Chilly frowned at the door in annoyance. His master plan of ripping as many barriers off of the walls as possible and bringing them into the boss room had hit a snag. For some annoying reason that he hadn’t noticed previously, the plasma tendrils of Starfire Aegis were reaching out to the wooden door and igniting it.

Chilly took a step forwards and watched in bemusement as fire extended from his cape and began to burn into the wooden door's diminutive lifepool. Really, he was doubting the benefit of bringing the door into the boss room in the first place. It only had 407 life which was barely two thirds of his own significant life pool.

That gap in durability was only made worse by the doors lack of significant regeneration. After watching it carefully, he had deduced that the door was recovering roughly ten percent of its max life per second. Give or take. That sounded high, and probably made it pretty tough for most enemies, but realistically that was only 40 life per second.

40 life per second.

Compared to his 127.

“What the heck man,” Chilly complained to a nearby penguin as he took a step back and watched the door's regeneration kick in once more. The door’s life recovered, certainly. But it just felt paltry compared to his own absurd regeneration.

The penguin seemed mortally offended by proxy and stomped over to the door and stabbed it with Realm Walker. It didn’t do anything, but Chilly appreciated the thought. The penguin turned to him and pointed at him with Realm Walker.

“Thanks for the chapter!” It said, almost proudly. “Even in a land controlled by order, the power of fate guides you to fulfill a great story”

“Fate?” Chilly cocked his head. “Are you saying I won’t be able to use the doors for this fight?”

Mossr the penguin shrugged its diminutive shoulders then vanished in a puff of smoke.

Chilly frowned. It was a little cheese to bring the doors into the fight. Still, this wasn’t really on the same scale of a game. If he died...well. He didn’t really want to figure out what that would result in. Whatever the penguin said, it was still prudent to check all options before he gave up. Regardless of how unlikely those options were.

Chilly grabbed his cape and swished it around. The flames only hurt things that could be hurt. Basically, it burned the moss, and the Putrid Ghouls. But no streamers extended towards the walls, or attacked other inanimate objects in his vicinity. Likewise, items didn’t seem to get targeted by the indiscriminate skill even though Chilly was convinced that they had life bars, even if those bars weren’t visible.

Chilly had kept a good distance from the Ghost of the Shrine for this very reason. He was under no illusions that Starfire Aegis would reach out and try to burn the ghost. How the ghost would react to an overt attack was anyone’s guess, and despite Chilly’s standing policy that learning as much as possible. This particular tidbit of knowledge he was willing to let lie for now.

It all came down to what the skill considered an enemy. Somehow it recognized dead bodies as enemies if Chilly wished it to be so, but was resistant to labeling the door as an ally through the very same process. A frustrating revelation only exacerbated by his utter inability to turn the skill off. No matter how he poked and prodded at the interface, Starfire Aegis refused to not use his excess life regeneration to power the augment.

Really, the only way he could think of stopping the damage aura was by using an essence of regret to unspec the augment. That felt deeply wasteful, so Chilly tabled the thought as he considered how to remedy the situation.

In video games, allies were always other party members. Perhaps something similar was present in this world.

“Join my party!” Chilly called to the door.

Chilly raised a brow at the notification. That was telling. He curiously poked at the notification, trying to get it to reveal why the door wouldn’t join his party but gave up after a couple of tries. Obviously, parties existed in this world. Or at the very least they existed in the dungeon. As to what were the restrictions of parties it was still a mystery. Despite the failure with the wooden door, Chilly tried to get the trapdoor to the Annex to join his party with similar results.

He considered the doors as he watched the streamers of plasma lick delicately across the wood. They weren’t really all that tough. He would be able to take much more abuse than either of the doors by an order of magnitude. Honestly, taking the doors into the bossfight would be more of a liability then a benefit. The trapdoor at least he could strap to his arm and carry easily. The large door on the other hand...

Chilly turned away from the door as it crumbled to ashes.

