"The temple did not disappoint. It's definitely worth the trouble," Loki said, turning the loot over in his hands.
The boss had dropped a full set, a couple of extra rares, priest/mage skill books, and high-grade health and mana potions.
[Jackal-Crown Veil — Epic]
+30 Physical Defense, +5 All Elemental Resistances, +5 INT.
Required Level 7. (Priest/Priestess)
Description: Obsidian jackal visor with faint ember slits; white under-veil anchors to the mantle line.
[Mantle of High Noon — Epic]
+70 Physical Defense, +15 All Elemental Resistances, +10 INT, +5 CON.
Required Level 8. (Priest/Priestess)
Description: White pelt-textured mantle over a black, gold-veined chestplate; starburst pins at the collar.
[Suncarven Gauntlets — Epic]
+25 Physical Defense, +5 All Elemental Resistances, +3 INT.
Required Level 8. (Priest/Priestess)
Description: Long forearm plates with concentrated gold filigree at the elbows.
[Pilgrim Sunweave Tassets — Epic]+34 Physical Defense, +5 All Elemental Resistances, +4 INT.
Required Level 7.
(Priest/Priestess)
Description: Layered white drape and black side-plates, ribbed to echo the torso lines.
[Halo-Strider Greaves — Epic]
+32 Physical Defense, +5 All Elemental Resistances, +4 CON
Required Level 6. (Priest/Priestess)
Description: Segmented shin and digitigrade-style foot plates; steady stance, quick push-off.
— Accessories —
[Ring of Zenith — Epic]
+15 INT, +50 Max Mana, +10% Mana Regen
Required Level 6. (Priest/Priestess/Mage)
Description: Thin gold band with a micro-etched sun disk.
[Ring of Ember Creed — Epic]
+5 INT, +15 All Elemental Resistances, +50 Max Mana, 10% Cooldown Reduction.
Required Level 6. (Priest/Priestess/Mage)
Description: Faceted amber core held by halo prongs.
[Necklace of the Sunlit Vow — Epic]
+7 INT, +5 All Elemental Resistances, +100 Max Mana, +10% Mana Regen
Required Level 6. (Priest/Priestess/Mage)
Description: Gold chain with a diamond-cut sigil that glows faintly when channeling.
— Weapon —
[Faithwarden's Halo-Staff — Epic]
Attack +60, +20 INT, +10 CON
Required Level 6. (Priest/Priestess)
• [Prayer (Active)]: Charge for 5 s, then amplify Healing spells by 20% and Magic damage by 10% for 3 min. Cooldown: 300 s.
Description: Dark shaft with wrap grips; ringed halo head set with an amber core that gathers heat-motes when charging.
"It's a shame I can't use any of this, but it's good TLE, so I am not that disappointed."
'Besides, this skill alone makes the whole fight worth it, ' he thought.
[Quickstep Release — Epic, Active — Assassin]
Remove all crowd control on you and gain +50% movement speed for 2.0 s.
Cast requirement: Can only be used while you are crowd-controlled. Cooldown:180 s.
(Passive, embedded): While Quickstep Release is on cooldown, each time a new crowd control effect is applied to you, reduce its remaining cooldown by 20s.
Required to learn Level 7.
But Loki wasn't done. The remnant still hung above the broken circle, thin and bright. Loki reached in.
[Activating Greed's Touch...]
[... Success!]
The demon's hand materialized and seized the monster's remnant. The echo crumpled in its palm.
[Extra Yield +200% Applied]
[+5,600 EXP]
[+12 Evolution Points]
[+3,600 TLE]
[+4,100 NTLE]
[ Advanced Drop Triggered (Epic->Heroic): High Sun Legwraps (Heroic) ]
[High Sun Legwraps — Heroic]
+45 Physical Defense, +20 All Elemental Resistances, +6 AGI, +10 INT, +8 CON.
Required Level 7. (All Classes)
(Passive): Reduces the cooldown of your active skills by 10%.
Description: Layered white drape over black ribbed underplates, stitched with fine gold channels that seem to tick softly from time to time.
"Haha, and just like that, I got a heroic equipment", he said while looking at the fiery Orange orb.
[Forest Stalker Trousers — Rare] -> [High Sun Legwraps — Heroic]
After organizing everything, he was ready to leave and turned towards the doors—only the doors weren't open.
"Hmm, weird. They should be open."
Loki walked to the doors and pushed, but they did not budge. He walked back, then circled the area, checking the seams, the pillars, the carved grooves. He even checked the broken clerestory above.
Nothing. Silence pressed.
As he turned to scan the pillars again, suddenly, a window blinked in front of him.
[Authority of the Fallen Gods confirmed… Opening portal to *****]
Light stabbed his eyes; heat prickled behind them. For a moment, the gold glare blew his vision out, but it settled soon.
A tall, narrow portal unfolded on the circle—thin and exact, amber along the edges, with a deep-gold core.
