Priestess of the Sun Lucia – 3

If you were to pick the most challenging boss to defeat in the B-Dark series, a boss whose concept and patterns completely change with each phase would undoubtedly be ranked first.

Because after dying dozens of times in Phase 1 and finally entering Phase 2, you’d die dozens more times unable to adapt to the drastically changed concept of Phase 2. And just when you think you’re getting used to Phase 2, you’d forget Phase 1 again, getting stuck in an endless loop.

The World Eater, the de facto final boss of B-Dark 4, was a prime example. It had four phases, and each phase changed its patterns and concepts, making it incredibly difficult to fully adapt.

‘Fallen Priest Lucia’, or ‘Priestess of the Sun Lucia’, also belonged to that category.

In Phase 1, she fought like a monster, having lost her reason with a hideously mutated body. In Phase 2, however, she tore off her mutated right arm herself and fought like a human.

As the B-Dark series reached its fourth installment, the number of bosses whose concepts changed with each phase naturally increased. However, Lucia’s greatest renown among them was due to her moving story.

Lucia’s boss fight is the process of a priest, who had lost her reason after being consumed by the abyss, regaining her sanity through faith and meeting a human-like end.

It was a process worthy of being called a hymn to humanity, so it was natural that many people loved it.

Of course, those who found the story moving but couldn’t defeat Lucia no matter how hard they tried, and were turned into statues hundreds of times, shuddered at the thought.

-KWAANG!

A sword of light, swung vertically, created a massive shockwave. The golden glow forming the Holy Sword originated from the Holy Catalyst held in Lucia’s left hand.

The impaled sword transformed into a bright aura of light and vanished, and divine power began to gather in the catalyst once more. I considered closing the distance, but decided to wait patiently, unsure of what pattern would come next.

The aura of light transformed into a massive spear. Lucia raised her arm and took a spear-throwing stance. This was a pattern where getting close was safe. I quickly moved my feet.

I circled Lucia clockwise, and the moment the clear, dangling sound of bells echoed and her left arm moved to throw the spear, I rolled once, deeply burrowing inward.

The Holy Spear accurately struck the spot where I had just been, then exploded. I ignored it, as I was already out of the explosion’s range, and swung the blood-coagulated crimson blade at Lucia.

There was no longer a need to apply a blessing enchantment with the Holy Catalyst, so it was time to utilize the special ability of the blood-stained sword: the attack power buff.

Due to consistently using potions since Phase 1, it was impossible to replenish my health, so the current buff was the last one.

“Ugh!”

Struck by the blood-stained sword, Lucia let out an “ugh” sound and staggered greatly.

Phase 2 Lucia’s other damage reduction rates drop to the level of a normal human boss, but her resistance to holy-type attacks increases tremendously. It was the complete opposite of Phase 1.

If a cleric-type character could easily clear Phase 1, in Phase 2, they would have a headache unless they had prepared other means of attack.

Lucia couldn’t even properly resist, groaning and getting beaten as I struck her. This phenomenon occurred because the boss had very low poise.

But I couldn’t keep hitting her until she died. I landed exactly four blows, then rolled backward to escape. As soon as I did, a golden holy explosion erupted near Lucia.

It was a pattern designed to punish players who just spammed left-clicks while sticking close, thinking the boss’s poise was low.

In vanilla, there was at least a slight pre-delay, but in Dark-Ra Mode, it was practically a no-casting instant type, making it almost impossible to react and dodge. It meant you should hit her a few times and then back off.

“The Sun watches over me……”

A prayer flowed from Lucia’s lips.

Her knees knelt on the ground as if worshipping a god, and she bowed her head as if offering something, then raised her left palm upwards.

The Holy Catalyst placed before her kneeling knees shone brightly. Divine power overflowed, blocking my approach, and a golden spherical orb formed on the ceiling of the boss room.

A small sun rose to the highest point. In response, Lucia stood up. The Holy Catalyst in her left hand was still glowing, though I didn’t know when she had picked it up again.

The light transformed into the shape of a mace. Thump, Lucia took a step forward. Simultaneously, the orb, which had split itself into several fragments, began to shoot towards me.

‘……It’s too late to circle counter-clockwise.’

I looked up at the blazing sun and quickly calculated which direction to dodge. It was a pattern that could be evaded in a similar way to the Human Butcher’s last desperate attack, the boss from the tutorial area.

That is, if Lucia wasn’t rushing at me from the front.

Lucia reached me in an instant. Unlike Phase 1, where she never ran, in Phase 2, she unhesitatingly used leaps, teleports, and even running to try and kill the player.

Ignoring the sun falling to the right, I also ran headlong to create distance from Lucia, then rolled forward just before the small sun impacted. A chilling explosion sound echoed behind me.

As the light struck down a second time, Lucia swung the mace she had created with the Holy Catalyst. First a Holy Sword, then a spear, and now a mace.

In vanilla, she only used maces to faithfully adhere to the lore, but in Dark-Ra Mode, for some unknown reason, she had become a weapon master who could create all sorts of weapons.

‘This game plays dirty.’

After silently praising Lucia, I parried the mace that was swinging down as if to crush my head. At least the mace’s moveset itself was shared with Stella, so it wasn’t too difficult.

-PUNG!

An aura of light exploded right next to me, but I ignored it since I was out of range anyway, and focused only on parrying the mace.

