The Priest

Kayle decided to try his ability to see what it was about, ethereal veil. He felt a bit hesitant to use it after all, what's more dreadful than the unknown? especially if it's a whole other dimension.

Kayle took a big breath and concentrated on the runes of the lonely silver star and tried to activate ethereal veil, nothing happened Kayle wondered if he did something wrong but before he could finish his trail of thought something changed, the room suddenly dropped its temperature by a lot, he shivered and looked around, then a blue ghastly mist surrounded him as his vision started to fade away, a rift between reality appeared beneath him leading to complete darkness, the abyss looked so dreadful that Kayle tried to turn somehow his ability off, but before he even got the chance of thinking how he fell into the abyss

-Please don't tell me i'm going to a dimension with nothing- Kayle prayed as he kept falling.

Kayle felt as his body disappeared and fell deeper into the abyss, it felt like an eternity but Kayle could tell it probably was only a second before he felt the ground beneath his feet again, the first thing he noticed was the ground of polished black marble, then that he was much more taller and stronger his gaze fell on his body and his eyes widened.

Kayle's body was back to his original one, a young boy with dark skin and jet black hair, his eyes had dark circles around them and his gaze as sharp as a blade made from azure steel, the signature eye color from the people of the outskirts, eyes made to withstand the toxic dust that the outside towns had.

-Yes!, ists good to finally be back in my own body, how long has it been? months?- With a wide grin he extended his arms to the air trying to get used to being back in his old body, he felt more energetic as he looked at his clothes.

Kayle was wearing a blue tunic with some old shoes, he found himself in a giant isolated hall the walls had white pillars with some azure patterns, there was a row of statues along side the two walls up until a closed door, a few of the statues were broken, they were what Kayle could guess knights, each one held a different weapon, there was about 10 of them then his gaze went to the curved ceiling and then to the wall in front of him, there was another statue, this one much taller, like three meters tall -Interesting, who that could be? maybe the owner?-.

Kayle finally understood that he was in a cathedral and that statue was probably the goddess or a saint this places worshiped to, the woman had an almost too perfect face to be human, she had big eyes and was made out of white marble, the statue was wearing a white tunic and she had long hair, the unknown goddess was holding a graceful and divine spear, its shaft had runes embedded in it reaching the base of the head of the spear, which was shaped like an arrow that could split the heavens.

Kayle kept his gaze lingering on the statue for a while before letting out a sigh of relief

'At Least there are no horrors lurking around to eat me alive, unless the statues start moving like in some cliche story' Kayle shivered as he glanced at the statues suspiciously.

He started to walk towards the statue of the goddess before noticing something behind it, a door. It looked like a normal door but something felt wrong with it, very wrong…but curiosity was one of biggest weaknesses, was he going to risk being the cat?

'What is the worst that could happen? it's just a door, and this place is isolated anyways'

Kayle hesitated a bit but then reached the doorknob and opened it, as his gaze fell on the hidden chamber his eyes widened and his face paled. After all, he might become the cat that curiosity got him killed.

There was a man kneeling in front of a big painting praying, the thing is…that it wasn't a normal man, not only he was around two and a half meters tall, he had runes carved all over his skin, and azure mist covering his eyes, he looked human, but Kayle clearly felt that it was not, maybe once in ancient times, it was probably the priest of this forgotten cathedral or that was what Kayle guessed…

Full with a primordial dread Kayle took a step back and cursed under his breath

'What the…is that-' Just before he could finish his thought the tall priest arose showing his board and powerful shoulders and glanced at the young boy who had interrupted his prayings and shot his arm at lighting speed towards Kayle's face, if it wasn't for the fact that Kayle's body reacted even before the menacing priest stood up his head would've been obliterated the moment the priest went for him.

-Hey we can talk this out right!?- Kayle yelled in desperation as his legs moved involuntarily and ran as fast as he could away from that fiend with a priest's tunic, as he was running he glanced back to see if the…creature? was still following him, and to no surprise it was, but the priest was just walking as if taking his sweet time in hunting his prey or as if he wasn't worthy of its energy, Kayle felt a bit offended even though he was glad it wasn't running because he knew for a fact that he couldn't defeat the thing so he tried to concentrate in his soul core while running to activate ethereal veil again…but he couldn't, feeling panic crawl up from his spine as he tried again and again, with nothing happening he gave up and opened the first door he saw in the main hall leading him to a spiral staircase, without wasting any precious time he started running up the stairs, he closed one eye to see the silver star while his other was focused on not tripping, when his gaze fell on the runes on the lonely star his face paled even more

"Ethereal veil"

*****

Time remaining: 1800 seconds 

'What!? I have to play cat and mouse with that thing for almost an hour!? i knew i shouldn't have used ethereal veil…well i can't do anything, lets just survive this damned fiend'

With a sigh he kept running up the stairs finally reaching another chamber, was this cathedral a maze? There was an empty altar in the middle of the hexagon room, two doors in front of each other;

'I've never been to a cathedral before but I'm damn sure this is no normal place'.