"What is this? An extra stage?" he wondered.
He hesitated a little and looked around. There was no other way out, so he stepped through the portal.
...
On the other side lay a place that made the last one feel like an annex.
A long colonnade ran straight ahead. Black stone columns veined with dull gold climbed into a high vault. White ceiling panels had fractured into star shapes, so daylight fell in quiet sheets. Everywhere was black, gold, and white. Statues lined the walls with missing heads and arms. Some had toppled and broken at the waist.
Even in ruins, it was beautiful. The floors stayed straight and true. The inlays still caught the light.
"What is this place?"
At first, he was wary. But as he kept looking, the wariness softened into plain awe.
He kept straight, taking it in as he went. Reliefs showed robed figures lifting rings and veils to the sky. In a broken niche, a headless statue of a woman stood with a full, powerful body and black wings flared wide. The feathers were carved so clean they looked almost real.
For a second, he had to check they weren't moving.
He set a hand on the cracked base. The stone felt cooler than the air and strangely light for its size. He tried storing it, and the statue slipped into his inventory.
'Oh, it actually went in, ' he thought, surprised.
At the far end stood a door in black and gold, taller than a house and banded in ribbed plates. He went to the door, set both hands on it, and pushed. The hinges complained but soon gave.
A great hall opened.
It had been beautiful once. The roof was broken in a grid, light falling in squares. Every statue here had been smashed clean off its plinth. Only feet and shins remained. The altar still stood on the dais at the far wall, but there was nothing left to worship: the niche was empty, the mounting pins bare, and the socket for a relic sat open like a pulled tooth.
Someone knelt at the altar.
A woman in gold and black, head bowed, not moving. Over the dais, where a name should have floated, the text flickered and broke.
[ ********]
He decided to get a closer look and moved toward her, blades loose in his hands.
The woman, as if sensing his approach, rose in one smooth motion. He brought his daggers up and watched her move carefully.
Her back was bare from nape to the hip line, a clean field of luminous skin framed by slim gold edgework. A white priestly mantle pinned at the clavicles broke just at the shoulder blades, so nothing hid that open line.
She reached for a small chest on the altar. Her hips shifted under the drape and set the side panels moving, white cloth sliding over a black gown traced with gold sigils.
She turned to him with the chest in hand and, for a second, he forgot to breathe.
The gown's bodice was tailored and firm, the neckline deep enough to show cleavage in a way that felt deliberate and calm rather than crude; narrow side cutouts gave the slightest suggestion of side-breast, trimmed in fine gold piping. Each stride drew a quiet whisper from the cloth. Bare feet kissed the stone without sound.
She stepped down from the dais.
Her face was composed: soft-oval, fine jaw, very pale gold eyes, half-lidded and steady. A delicate sigil sat at the center of her brow, with thin rune filaments tracing her cheekbones and temples in a warm glow. Slim brows. Full, neat lips. She looked like a vision carved for a shrine and then set moving.
'Just...what is that woman?' he wondered, eyes not leaving her figure for a moment.
He began tracking details without trying to. The thin diadem at her hairline. The slow pulse of sigils along the seams. The measured roll of her walk. The glimpse of those thick thighs with each stride.
Loki swallowed unconsciously.
She came straight toward him, the small black-and-gold chest held in both hands at her waist. When she reached him, she looked up and met his eyes for a long, quiet beat, and then knelt in front of him with unhurried grace.
She offered the box in her hands and said nothing.
Loki didn't lower the blades and studied the chest and her. The chest was simple work: dark wood banded with soft gold, seal unbroken. Her breath was even and calm.
Only when sure, he shifted one knife to his off hand, reached down, and took the box from her palms.
He eased the lid open.
A small vial rested in a soft cloth. Inside, the liquid wasn't colored gold but looked like actual light held in fluid. Tiny motes drifted and then held still, like stars pausing. Even through the glass he felt a low, clean heat.
He picked it up.
"Drink," the woman said. Her voice was clear and calm, like a bell on cold air.
His eyes throbbed; a thin gold haze crept into the edges of his sight. He didn't like it. He didn't like any of this.
But she wasn't moving to attack, and his gut was telling to keep going.
He pulled the stopper and drank.
Heat slid down his throat and burst open in his chest. For a moment, it felt clean and sharp, like cold air hitting his lungs—then it climbed.
His muscles locked. First the forearms, then the shoulders, then the back. Every fiber cinched tight like a wire being twisted. Skin prickled like it was being written on from the inside. He went to a knee and then both. Breath tore out of him.
The pain kept climbing. It was too much for anyone to endure. He tried to hold back a shout and failed; the sound ripped out of him and bounced off the stone.
He started to tip, but she stepped in and caught him in her embrace. His face pressed into her bosom.
"Rest," she said near his ear.
The last thing he saw was gold threading the air above them like fine lines being drawn, then the dark came down, and he went under.