After parrying the last attack of her three-hit combo, I stopped my body from being pushed back, checked the impact location of the falling orb, and rolled away in the opposite direction.

The explosive attack from that sun-like orb is a spell-type, so parrying doesn’t properly defend against it. Even if you parry it perfectly, the spell damage still penetrates completely.

Moreover, if you were unlucky, you might be unable to roll due to being full of combat fatigue from parrying the mace, and then it would naturally be instant death.

In fact, it was much better to roll and dodge Lucia’s weapons rather than parry them if possible. But given the situation, I had no choice.

‘I wonder how much the Corruption Gauge has accumulated. I shouldn’t parry the next attack.’

Roughly speaking, I felt like I would be afflicted with corruption if I used parry just one more time, or at most twice. To perfectly block status effects, you absolutely needed to wield a shield with 100% resistance.

If I didn’t have the attack power buff, I could just run around and waste time even if I got corrupted, but since the buff was still active, I couldn’t do that.

The small sun, having expended all its power, flickered and slowly faded. Deep darkness enveloped the boss room. Only the Holy Catalyst in Lucia’s hand served as the sole light source.

At that moment, the blood-red glow enveloping the blade began to flicker and waver. It was a sign that the attack power buff’s duration was nearing its end.

‘Already?’

I glanced back at Lucia. Her gait was normal, and there were no visible heavily wounded areas, so I couldn’t tell how much health she had left.

‘Shouldn’t she be defeated by now?’

The thought of that damn HUD always brought regret.

Throughout the attack power buff’s duration, I had diligently beaten her, except when patterns didn’t allow it, yet I couldn’t confirm how much health she had left.

Prolonging the fight against Phase 2 Lucia was practically impossible. This was because her holy spells included healing. And it was healing that restored her health by a percentage.

If there was no way to interrupt her healing by staggering her, it was common for her to go from barely any HP to full HP. And at this moment, I had no means to stagger Lucia the moment my attack power buff wore off.

‘Tsk. No choice, I guess.’

Based on my calculations, I felt I could defeat her before the attack power buff wore off if I hit her a few more times. I might as well consider this my last chance.

I charged at Lucia, focusing all my consciousness on the Holy Catalyst. I parried the mace, evaded the Holy Spear, and stuck close to her front. Normal attack, normal attack, and another normal attack.

‘……Now.’

And, the moment I saw signs of a holy explosion, I immediately rolled sideways.

Having safely dodged the divine power that burst forth in all directions, I clung close to Lucia again and swung my sword. Lucia staggered and groaned with every hit she took.

This was such a high-risk action that I tried to avoid it if possible, but since my damage calculation had gone wrong somewhere and a forced time attack had begun, it was an unavoidable choice.

‘Seriously, if it weren’t for this situation, I wouldn’t have even looked at it.’

I grumbled inwardly even after dodging the attack.

As implied by the phrase “practically” a no-casting instant type, it wasn’t completely impossible to dodge by rolling, provided your reaction speed was up to par.

It’s just that the evasion difficulty was so damn high, being over 95% reliant on prediction, that even truly hardcore players wouldn’t dare attempt it casually.

Anyway, I had succeeded in my first attempt, and all that remained was to pray that I could maintain my concentration just like before until I cleared Lucia.

“Aaaah……”

Lucia let out her final death throes. The golden light residing in the Holy Catalyst slowly began to fade.

‘Wow, I can’t do that again.’

It seemed her health was truly low, as Lucia couldn’t hold on for long and collapsed once I seriously charged at her. Honestly, when the healing pattern came out at the very end, my heart almost sank.

It was a good thing her health depleted during the pre-delay of her healing, otherwise, I would have never been able to clear it.

I heard the thudding sound of a human body collapsing. No, it was something ambiguous that could no longer even be called a human body. Her entire body was melting and dissolving as if rotting away.

The flame that had been burning on her right shoulder also faded, as the divine power suppressing her mutation completely disappeared. Something strange wriggled from the cross-section. It seemed her arm was trying to regrow.

Lucia was exhaling labored breaths, spewing black liquid from every orifice on her face. Half-sobbing breaths, “Huu, huu,” continuously escaped her.

With this, the Lucia boss fight was cleared. I felt the tension release all at once and slumped to the floor.

I felt self-loathing, wondering why I was taking down a DLC boss at this level, as if I were participating in some World’s Strongest Undead Tournament. If this were just a game, it might be different.

‘Damn Holy Kingdom.’

I wondered why that Pope was saying DLC story lines at this unsettling timing.

As if to prove that Lucia had been defeated, the black sludge washed away, revealing a rune stele embedded in the wall. A faint green light emanated from the characters carved into the stele.

I could acquire the rune and immediately go to the surface, but I had to finish what I needed to do here first. I stood up and approached Lucia, who was breathing heavily, her entire body melting.

I had used the acquired Holy Catalyst more than three times, so the event conditions were met. In truth, there was no reward for proceeding, but it wasn’t an event I was doing for compensation anyway.

As if it heard my footsteps, its head, which had begun to melt and become gooey, laboriously turned towards me. It wouldn’t even be able to see properly due to the black liquid, yet it strangely aimed perfectly in my direction.

“……Is someone, by my side?”

Its lips parted.