Kayle was curious about this room but had no time to waste, he picked one room praying that he wasn't going to find another horror waiting for him, he could hear the priest's heavy steps on the spiral staircase so he went into the left door and he found more stairs.

'More stairs!? How tall is this damned hell?' Kayle finally reached to what it seemed one of the bell towers, strangely all the walls around the bell where covered by an improvised barricade made from wood and nails blocking out the sun, there where a few cracks on it showing sunlight, but the strange part is that the light was disturbingly blue and ethereal like every damn thing in that hellish place.

Kayle thought about breaking the barricade somehow and climb down if he had to, but he felt hesitant to touch or get near the sunlight, he didn't know why, maybe it was mistful kinship that was warning him of the strange beautiful light, it was the same feeling when he was near the priest's chamber, but with no time and the approaching fiend he gave up on reason and tried to find something to defend himself.

'If i die i'll die at least fighting that cursed thing' With a renew dark determination Kayle picked up a hammer he found in the floor and waited for the priest in the middle of the chamber with the bell on top hanging from the ceiling, as his eyes stared intensely to the stairs in front of him, his legs started to tremble with dread, every cell of his body screamed for Kayle to run, but where? He was reluctant to break the barricade and climb down outside because his soul or maybe his new ability told him that the beautiful blue sunlight meant death, and maybe outside were horrors even more unholy waiting for him.

The priest finally reached the bell room, and as he stepped into the chamber the air grew denser and the atmosphere became more ethereal…but for a reason the priest was hesitant to enter the room, the fiend glanced at the young boy in the middle of the room, clearly scared out of his wits a amused and sadist smile grew on the tall priest, but then he or it frowned as he saw the boy's gaze, full of dark determination, those azure eyes weren't the eyes of a prey.

Kayle held the hammer with so much grip that his knuckles were white, he grinned darkly feeling the adrenaline pump through his veins as he took a deep breath to stop trembling, there was a way to survive and kill this cursed fiend, he was sure of it, there was always a way, but he couldn't let his thought or eyes wander, after all, this enemy required all of his attention to not die. The priest was making his way towards Kayle slowly, each step making the dust in the floor move, the fiend looked slow, but Kayle knew this was just a mask, after all, if it wasn't for his keen sense to death thanks to mistful kinship he would've been death the moment the priest gave a lighting speed punch to his face missing only by a hair's length -Lets see who is the damned cat and who's the mouse-. 

Kayle wasn't really sure that the hammer would even do anything to the fiend, but he had to try right? As the priest finally reached Kayle, it raised an arm and swayed towards Kayle's face but just before that the young boy buckled, dodging the terrible attack.

Wasting no time Kayle twisted his body to hit the priest in where he could guess the liver is hoping to do something with the back of the hammer, but then…it did nothing, 

It was like hitting a wall of bricks, the bones in his hands trembled up to his shoulder as his face paled.

-Oh shi…- Before he could do anything a leg shot forward kicking his chest with a terrible force sending him away crashing into the barricade, Kayle felt a couple of his ribs break as he spits a mouthful of blood.

With his vision blurry he glanced at the approaching fiend with hatred and resentment as he took a broken pole made of steel from the floor, he wasn't going to give up, even if his whole body was aching and his heart told him it was the end.

As he tried to stand up stubbornly the barricade behind him started to crumble just when the priest was in front of him, Kayle threw himself to the side groaning to not get crushed by the crumbling wall. 

The ethereal blue sunlight found its way into a major part of the bell room, thankfully Kayle threw himself in the shadows, the priest wasn't so lucky, just before it could do anything, the fiend bathed fully in the eerie light.

It opened its mouth to scream in agony but nothing got out, the priest fell down to his knees and then to his back as if its soul was being burned, it began to crawl to the shadows but before that Kayle knew this was going to be his only and last chance on killing that bastard, as he spitted another mouthful of blood he made his way to the priest in front of him and just before it reached the sweet embrace of the shadows Kayle brought down the broken pole to its eyes covered in mist, exposing his arm to the sunlight in the process.

Kayle didn't seem to care that much about the agonizing pain he was feeling in his arm thanks to the blue ethereal light, he kept bringing down the pole against the fiend's left eye, again and again and again.

After what felt like an eternity the bloody priest went limp and Kayle threw his arm back in the shadows as he fell on the floor groaning from pain, it felt as if the sunlight was devouring his soul from his arm, before he could relocate his thoughts a graceful and beautiful whisperer spoke in his ears:

[Nightcrawler has slain the Echo of a Soul's Priest]

[You receive 3 soul cores] 

[You have received an amulet]

Kayle flinched and looked around in panic with a pale face, 'What was that voice!? Did I go mad from the pain?' 

After he found nothing but the body of the priest and the obliterating sunlight he let out a relieved sigh, no horrors could be seen thankfully but as his gaze fell on the now destroyed wall his eyes widened.