Jack maintained his distance. Circling the creature. His shotgun discharged in rhythmic bursts.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Each shot tore away more of the monster. Shredding its form with holy judgement. The chamber was soon filled with the stench of burning decay. The monster was immense. But it was being systematically dismantled.
Reina, meanwhile, was also relentless. She darted in and out of the monster's reach. Her short-distance teleportation making her an extremely hard target to hit.
She would appear. Unleash a volley of Holy Bullets into a vulnerable joint. Or a particular part of its strange body. Then vanish before the monster could even orient itself.
Her fog control created swirling screens. Denying the monster clear lines of attack. Leaving it to thrash blindly. She moved with an almost balletic grace. Her dual handguns spitting holy destruction.
One of the monster's club-like arms swung wildly. Destroying a section of the cavern wall. But Reina was already gone. Reappearing on the other side of the collapsing debris.
She didn't waste a moment. Immediately lobbing her own Holy Grenade. It soared through the air. A glowing projectile of doom.
It struck the monster's shoulder. A nexus of skeletal and fleshy limbs.
KABOOM!
The explosion engulfed that entire section. The already damaged monster's arm tore loose from its body. Crashing to the ground in a foul-smelling heap.
The fight was a brutal, one-sided affair. Jack and Reina were armed with their holy munitions, the only thing that could hurt the creature. They were systematically dismantling the horror.
The creature, for all its size and initial immunity, was helpless against the targeted holy damage. It was too slow. Too unwieldy. And its special attacks were negated.
It was reduced to a roaring, thrashing mess. Its movements became more desperate. Its screams turned increasingly high-pitched and despairing.
Jack emptied another round into its chest. Reducing a gaping maw of bone and teeth to glowing ash. Reina teleported behind its back. Firing her handguns into its spine with merciless efficiency. The holy energy ripping through its back.
The Undead Legion Monster was once a terrifying fusion of death. It was now just little more than a collapsing, smoking ruin.
Its mass had shrunk significantly. No longer a mountain but a large, writhing pile. Gaps of empty space riddled its form. Many were still glowing faintly from the holy energy.
It shrieked. A final, despairing cry as it began to truly unravel.
"Time for the finisher." Jack said. Pulling out his last Holy Grenade.
He flicked the pin and tossed it underhand towards the monster. Now almost completely crippled. Reina had already expended her grenades. She simply shifted positions. Watching. Ready to offer support if needed.
The grenade landed precisely in the center of the monster's remaining mass. There was a moment of eerie silence. Then, a final, colossal KABOOM erupted.
This was no ordinary explosion. It was a cleansing fire. A purifying light that surged through the chamber.
The Undead Legion Monster, what little remained of it, simply disintegrated. Not even into pieces anymore. But into nothingness. The light consumed all. Leaving behind only the faintest scent of burnt decay. And the lingering afterglow of divine energy.
Silence descended upon the chamber. Broken only by the slight hiss of residual magical energy and the faint. Flute music still playing from Reina's headset.
Jack lowered his shotgun. Exhaling slowly. He looked at Reina who had turned off and removed her headset. Her face was illuminated by the lingering holy light.
"That..." He stated in flat voice. "... was surprisingly quick."
Reina smiled. Stepping closer to Jack. "Only because you prepared so thoroughly, Dear."
Jack grinned. "True. Having Eyes of Judgement was truly convenient. Come on, Love! Let's check this place for valuable loots."
"Valuable loots?" She prompted. "What are we looking for in a place made of dead people, Dear?"
Jack shrugged. "Could be anything. This place is not exactly natural. And the monster... I don't think it naturally appeared here."
He moved methodically. Searching over the scorched earth where the Undead Legion Monster had once stood. His gaze, already activating his [Eyes of Judgement], pierced through the dust and shadow. Searching for any anomaly.
Reina followed. Her steps were light. Her own eyes were scanning with trained precision. The air still carried a faint, cloying scent of decay. Even after the divine incineration.
Near what appeared to be the furthest wall, Jack's [Eyes of Judgement] picked up a faint, corrupted aura. It wasn't strong. But it was distinct.
He moved closer. Motioning for Reina to wait.
He cleared the debris. Beneath the rubble, nestled in a small, unsettlingly clean alcove, sat a small statue. It was no larger than his palm. Intricately carved from what appeared to be dark green jade.
The figure depicted by the statue was undeniably disturbing. A skeletal demon. Hunched yet regal. Wearing a miniature crown upon its bony head. And a flowing, caped mantle draped over its all-bone shoulders. Its empty eye sockets seemed to bore into him.
Jack reached out. His fingers hovered just above the cold jade. A name clicked into place in his vast, accumulated knowledge.
"Well, well, well..." He murmured. His voice was infused with a grim recognition. "Look what we have here. The Sacred Immortal."
Reina stepped forward. Her brow furrowed as she eyed the unsettling idol. "The… what?"
"The patron deity of the Undeath Sect." Jack explained. His gaze was fixed on the statue. "Or rather, their idol. Their broken god."