Whatever. He would take on the boss by himself. Worst case he would run if things turned hairy.

Chilly made his way through the dark hallways of the Mausoleum, enjoying the shifting shadows that Starfire Aegis cast on the walls as he made his way over to the boss room. As soon as he approached the Banded Iron Door blocking the path into the Holy Sanctum he noticed Starfire Aegis flare. Little streamers of superheated plasma floated over to the heavy door and began charring the reinforced wood. Chilly considered for a second then began channeling Incinerate to help it along. Getting rid of the door reduced the chances that he would get randomly trapped inside the room if it shut during the boss fight.

As the old saying went. If it wasn’t with you, it was against you.

As he was cooking the door, he heard a nervous patter of soft penguin feet behind him.

Chilly was about to call out with a hello, but paused as it seemed the penguin was busily muttering to itself. Its flippers nervously clasped Realm Walker as it waddled forwards. Curiously, there was a faint, but unmistakable, purple hat on the penguin's head.

“Tables... tables everywhere.” NickXenix muttered darkly. Its eyes flickering to the edges of the room with barely restrained mania. “Burn the tables...”

Chilly hesitantly raised his hand to ask if the penguin was ok, when the penguin slipped off the edge of the walkway and tumbled into the dark abyss. Chilly jerked forwards, then frowned as he watched the little blue speck tumble into stygian darkness.

NickXenix would probably be fine, it was a penguin after all. It was just...It wasn’t healthy to focus so much on a task. Tables were evil. They had all agreed on it, and they would destroy all tables together. But that was a long term goal that they would achieve in their own time. Really, the biggest worry was not ruining their own happiness as they pursued the power necessary to complete the task.

Chilly made a note to confront NickXenix next time. Friends looked out for friends' mental health.

He was pulled out of his musings as the Banded Iron Door turned to ash behind him, the tumbling ash drawing his attention back to the task at hand. He looked past the yawning opening and observed the Holy Sanctum and the level 7 Priest of Purity in all their glory.

Chilly scanned the large expanse. He noticed that there were many places where the floor had fallen into the void underneath. Presumably the same void as that of the Undead Parish, but he had no way of confirming. The abyssal depths refuted his meager attempts to light it up. Regardless, they would be problematic for navigating the space. It would be easy to get trapped against a corner, with holes on either side. A cursory inspection of the room revealed several places where such a catastrophe could occur. Chilly made sure to remember to stay away from those corners.

As he had observed before, there were four large stone pillars in the room. If the Priest had a projectile attack, then he could use the pillars as cover. Unfortunately the pillars were not protected from the ruination of the floor. If he wanted to hug the pillars then only one of the large pillars would be ideal. All the others had too many cracks in the floor to be safe.

There didn’t seem to be any other strategic assets in the room that Chilly could exploit, so he turned back to the Undead Parish and the glowing Resistance Shrine sitting in the center. It would provide him a large boost in defense during the beginning parts of the fight. He didn’t know how tough the boss would be but if it didn’t take too long there was a chance that he would have increased resistances for the entire duration of the fight. That would be ideal honestly.

Chilly hyped himself up as he stood beside the Resistance Shrine. The path leading to the boss was winding, and he would lose precious seconds getting there. Still it would be worth it.

Suddenly a penguin appeared between him and the Resistance Shrine.

“Oh! Hi.” Chilly deflated. He was all hyped up, and the sudden appearance of the penguin had kind of pulled the wind from his sails.

“I do believe that essentially the riddle might be of the essence.” The penguin declared proudly.

Chilly blinked uncomprehendingly. “You mean the boss is a riddle?”

“Alea iacta est!” It cried, then vanished in a puff of smoke.

“Alea...Man, I still don’t know what this guy is saying.” Chilly shook his head in chagrin. “I need a translator.”

Still, the comprehensible part of what the penguin had said would be good to keep in mind. The boss might not be a straight up goomba match, and more a series of actions that he would need to take in the right orders to complete. In other words a riddle. Enough stalling though. It was time.

