Once she severed the chains bounding the dark altar, ominous black smog began pouring out of the altar from all sides.
Maria quickly jumped back and when she noticed her HP falling by the second when she came into contact with the black smog.
"Be careful of the smog! It deals damage if you're caught in it!"
"Yes, Mistress!"
"Noted, Master!"
Maria's two companions responded.
The black smog continued to pour into the surroundings until everything inside the small space they were in was thoroughly permeated with it except for a small area around the altar.
"It looks like we can't run away from this battle," Maria mumbled as she nervously gripped her Calamity.
It didn't take long before the smog started forming the silhouette of a person on top of the altar. It slowly began to congeal and the smog solidified into a gray-skinned human-like monster. It didn't have any lips and Maria could see the gums and sharp teeth of the monster that's standing in front of her.
It had wings bound by black chains and there were bandages wrapped around its eyes. Its arms were also crossed on top of its chest and were restrained by tightly bound black leather wraps. The long claws that were attached to its abnormally large hands were also frightening.
Then there were its legs. Luckily for Maria and her party, its legs were also bound by the black leather wraps and chains. On the monster that Maria assumed to be a demon, there were all sorts of cryptic and demon-like tattoos decorating its body.
After carefully observing the demon for a bit more, Maria finally noticed that the source of the black smog was coming from the demon's hands. There was some sort of hollowed-out cavity on its palms that was constantly leaking out the black smog. Maria was immensely repulsed by the ominous-looking demon and how grotesque it looked.
She shifted her steps a little and immediately, the demon quickly turned its body to face her. It opened its mouth and the corners of its mouth rose a little in what Maria assumed to be a smile. The demon didn't have lips since it seemed like they were cut out so she couldn't tell. However, the sudden movement immediately caused Maria to freeze in place and chills began running up and down her spine when she noticed that the demon was seemingly 'looking' at her.
"Rahahaha, I smell your fear..." the demon said in a baritone, raspy voice.
The demon's voice was grinding to Maria's ears and she couldn't help but grimace.
"Hey, you disgusting thing, keep your damned mouth shut!"
"D-Disgusting?!" The demon cried out in alarm.
"Hey! Didn't I tell you to keep your mouth shut?!"
"Why you insignificant little worm!!!" The demon roared out.
To Maria's surprise, the roar actually chipped away a little bit of her health! She readied her weapon and poised to attack but she was a little scared of approaching the repulsing monster when she saw the black chains binding it levitating around the demon protectively.
"My Mistress, allow me!" Ash said before sending one of his vampiric spells at the monster.
He conjured a [Blood Lance] and flung it at the monster. The chains surrounding the monster immediately started moving to defend it and the [Blood Lance] was repelled by the numerous chains that formed a shield in front of the demon.
"Fools, you dare break my seal! Get ready to perish!"
Maria grimaced at the demon's voice but she quickly changed her ax into a scythe and sent a [Calamity Cleave] at the monster. She didn't hold back and immediately used all 3 of her slashes but she flew around and sent them at the monster at 3 different angles.
"Take that!"
"Meaningless!"
The chains unbound from each other and began forming 3 separate shields and blocked all 3 of Maria's slashes. Before Maria could continue attacking, she had to quickly dodge away when she noticed the chains rushing towards her in an attempt to bind her up.
Lilah had already cast her [Faerie Fire] and [Faerie Spark] on the demon but for now, it was useless since no attacks had managed to connect onto the demon. She could only fly into Maria's clothes and send normal attacks at the chains in an attempt to divert them away from her Master.
Her small actions staved off a little bit of the pressure surmounting onto Maria. Ash was also having a little bit of a hard time. He was moving around and dodging the numerous chains attacking him.
However, he was constantly sending attacks at the demon whenever he had the chance.
"[Inspect]!"
Name: Greed Level: ?? Rank: Unique Boss HP: ?????/?????
MP: ?????/?????
SP: ?????/????? ??? ??? Description: A legendary devil sealed away in Death's domain. No being should ever think about releasing this creature from its seal. Only the foolish and ignorant would attempt to even fight this devil which personifies the greed of the universe
"C-crap, I guess I was being foolish and ignorant..."
"M-Master...this might be bad for us..."
"I-I know! I can't even see that thing's level and stats... It has to be 20 or more levels above mine..."
"What should we do, Master?" Lilah urgently asked as she sent her attacks on the chains that were approaching them.
Maria began using her [Angel's Rage] to repel the chains attacking her and she sent a [Gehenna's Eye] at the devil Greed and was able to inflict a bit of damage on the monster. The black flames of [Gehenna's Eye] immediately startled Greed and he turned his body to face Maria after quickly extinguishing the flames burning his body.
"Th-that eye! You have that Eye!"
"So what, you disgusting bastard? Why not have a little bit more [Fire]!"
