Before kururin, the grotesque abomination stood, the air thickened with the cloying stench of mortification, a miasma of rot and damp earth.
The abomination writhed, a grotesque parody of life, its joints snapping and grinding like shattered bone.
The brass revolver's slugs had torn through its putrid flesh, leaving ragged, oozing wounds, yet it still moved, a macabre testament to its unnatural resilience.
Its fingernails, black and elongated, scraped against the stone floor, leaving trails of viscous, fluid. The skin, stretched taut over decaying muscle, was a sickly, mottled gray, like the underside of a tombstone.
But it was the back that truly chilled kururin's blood. A gaping maw of a scar, a canyon of torn flesh and exposed, blackened bone, dominated its form.
It wasn't a wound, it was the, severed wrist of a colossal being, a limb detached from something impossibly vast. Its sheer mass, a grotesque mountain of decaying flesh, dwarfed kururin, nearly doubling her own size.
Seizing the moment while the abomination was momentarily distracted, kururin swiftly reloaded her brass revolver, leveling it with practiced precision. Her finger squeezed the trigger.
Bang!
But the creature moved.
As if it could read her mind, the severed hand twitched, reacting with impossible speed. Despite its hulking form, it twisted unnaturally, dodging the bullet by the barest margin.
Its grotesque, spasmodic movements sent an involuntary shudder through kururin's spine.
"What!?"
kururin was stunned, she has landed her shots before, how come it can dodge bullets now!?
"Focus! Don't let it get close!"
Hearing the Cillian's shout snapped kururin back to reality, she raised her revolver and aimed... but the monster was nowhere in sight.
"Above!"
Her gaze snapped upward just in time to see the monstrous hand coiling, preparing to lunge.
Adrenaline surged through her veins as she threw herself into a desperate barrel roll, narrowly avoiding the giant palm that crashed down where she had stood moments before.
The impact sent dust and debris spiraling into the air, shrouding the battlefield in a dense fog.
"He's stunned, shoot now!"
With the man's signal kururin aimed and shot it until she ran out of ammo, successfully dealing damage to it, once again the finger writhes and kururin took that time to reload her revolver.
She had recognized the pattern now! After reloading, the hand once again stood up and crawled to the ceiling.
She just have to stand her ground and let the nebulous man prepare, she can handle that much atleast!
The fight continues for a little bit more until the atmosphere suddenly changed, she have dealt sufficient damage to the abomination, now its time for its second phase.
kururin braced herself, however this time the creature just went past her, seeing this kururin immediately panicked and looked back.
"My Lord!"
"Duck!"
swish! boom!
The hand lunged, a massive shadow bearing down upon him, its grotesque fingers outstretched to crush him beneath their weight.
But before it could reach him, the runic etchings on the ground flared to life. In the span of a heartbeat, the swirling dust thickened, filling every crevice of the enclosed space.
A fraction of a second later, a single, well-placed spark ignited the suspended particles.
The chamber erupted.
A deafening blast tore through the ruins, the sudden combustion transforming the very air into a concussive force that hurled debris in all directions.
The ground trembled violently, ancient stone groaning under the strain. Distant crashes echoed through unseen corridors, signaling structural failures elsewhere in the ruins.
Yet, despite the destruction, the ritual room held strong, its foundation reinforced by centuries of meticulous craftsmanship. It would not fall so easily.
After the ringing of kururin's ears weaken a bit, seeing her hp critically low, she stood up, looking for the man, what she found however was the abomination twitching on the ground.
Its whole body burned badly, with some of the pitch black bones even getting exposed in some parts, the creature however is not dead.
The creature was oriented in a way that makes it impossible for it to stand up, like a turtle upside down, the palm of the creature is now exposed.
Now mangled and burned, the palm revealed something interesting in the middle, it was a crown, the exact same one that the king from the murals wore.
kururin guessed that it's the artifact that the man was looking for. Taking out her revolver she aimed and shot the hand several times until it's miserable life ended.
------
Infected Abomination Felled.
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
------
Seeing the interface before her, she grinned and looked around.
With smoke still covering most of the room, she called out.
"Are you alive?"
"I am."
Cillian's whole body was in pain, he had protected himself from the blast but the recoil from it sent his body all the way to the rubble of the altar, the jagged rocks hitting his level one body from the back.
He can only arch his back in pain, in doing so however, he noticed something, on the forgotten god's statues hands lay a locket, reaching out his hand he took it and inspected it using the interface.
------
Unknown Locket - Consumable
Despite being thousands of years old, this locket still appears new, winding it up reveals a man with without a head spinning slowly, there seems to be a melody that plays with it but it has long since disappeared with time.
Consuming this mystical item will grant you the authority of Resonance.
------
Cillian's eyes widened.
This is insane!!
Cillian was thrilled, he had never heard of this item in the past, It was completely unknown, an undocumented divine relic.
Divine relics are item that embodies an authority, using it, one can bestow authorities to anyone, its basically a starting point to divinity.
It's also how organizations like the hunter's guild give authorities to individuals despite having no patron god at all.
This would accelerate my plans a lot..
He originally aimed for the authority of intent from the crown but since he can only handle a single authority at his current level, and he didn't necessarily need the intent authority, it should be fine to let kururin handle it.
It'll be an investment for my future..
As the smoke dissipates, Cillian went to fetch kururin.