A ruler obsessed with bathing in blood who was ultimately burned to death—the woman recorded here couldn't be the Countess, could she?
"Everyone, be careful. Check for secret rooms; there's definitely something fishy here." Based on his extensive experience reading books, Leo knew there had to be good loot here. He just didn't know if he needed to light a candle—but then again, there was probably no need, as he hadn't seen any coffins.
Every profession has its specialty. Soon, Majesty discovered a clue: there were scratches at the junction of a floor tile near the wall. Using a knife to pry it open, she revealed a lever underneath.
Without a word, Max eagerly walked over to Majesty's side, pulling the lever with all his might. Unfortunately, his pale face turned red as Lord Guan, and yet it didn't budge. Max wasn't ready to give up and wanted to keep pulling, but Majesty had already lost her patience; she kicked him aside and gave it a light stomp. A series of mechanical clacks rang out.
The blank stone wall slowly descended, and red light seeped through the cracks. After waiting a moment for their eyes to adjust, they finally saw the situation inside.
A magic circle emitted a grey-white light, suppressing a red stone in the center. The patterns on the stone nearly blinded Leo's eyes—it was absolutely the No. 28 Rune, Lo!
As long as one had a Lo, a man could have a face full of Fortitude, or a woman could have a face full of Grief.
"Prepare for battle! We might have run into a big one this time."
Leo signaled the Shadow Warrior to go up and take the Lo. Although Majesty felt the rune was somewhat dangerous, the Shadow Warrior was merely her summon, so she figured there would be no problem and commanded her to take it. Unexpectedly, the magic circle on the ground had no reaction to the Shadow Warrior's intrusion; she took the Lo quite easily.
The moment the Lo was removed from the magic circle, it emitted a piercing red glow and transformed into red energy, rapidly enveloping Majesty's Shadow Warrior. Before the Shadow Warrior could even scream, she was swallowed whole, turning into a bloody cocoon.
The cocoon shrank rapidly, and a woman radiating red light stepped out. Her features resembled Majesty's, but her body was somewhere between a liquid and an energy form. The light claws on both her hands looked exactly like Wolverine's. This turn of events was so sudden that the group had no time to react; the Skeletons were swiped once each and "passed on" instantly.
> [Beep beep beep! Unknown monster detected. Level unknown. Physical attacks ineffective. Poison-type ineffective.]
>
"Use elemental attacks! It's somewhat like a Ghost; physical and poison types are ineffective." Leo immediately applied his buffs, switched to the Defiance aura, and stepped up to tank the monster. Fortunately, his defensive field was strong enough, and combined with his skilled blocking techniques, it was difficult for the monster to hit him.
Seeing Leo charge up, Max immediately used Amplify Damage to help break the defense. Blood-red flames appeared over the monster's head as it entered the cursed state, but unfortunately, its physical resistance was too high; even Amplify Damage couldn't break its physical immunity (Note 1).
Seeing Majesty crouching on the ground clutching her head with a contorted face, Gerdie immediately applied buffs for everyone and then skillfully pulled out her shield to protect Majesty.
Seeing that the opponent ignored physical damage, Buckle immediately swapped the damage-boosting Heart of Wolverine for the life-boosting Oak Sage. He then sprayed the enemy with Arctic Blast; a massive pillar of white icy mist hit the monster dead center, and its speed slowed down visibly to the naked eye.
Once the monster was slowed, Inceyste, who had already finished applying Enchant for her teammates, had more opportunities. She continuously teleported in for backstabs and then teleported away to dodge the monster's counterattacks.
Facing a physical-immune monster, Thales was even more powerless than Leo. She could only use Inner Sight to lower the enemy's defense and then rotated between Fire, Cold, and Magic Arrows to slowly wear it down.
Leo found it much easier to deal with the monster using Vengeance; every strike took away a small segment of its health.
Soon, the monster's health was depleted. It turned into a puddle of foul-smelling blood on the floor, and the core in the center dropped out.