She sent flung a [Fire] and [Smite] at Greed before quickly chanting the incantation for [Ruin]. After sending a [Ruin], she continued with a [Terra Lance] and an [Earth Shock].
Maria didn't only send her [Angel's Rage] to defend against the black chains attacking her, but she also sent some to attack Greed's body. It was a little infuriating to see many of her attacks blocked by the chains but she knew that her attacks were slowly chipping away at the devil's HP.
The HP bar above Greed's head was slowly but surely dropping as time passed, but the worrying thing was whether or not her HP and MP would last until Greed perished. Ash was also another cause for concern since he was using his HP to power his spells and skills.
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He would occasionally drift over next to Maria and suck away at her blood to fill his, but this only lowered Maria's HP in return. She did use her potions to compensate for this loss of HP however, the fight was dragging on for so long and Maria was growing tired of hearing Greed's ear-piercing voice.
In a moment of negligence, she was suddenly struck by one of the chains which resulted in her losing some HP but the worst part about it was that the pain limiter didn't apply to Greed's attacks.
Maria had to experience the full brunt of the attack and she couldn't help but scream out in pain when she was struck in the abdomen.
To her surprise, Greed also began screaming out in agony after she had screamed out. She also noticed that some sort of sonic wave came out of her mouth and struck Greed's disgusting head.
"Lilah, Ash, defend me! I need to see something!" Maria ordered.
She opened up her [Log] and noticed the long stream of messages that she had neglected to listen to or look at. She noticed that a good number of her skills had leveled up and she herself had leveled up 5 times.
"Oh! So this is why!"
The origin of the sonic wave that came out of her mouth was actually because of a skill that she had acquired just recently.
Skill Name: Scream of Pain and Agony Level: 1 P. EXP: 0/5,000 Rank: B Scream of Pain (Active)
Description: Let loose a terrifying scream that damages enemies within a 5-meter radius around the caster. Deals 500+(INT x 0.5) M.DMG with a 50% chance to inflict [Fear] or [Silence] for 5 seconds. If Scream of Pain is on cooldown and the caster is attacked, activates Scream of Agony
Cooldown 60 seconds
MP Cost: 5,000 MP
Scream of Agony (Passive)
Description: Releases a piercing cry which reflects 50% of damage received to enemies that are within a 5-meter radius around the caster.
Cooldown: 12 seconds.
MP Cost: 5000 MP
"Did I get this after screaming over and over again at the Wraiths and Ghosts?" Maria cocked her head in confusion.
"Ah, who cares? As long as I've got a new skill, all is well!"
Maria quickly rejoined the battle and made good use of the new skill she had just acquired. All she had to do was get within 5 meters of Greed or let herself be attacked by the chains before activating the skill.
As the battle dragged on, Maria soon began to notice that the pacing and tempo were slowly but surely rising. It was to the point where she had to fully concentrate to continuously chain her skills and spells without missing a beat.
If she became distracted and messed up even a little bit, Maria would without a doubt be struck by Greed's numerous black chains.
[Fire] spells, [Terra Lance] spells, [Ruin] spells, [Calamity Cleave], and Maria's black feathers from her [Angel's Rage] skill constantly struck Greed's body or his chains. She would sometimes let a chain strike her and rebound the attack back onto Greed with her [Scream of Pain] skill and luckily for her, Ash's [Vampiric Aura] compensated all of her lost HP.
When Greed's HP dropped to below 50 percent, Maria didn't know how much time had passed by. However, a change had finally appeared on Greed. The numerous black chains began breaking apart one by one and it started howling in excitement.
"HAHAHA FOOLISH MORTAL, YOU'VE FREED ME OF MY BINDINGS!"
Just like Greed said, Maria's attacks were constantly breaking apart his chains and the leather bindings on its arms and legs were also loosened. Soon, Greed broke free all his bindings and it crouched down on the altar.
Maria, Ash, and Lilah didn't stop attacking it, but with a sweep of the monster's hand, a black wind kicked up and numerous wind blades flew straight at her party, dispelling and diverting most of their skills and spells.
The black wind blades continued flying straight towards Maria and her companions. She quickly cast an [M. Barrier] and countered with her own [Calamity Cleave]. Ash also used up a bit of his HP to cast a [Blood Wave].
Their combined attacks immediately blew away Greed's wind blades and continued flying towards the monster's body. He took a direct hit against Maria and Ash's attacks and started howling piercingly in pain.
"Damn this stupid demon, my ears hurt!"
"It's just a little bit more, Mistress, hang on!" Ash calmly said while he covered his Mistress' ears.
"Hey! Mine too Ash!" Lilah said.
"Just hide in Mistress' robes until the demon stops howling."
Maria found it quite odd that Greed had continued to howl even after some time had passed. She noticed something else, the monster's HP had only declined by a percent or two after being struck by their combined attack so it couldn't have hurt that much.