He had read about them. The Undeath Sect was one of the continent's older and more insidious cults. Much older compared to the other cults Jack had encountered before. Older than the Circles of Wealth. Or the Church of Purity. Or the Sacred Destination Sect.
The tendrils of the Undeath Sect reached far into the deepest, darkest corners of society. Their principles revolved around the absolute rejection of death as an end.
They viewed 'death' not as a natural cycle. But as a temporary state. A weakness to be overcome. Or a resource to be exploited.
Their ultimate goal was a twisted form of immortality. Achieved not through divine blessing. Or enlightened meditation. But through the perverse manipulation of life and death. Primarily through necromancy and soul harvesting.
Their philosophy was that true existence lay beyond the fragile bonds of the living. In a state of eternal, undeath. To them, mortals were merely vessels. Or worse, raw material.
They believed they were 'liberating' souls from the cycle of reincarnation. Binding them into their infernal constructs. Or transforming them into their own grotesque servants.
This belief justified their horrific 'crimes'. Rampant grave desecration. Abduction and mass murder of innocents for their corpses and souls. Grotesque experiments on the living to force undeath upon them. And the systematic creation of undead armies.
And the Sacred Immortal? It was the entity at the core of their depraved worship. Lore described it as the first god who forged his path through the undeath method.
Some ancient texts mentioned that it was the first complete undead. A consciousness that had transcended mortality not by ascension. But through unyielding refusal to die.
It was said to have been a powerful, ancient lich-lord. One who embraced the concept of undeath as the ultimate power.
The statue Jack held depicted its skeletal form. Skeletal because it represented the ultimate triumph over flesh. Over weakness.
Its crown and cape signified its dominion over the realm of the dead. Showing its self-proclaimed royalty in the endless slumber.
Jack's fingers finally made contact with the cold jade. As soon as he touched it, a familiar system notification appeared.
[OBJECT OF POWER DISCOVERED!]
[NOT ENOUGH POWER INTENSITY. ABSORBED AND CONDENSED INTO 6 ARTIFACT SEEDS.]
[DETECTED THE HOST POSSESSING 13 SEEDS.]
[AVAILABLE CONVERSION OF 8 SEEDS TO A PERSONAL ARTIFACT.] CHOOSE ONE:
[CIRCLET OF CONTROL]
[MONOCLE OF TRUTH]
[COMPASS OF DESIRE]
Jack blinked. Only six artifact seeds from a statue tied to an ancient evil cult? That was… surprisingly low. He'd expected more from something connected to a 'Sacred Immortal'.
Then again, it was just a statue. Not the actual entity. Still, it actually triggered a new personal artifact creation. It wasn't that long ago that he acquired a personal artifact. The one that now turned into his Lightning Hoverbike.
Jack looked at the choices. He knew the drill. No descriptions. Just the name. He had to guess. Each name hung in his vision. An inviting promise wrapped in frustrating ambiguity.
Circlet of Control... What exactly did "control" imply? Did wearing it grant him control over others? Or did it enforce control over the wearer?
The former sounded dangerously close to mind manipulation. And the latter would be less useful.
His mind immediately went to the Chinese classic. Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. The golden circlet around his head would tighten painfully. Controlling him. When a certain chant was spoken. Was that it? A circlet that controlled the wearer if activated by someone else?
Or was it one that allowed him to control others. Like some sort of mind-control device? The implications swung wildly. It could be incredibly powerful. But also incredibly risky. Depending on the actual mechanics.
Monocle of Truth... This one felt almost redundant on the surface. He already possessed [Eyes of Judgement]. An ability that allowed him to appraise objects, beings, and situations. Revealing their true nature, alignment, and weaknesses.
What more 'truth' could a monocle reveal? Would it show hidden motives? Unseen weaknesses beyond what his eyes already saw? Glimpses of the past or future?
Or perhaps it was something more abstract. Like revealing the 'truth' of a lie? Or the underlying reality behind a deception?
If it was merely an appraisal tool like [Eyes of Judgement], it seemed a waste of eight precious seeds.
It seemed pointless. Unless it revealed 'truths' that even [Eyes of Judgement] couldn't perceive. Cosmic truths, perhaps. Or metaphysical realities. That would be a different case.
Compass of Desire... This was arguably the most intriguing. Yet also the most unpredictable.
His mind, of course, leapt to Captain Jack Sparrow's iconic compass from Pirates of the Caribbean. A compass that didn't point north. But to what the holder most desired.
That kind of artifact could be incredibly versatile. Imagine, a compass that points him to the most guilty individual in a city. Or the location of a hidden treasure. Or even an answer to a complex problem.
That would be cool if the desire here was the controllable desire like those examples. But if it was the deepest desire that he didn't realize? That would be much more troublesome.
Could he consciously influence what it pointed to, or was it an uncontrollable force? That was the main problem.
He stood there. The jade statue was still in his hand. The three choices shimmering in his internal vision.
Each offered a distinct path. A different utility. He needed to choose carefully.