was rotting and disintegrating, melting away.
The divine power that had been suppressing the mutation had completely disappeared, and the flames burning on his right shoulder had also died down. Something strange was wriggling in that section. It seemed like his arm was about to grow back.
Lucia was gasping for breath, spewing black liquid from every orifice on her face. Half-sobs and sobs escaped her breath repeatedly.
With this, the Lucia boss battle is cleared. I sat down on the floor, feeling all my tension being released at once.
It's not like I'm having some kind of world-class deathmatch competition, and I feel ashamed of myself for beating a DLC boss at this level. If it were the game right now, it would be different.
'Fucking Holy Land.'
I wondered what on earth the Pope was and why he was sitting there saying DLC story lines at this time, making people feel uneasy.
As if to prove that Lucia had been defeated, the black mud was washed away, revealing a rune stone embedded in the wall. A soft green light flowed from the letters engraved on the stone.
I could have just gotten the rune and gone straight to the surface, but I had to finish what I had to do here before that. I got up from my seat and approached Lucia, who was gasping for breath and her entire body was melting.
Since I used the acquired sacred catalyst more than three times, the event conditions were met. In fact, there was no reward for doing it, but it wasn't an event that expected a reward anyway.
As if he heard footsteps, his head, which was starting to become blurry, turned towards me with difficulty. His eyes were barely able to see properly because of the black liquid, but strangely enough, he was able to keep his direction straight.
"...Is there someone by my side?"
Her lips twitched.