The monster before them was a Zombie Steward, a mutated humanoid with two mouths in the remains of robes.
Luke approached it, and system messages appeared as he expected.
〖...Out of Mutation Elixirs? Go to the point described earlier before continuing into the chapel.〗
〖...The passage beyond the third sanctuary is now open. Follow the directions given to reach it.〗
〖...Hunters requiring resupply should visit the chamber identified earlier before confronting the High Deacon.〗
One message appeared after another, but instead of helping, they left Luke confused.
Unlike the Zombie Clergyman, the Zombie Steward was continuing a conversation they were somehow expected to understand.
When Scarlett saw Luke’s struggle, she joined him, but she couldn’t piece the information together either.
"It says ’described earlier’ and ’follow the directions given’ as if it believes we already know," she said. "Could it be because we killed the Clergyman before it finished explaining everything?"
Luke thought about it, and he clenched his teeth as he remembered the weapon hunter.
"Damnit. I knew there must be a downside to that. Now he’s dead, and we’re left to handle the consequences.
But don’t worry, we can learn from our mistakes. This time we’ll listen to what it has to say."
That sounded like the right thing to do, but to Luke’s surprise, Scarlett swung her sword and beheaded the Steward without mercy.
The head rolled to his feet, and he looked at her in disbelief.
"Young lady, has the mutation gotten to your head or what...?"
Scarlett’s actions looked reckless, because the point was not to act rashly like they had done before with the previous zombie. But Luke didn’t know this also gave them rewards.
〖Rewards: (1) Key | (6) Mutation Elixirs〗
Scarlett folded her arms and leaned against the confession booth with a smug face, expecting Luke to praise her for being smart. But Luke needed an explanation before giving out any compliments, and she was happy to explain.
"If we weren’t going to understand anything anyway, would you rather stand here trying to solve a puzzle or kill it and see what it drops? Think about it. If we let it finish talking, we’d only get confusing directions and no rewards."
Luke raised a brow at her words as he picked up the items and shared it amongst them.
The key would grant them access to the final run of the dungeon, and the Mutation Elixirs could last them for the rest of it. They didn’t need any mere directions from mindless zombies.
"Well done," Luke said to Scarlett. "I’ll admit the dungeon tricked me into thinking this one had to stay alive, but you saw through the trap before I did."
Scarlett smiled to herself. She thought if Luke was the stronger one, then she should be the smarter one.
For a while, the two of them did nothing because they understood what the key meant. This was the last stretch of the dungeon. They hoped Raven and Vivian were surviving their Act just as much as they had.
Luke remembered the Second Chance item he gave Vivian. If Raven didn’t survive, then he hoped at least one sister would.
Little did he know the item was with the girl beside him.
The key unlocked the door at the end of the sanctuary and opened into a battlefield every bit as dark as Skeleton Town, but colder and more dangerous because everything in sight was instant death for the average hunter.
〖Warning: You are entering an unknown zone!!!〗
〖Objective: Do not die!〗
The words made Luke stop without realizing it.
A strange feeling caressed him. Not fear exactly, but that kind of feeling that made every instinct in his body tell him to turn around while there was still a chance.
His skin prickled, and even his breathing became more deliberate.
Scarlett felt it too.
The system made things worse by saying: Do not die. If it was before, there was always something they could accomplish. Slay this or reach that.
The cold brought them back to their senses. It could kill them even before the monsters tried.
Scarlett became as warm as her phoenix, while Luke relied on his Hell Ape Gauntlet.
After that, they stayed close to amplify the warmth while facing the place they had entered. It looked like a necropolis with countless graves, broken weapons, and enough fog that could suffocate.
Undead skeletons began to crawl out of the ground, with the broken weapons littered around.
Scarlett summoned her Phoenix to prevent them from even becoming a problem.
The Phoenix stomped its talons and shook its feathers as it tasted freedom again. It took some time, but in the end, it spat out a wave of fire that scorched the skeletons.
But the skeletons were only the beginning. Soon, an army of zombies could be seen charging at them with astounding urgency. The zombies were backed by magus skeletons who launched spells from far away.
The challenge was brutal, but Luke knew what to do.
His foot armor let him control gravity, so he pinned the horde of monsters to the earth before they could get to him. This allowed the Empyrean Phoenix to descend as much fire as it wanted, quickly flipping the temperature that was once freezing.
After everything they faced, Luke had learnt something.
Hunters were not expected to defeat a Sigma manifestation.
If a place like this ever reached the real world, it would become a catastrophe, let alone an Omega manifestation that could wipe out what’s left of humanity.
"That’s strange. We have already fought two waves, but nothing’s directing them," Scarlett said as she remembered that the previous sanctuaries had ’Chapel Keepers.’
Luke used his mask to scan as far as he could through the graveyard, but it was empty.
"You’re right. The system never said defeat a boss."
"Could this whole place be the boss?"
"Scratch that," Luke said as something gigantic was coming out from the fog. It was so big, its steps caused the ground to tremble.
Draped in rag priest robes that danced in the air like banners, a giant raised an enormous rusted staff into the air. Beneath its cracked hood, dozens of hollow eyes stared down at them.
It was the High Deacon the sanctuaries had talked so much about.
But neither Luke nor Scarlett had expected a Kaiju. Their bones turned to jelly under its presence.
"You’ve got to be kidding me," Luke whispered, gripping his spear tighter.
Meanwhile, the giant lowered its head as it finally noticed the intruders, particularly the phoenix.
The intruders braced themselves to face the High Deacon, but Luke’s visor detected something else far away.
It was a crow, just as big as the High Deacon, watching everything that was happening.
"That’s it," he said. "The High Deacon is just its guardian. If that crow can summon another one after this dies, we might drain ourselves.
I’ll take the crow. Scarlett, keep the priest busy!"
It all happened too fast, and soon, Luke was above the ground, gliding as fast as he could with his sabatons. The giant tried to catch him, but Luke weaved between its fingers.
Scarlett laughed despite herself.
"Hey, Sir! Over here!" she shouted. "Nymeria, Pyrokinesis!"
The High Deacon countered by slamming its staff into the ground, and black magic cracked toward Scarlett and her phoenix.
Both jumped over the first, but the second hit the Phoenix, and feathers fluttered through the air after the impact.
The Empyrean Phoenix’s strengths were speed and firepower, but it lacked defense so badly that just one clean hit from a monster hurt.
"Don’t trade blows. Stay above it, and burn it from a distance," Scarlett instructed anxiously.
The phoenix recovered and obeyed only because it was angry. The fire it released right after was powerful enough to force the High Deacon back, burning its robes.
Meanwhile, Luke had gotten close enough to the crow to see it in person.
The Crow’s feathers were as black as charcoal and polished like velvet. It also had eyes all over its body, blinking at different times and looking in different directions.
〖Warning: You have encountered a beast: Hundred-Eye Crow.〗
〖Tier: Greater〗
〖Description: A Greater crow-type beast native to the Continuum Era.〗
〖DEFEAT THE GREATER BEAST TO PREVENT THE APOCALYPSE.〗
Luke stopped gliding as his brows knitted together. "System calls it a beast, not a monster?"
That was the first strange thing. Secondly, his mask let him see the core within the crow, much larger than any core he’d seen.
It was the concentrated master core.
Luke’s theory was that the mutation of the pentegate and the concentrated core had given rise to the revival of an actual beast from an old era.
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