Without further ado, Chilly touched the surface of the Shrine.

Yes.

Go!

Chilly raced across the space as he watched the little icon in the corner of his vision tick down.

Spoiler :

The steadily ticking numbers only egged him on, and he put on a burst of speed as he sprinted towards the boss room.

Chilly didn’t bother glancing at the timer on the resistance shrine. He rushed down the steps and leapt over a crack into the abyss as he observed the Priest of Purity.

Like a doll waking from a long sleep, the undead skeleton began to jerkily move its limbs. First it raised a hand to its face and twisted it to and fro. Curiously marveling at the beauty inherent to simple acts of movement. Then the ghostly flames in its eyes brightened and it turned towards Chilly.

“Is that? Yes. Die heretic!” A resonating voice emerged from the skeleton’s open jaws. It called upon some blue magic that poured out of its open mouth, condensing and coalescing into three blue crystals. The crystals shuddered then rose into the air. Slowly floating around the skeleton’s head, like a crown.

Chilly frowned at the sentence. This was the first monster that spoke to him. Luckily Chilly didn’t feel any compulsion to speak with an entity whose first words to him were telling him to die.

“The impure always run!” The Priest of Purity said with a hint of smugness in its gravelly voice. It raised a bony hand to the sky as a beam of dark light fell from the sky and illuminated Chilly’s form.

>

Spoiler :

Chilly watched his lifebar but that black light had not done any damage. He continued to sprint towards the priest, hopping over a gap in the ground, then paused when the little streamers of superheated plasma erupted from his cape. Chilly raised both shields up high, and channeled a ray of fire at the skeleton.

The streamers of plasma coupled with the ray of flame raced towards the skeleton. They did not mix despite their similar alignment, and flowed over and around the skeleton. Steam rose from the decrepit undead, heating up the bones, and leaving behind trails of glowing embers across its frame. Despite the intensity of the attack, Chilly noticed that the heat didn’t seem to bother the skeleton as much as it would have to a similarly leveled enemy. The Priest of Purity was made of sterner stuff.

The Priest of Purity turned to Chilly with a wide skeletal grin.

“Be cleansed!” It roared.

Its hands raised and a cone of fire erupted from its open grasp. The flames flashed forwards, flowing past Incinerate's own flames as if they did not even exist. Chilly watched the wall of fire approach, and hunched his shoulders as he realized that there was no dodging this attack.

Spoiler :

He grinned as the fire barely managed to tickle his life bar. Really the intense heat was rather pleasant. A fizzy heat that reminded him of a steam sauna more than anything else.

Suddenly a pulse of white hot magic cascaded through the flames and Chilly felt their heat intensify.

Spoiler :

The cone of fire continued to intensify every second. Waves of flame flowing over and around Chilly. His armor began to glow under the heat, and his life bar began to flicker under the relentless assault. Chilly winced as the heat slowly began to overwhelm his significant regeneration. He watched his life bar carefully as he continued to channel Incinerate. The plasma of his cape swirled in delight at the superheated environment, but grew fewer and farther in between under the onslaught of damage.

Spoiler :

Chilly canceled Incinerate as the last streamers of plasma faded away into the cape. He couldn’t survive much longer directly inside the inferno. He dashed directly away, and gasped in relief as the inferno stopped unnaturally several feet back. The fires of the inferno, however, were tenacious, clinging to him like napalm and continuing to burn his life even as he saw their intensity visibly diminish.

The moment he escaped the inferno, the Priest of Purity stopped conjuring the hellish attack. In a heartbeat the cone of fire disappeared as if it was never there.

“The impure always run!” The priest of Purity roared from behind him, as another beam of black light illuminated him from above.

>

Spoiler :

Chilly turned, and dashed closer to the priest. Face tanking the cone of fire had allowed him to unleash upon the boss long enough that it would have slain a Mrawll Warden several times over. Except unlike a Mrawll Warden, the Priest of Purity looked like it hadn’t taken nearly as much damage as he had hoped. Perhaps the crystals floating around its head would hold the answer. Incinerate hadn’t done much to the crystals, but maybe a more personal introduction was necessary. They looked so damn breakable.