The battle over, Leo immediately turned and ran to Majesty's side. His sister's Shadow Warrior had been swallowed earlier, and she hadn't participated in the fight since; his heart had been filled with extreme anxiety.
"Sister, are you okay? Your face looks terrible." Leo helped Majesty up and carefully studied her expression.
"I'm fine now, Brother. When the Shadow Warrior was being corrupted, a wave of consciousness seeped through, trying to seize control of my body. But it miscalculated; the most important thing for an Assassin is the tempering of the mind. Then it chose to seize control of the Shadow Warrior instead. Now that the monster is dead, I feel much better too."
"How old were you when I left home?" Hearing his sister say that, Leo instinctively tested her.
"I was six. More accurately, six and a half." Majesty answered quickly.
"At what age did you learn to speak?"
Majesty rolled her eyes in annoyance and walked toward the entrance hole: "Stupid Brother, go ask Mom and Dad that question."
Seeing his sister's familiar facial expressions, Leo finally felt at ease. He reached out to take the rune that Max eagerly handed over. His heart felt feverish—this Lo was premium stuff, a key rune for top-tier Rune Words like Grief and Fortitude.
> Lo: Required Level 59. Weapon: 20% Deadly Strike. Armor/Shield: +5% to Maximum Lightning Resist.
>
At the Monastery of the Sightless Eye, the land was heavily shrouded in black clouds, no longer able to enjoy the warmth of sunlight. The statues within the Cathedral had all been smashed, and the torches on the walls were lit with inextinguishable hellfire, casting flickering, dim light.
The shifting light reflected Andariel's terrifying form, though her face remained hidden in the shadows, her mood unreadable. Looking at the five kneeling figures on the floor, she spoke gloomily: "In just a dozen days, you have lost three spatial nodes in a row. All my hard work guiding your consciousnesses down to this Guardian World was wasted. Truly useless."
"Queen, is Blood Raven truly, completely dead?" A kneeling woman spoke urgently. Although her peerless beauty was not inferior to Blood Raven's, her brows were filled with hostility—clearly a person of ruthless character.
"Heh heh heh... did I give you permission to speak?" The twisted suffering of obsession that Andariel used to enjoy most now felt tasteless. She threw a ball of green poison gas directly at the kneeling woman.
The woman's eyes were filled with terror, yet her body dared not move an inch. She watched helplessly as the ball of poison gas floated toward her at an extremely slow pace.
Ten seconds later, the gas finally covered the woman's head. From beneath the gas came a tooth-grinding sizzling sound. Though the woman suffered immense agony, her body remained as rock-steady as a mountain.
Minutes later, the poison mist dissipated. Her peerless face and blue hair were completely destroyed; her appearance was now more hideous than a rotting corpse.
"Considering your soul is letting out a never-ending wail, I shall spare you this time." Andariel waved her hand as if dismissing a begging dog.
"Yes, Queen." The woman, who had always been as tough as ten-thousand-year-old ice, seemed to realize something. She became completely unable to control her body, her entire frame trembling before she slumped directly to the floor.
"Seeing you now irritates me. I'll give you a chance to please me: catch the wretches who are ruining my plans and bring them here. I want to deal with them personally. Now, get out."
A streak of green smoke flew toward the slumped woman, transforming into an emerald-green gemstone that dropped before her.
"This gem contains my curse upon those maggots. It will guide you to find them." Andariel toyed with her fingers, speaking with feigned nonchalance.
The woman picked up the gem and retreated while crawling. Only after leaving the Cathedral did she stand up.
> (Note 1: Physical resistance of Diablo monsters can exceed 100%. Once it exceeds 100, it becomes Physical Immunity. At this point, skills like Amplify Damage can be used to break the immunity. However, monsters that are already physical-immune are resistant to such skills, and these skills only function at one-fifth effectiveness.)
>
The overbearing Queen Andariel has finally appeared. I hope you all like it.