"What the hell? Is this thing just a sissy? That should hardly hurt for him—eh?"
Greed's howl began causing the cavern they were in the rumble and the ceiling began collapsing onto Maria and her party. She struck out with her Calamity and cleaved away all the debris falling on her.
When Greed stopped howling, Maria soon noticed a small hole in the ceiling where Greed was standing under.
"Oh no, it's just trying to get out!"
"Rahaha, it's too late, little girl!"
Greed opened up his wings and immediately shot up into the air. It flew into the hole and continued upwards. Maria quickly followed him through the hole with Ash following closely behind her. Greed wasn't too far ahead of her and when the monster noticed the two pursuers, it smirked and began clawing the sides of the hole as it flew up.
"Stupid demon, play fair!" Maria shouted.
The hole began collapsing ahead of them due to Greed's claws. Maria could only slash away at the debris to open up a path forward but it was hindering their flight speed.
Ash quickly shot forward and grabbed onto Maria.
"Pervert! What are you doing?! This isn't the time to be playing games!"
"Let me handle this, Mistress," Ash solemnly said. He raised a hand forward and shot a [Red Ray] in front of him.
The skill immediately disintegrated the collapsing debris and pierced into Greed's body which caused the demon to cry out in pain.
Ash was able to strike and burn the base of Greed's wings which affected its flying speed. However, the skill used up over 50 percent of his HP and he was put into critical condition since he only had around 60 percent of his HP.
"Good work, Ash!" Maria exclaimed gleefully. She quickly grabbed Ash's collar and dragged him with her.
With her now carrying some luggage, her flight speed was naturally impacted and she slowed a little. However, Greed was in the same situation as them due to its injury. Greed was having it much harder since it was struggling to even fly stably.
"Hahaha! Take that you stupid demon! Here, I, come!"
"N-no! You little wench!"
Maria quickly closed in on Greed and slashed upwards with her Calamity. She had changed her weapon into the ax form and her blow directly struck Greed's body.
"Damn you, girl!!!"
"Hahahaha, take this, this, and this!!!"
Maria continued to happily swing her ax at Greed. The monster tried to fly back to defend against Maria's blows with its claws, but this only served to slow it down even further. Maria smirked when her objective was reached and she quickly shouted at Ash.
"Hey, pervert! Hurry up and take my blood and help me out! Lilah, continue stacking your debuffs on him and attack!"
"Yes, Master!" Lilah responded and began casting her debuffs onto Greed while sending her normal attacks at him.
Ash was still feeling a little feeble but he quickly responded, "R-right away, Mistress..."
"Hey, idiot, better watch what you're touching! I'll kick you down if you do something inappropriate!"
Ash nodded and carefully clung onto Maria before he quickly bit down on her neck. After taking a bit of her HP, Ash was about to let go, but Maria quickly said, "Fill it up you fool! I've got potions so hurry up!"
Maria chugged down a high-grade potion that she just got from within the dungeon and her HP bar quickly filled up after being drained by Ash. She turned her attention back onto Greed and continued slashing away at him and sending skills and spells at him.
Once Ash's HP bar was filled up he quickly let go and started flying on his own. From behind Maria, Ash started sending his skills and spells at Greed. However, it was only his low and mid-ranked skills. He didn't dare use a high-ranked skill like [Blood Wave] or [Red Ray] since it'll put him in a position that'll only turn him into a burden for his Mistress in their current situation.
Maria had used up quite a bit of her potions but she didn't particularly care since she only 'picked' them up off the 'ground' in the dungeon. They didn't cost her any money so they were dispensable.
She couldn't help but frown when she felt the lingering pain in her neck. However, she refocused herself and continued striking at Greed. The monster however had soon recovered from its injuries and began flying normally again.
Due to its momentary loss of speed, Maria was already right behind it and was only a few centimeters away from her striking range but she didn't dare try to attack. If she missed, then it'll only open up the distance between her and the monster.
Now, even if Greed tried to strike the walls around them, it wouldn't affect her or Ash anymore.
"Tsk, it looks like we can only take this fight outside...but...those bone dragons and flying skeletons..."
Maria grew worried when she remembered those colossal flying skeleton monsters.
"Maybe we can try pulling him back into the dungeon..." Maria mumbled. However, this notion was immediately debunked by Ash who called out to her.
"Mistress! We have to move faster!"
"Huh?"
Maria looked down and saw the black smog that was previously surrounding the room they were in now chasing after them from below.
"Ah, crap!"
It didn't take long before Maria, Ash, and Greed flew out of the dungeon. Maria was amazed that Greed's long howl was able to form a sonic wave that crushed through the thick layer of earth and stones that formed the dungeon. It had reached all the way outside.
Once in the air, Greed began chuckling and started laughing madly.
"I'm free! I'M FINALLY FREEEEEE!!!"
"Oh no, you're not! You're finally going to become a dead body now!"