“Stay back!” the Priest screamed, a hint of panic in its voice, as it did something with its hands and a wave of oh so familiar purple miasma raced outwards. Chilly grinned as the wave of desecrated ground crashed like a wave against his bulwark. Pious Path flared, its glowing crucifixes glowing brightly as they dispelled the horrific ground effect.

The skeleton’s burning eyes flickered as it saw its spell get countered so easily. It took a half step back, but couldn’t escape before Chilly reached it. In a panic, the priest raised both hands high into the air and unleashed two bolts of black light that arced high into the air.

“Protect me, my children!” It cried.

Chilly spared a second to look up, but concluded that the bolts wouldn’t reach him in time. He dodged behind the skeleton as Starfire Aegis steadily ate at its health. He grabbed the skeleton’s shoulder and reached up to smack one of the blue crystals out of the air.

Instead of resisting, the crystal flew off to the side and shattered into a million tiny blue shards.

“Argh!” The priest screamed clutching its skull.

Power burbled out from the undeads flickering eye sockets and blasted outwards.

Chilly braced, but even his 40 knockback resistance couldn’t completely resist the powerful force. He stumbled back, trying to keep his feet, but failed as he was lifted into the air and thrown across the room.

Spoiler :

A jolt of fear went through him as he desperately twisted midair to try and prevent himself from falling into any of the holes in the floor. Luckily he was thrown hard enough that he sailed right over a likely culprit and rolled to a stop safely beyond.

Chilly rolled to his feet as he looked at the boss. Several developments had occurred during his flight. The first was numerous cracks spread over the skeleton’s bones, likely as a result of losing the crystal. Speaking of the crystal it had shattered completely off to the side. Instead of staying broken like a good crystal, a cyclone of invisible force had lifted up the shards growing steadily taller and more vicious every second.

The last development was that the two bolts of black energy had fallen back to earth. Where they had crashed two Putrid Ghouls rose out of a black sludge that seemed to cling tenaciously to their emaciated limbs.

Putrid Ghoul (x2)

Level: 5

Life: 231,299

Armor

Fire Resistance

Cold Resistance

Lightning Resistance

Chaos Resistance

42

16

22

20

5

“Ahh, shit.” Chilly muttered as he noticed the cyclone of spinning crystal shards start to move towards him. He ran to the nearest pillar to try and get his bearings.

“The impure always run!” The boss roared. Once more it raised a skeletal hand and a beam of black light fell from the sky and illuminated Chilly like a spotlight.

>

Spoiler :

Chilly dashed behind the pillar just as the two putrid ghouls reached him. He turned and met them face on with both Incinerate and Starfire Aegis burning with zeal.

The ghouls didn't care for the heat, but didn’t let that stop them from letting loose. Claws and teeth flashed as they tore into Chilly. Starfire Aegis flared again and again further intensifying the flames that ate through the undead’s flesh at a record pace.

Spoiler :

Despite their fervor, they were only level 5. There was not much they could do against Chilly even when he was cursed threefold with vulnerability. They crumbled into piles of ashes a couple seconds later.

“Coward!”

A bolt of force slammed into Chilly’s face

Spoiler :

His head snapped back from the whiplash. He winced, as he felt something in his neck click from the direct hit. The attack hadn’t dealt all that much damage but it hit the top of his helmet and he hadn’t braced for it at all.

The boss had moved from its initial position and rounded the pillar, allowing it to see Chilly and launch the attack. Chilly quickly glanced to the cyclone of glass shards and saw that it was a good ways away. He immediately sprinted towards the boss.

“Be cleansed!” it roared, as a wave of fire engulfed Chilly. He squinted into the inferno and struggled to see ahead. He didn’t slow his pace, as the flames couldn’t hurt him, and made it to the bosses side once again.

Spoiler :

The Priest of Purity stumbled back. A hint of panic induced rage flickering in its burning eyes.

“You are impure!” it roared as it slashed at Chilly with a darkness infested claw.

The claw caught on Chilly’s shield and barely did any damage. Starfire aegis flared, sending a vengeful streamer of superheated plasma to punish the boss for attempting to strike a blow upon Chilly. The black tendrils within the claw separated and flowed into Chilly’s body, leaving him even more vulnerable than before.

>

Spoiler :

He winced, and jumped up into the air, slapping another crystal out of its orbit.

It flew off to the side this time falling into one of the holes in the floor and vanishing from sight.

“Argh!” The priest roared, as a wave of force blasted out from his reverberating skull. This time as Chilly was launched back he distinctly heard the creature’s bones crack under the pressure of the attack.

Spoiler :

Chilly flew backwards, his momentum forcibly arrested by the large pillar to his back. He coughed as his air was pushed out of his lungs, and struggled to get to his feet.

“Be cleansed!” the skeleton screeched. A hint of mania in its tone. A cone of fire engulfed Chilly for the third time as he blinked into the blindingly bright light.

His life was barely dropping though so he calmly got to his feet then jogged into the fire, with a shield held up high to block at least some of the flames from entering his visor and scorching his eyes.

Spoiler :

He abruptly burst out of the inferno to see a panicked skeleton. It's burning eyes darted left and right as it slowly backed away from him.

“Protect me, my children!” It cried, summoning two more bolts of black energy into the sky.

Chilly grinned as he casually closed the distance. The ‘children’ wouldn’t arrive in time to save it.

He grabbed onto the priest’s forearm and pulled it towards him. It was surprisingly difficult, but he managed to get the crystal within slapping range. A second to aim and position his body such that the pillar was to his back, Chilly slapped the crystal into another of the pits.

“Argh!” The priest screamed, as cracks propagated over its body. Flakes of bone started falling off of the priest in waves as force blasted Chilly back.

Spoiler :

He crashed into the wall, but managed to keep his gaze locked on the boss. It writhed as its body began to fail.

Suddenly it raised its claws to the heavens. Barely holding together at this point it roared up to the sky, struggling to keep itself together.

“I am PURE!” It screamed. Its voice raw with emotion despite the lack of vocal cords. Chilly winced at the sheer pain he heard in the voice. It didn’t matter that the voice belonged to an undead. It simply mattered that he was the one to cause so much pain to something.

Suddenly power erupted like a fountain out of the dying boss. Black iridescent energy cascaded out of the bosses grinning skull, further propagating the cracks as it erupted with the force of a broken fire hydrant. The clearly not liquid, fluid rose high into the air then slammed down onto the dying skeleton with enough force to cause the arena to shake.

For a brief moment the skeleton was obscured by the roiling power, then as abruptly as it had come it transformed into tendrils of dark something. Chilly blinked as before his eyes, the black energy transformed into rotting flesh. The tendrils of muscle and tendons slithered into the boss's skeleton, and attached themselves with sickening squelches. Clicks and pops reverberated through the struggling skeleton as the tendons pulled its cracked bones together. As the last fragment of the boss’s skeleton was obscured by the meat, Chilly noticed that the bones underneath had stopped cracking. Being held together by the mantle of flesh that it had donned. In moments the skeletal boss had transformed into one of the Putrid Ghouls that it claimed were its children. More and more tissue condensed out of nowhere. The magical brawn melded with the boss, bulking its frame and increasing its weight.

At last, the transformation completed. Two bolts of darkness fell from the sky and coalesced into the forms of two level 5 Putrid Ghouls who stood beside the eight foot tall undead. They looked up to the monolithic Priest of Purity, then as one, all three turned to stare at Chilly with hate filled eyes. Behind them a cyclone of glass shards spun ever closer.

“You...” The zombified Priest of Purity rumbled, “You are filth!”

Then they charged.