The Legendary Ghost Hunter

Chapter 140: The Holy Light

“This is… a puzzle?” Iris murmured, but was quickly broken out of her thoughts as Yokru launched another barrage of attacks at her. She gritted her teeth and landed behind one of the unbroken pillars, studying the various mysterious devices closer while the battle below continued raging on.

The knights weren’t all that strong, but the fact that kept reviving endlessly was painful, to say the least. They came charging over and over again, like a bunch of pests that wouldn’t leave you alone no matter what. The Ghost Hunters pushed them back again and again, but they all had limited stamina and mana. These knights, however, didn’t — and that’s what made them annoying.

Iris, on the other hand, had to deal with Yokru’s continuous barrages of plasma while she tried to figure out the puzzle she was dealing with here. Her flight time was also limited since it drained her mana, so she had to finish this quick. The moment she landed was the moment she lost all movement capabilities and died.

“Eye of Omnipotence — Decipher!”

Without wasting any time, she activated her Oculus Angelica to try and find the solution to the puzzle. Suddenly, eight sundial-like devices had their outlines light up gold — to Iris’s eyes — and each seemed to have a small hole in the center of them, as if meant to dispense or shoot something. Confused, Iris switched to a different Ability while evading another attack from Yokru.

“Eye of Omnipotence — Transcendence!”

Iris’s flaming golden eyes widened as she saw the outline of a constellation appear before her. She recognized it as the Big Dipper. Immediately, she understood. What the puzzle meant, and what she had to do.

Immediately racing to the left most sundial-like device pinned to the wall, Iris shot a bullet into it with her revolver, powering it up instantly. The machine began to glow, shooting out a beam of light. With a smirk on her face, Iris placed her hands on the circular device, and tilted it so that the light directly hit the top-left-most vertex of the constellation.

Yokru, realizing what Iris had figured it out, screeched in annoyance and unleashed another blast towards her, but to Iris’s surprise, the projectiles vanished into thin air upon hitting the mysterious golden light of the device. This also confirmed that Iris was indeed on the right track.

Not wasting any time, she continued onwards to the next device, activating it the same one and tilting it to match the next vertex on the constellation. Rinse and repeat.

Yokru attempted to interfere by cutting off her path with blasts of plasma, but Iris was too nimble and agile. While the projectiles were certainly powerful, they were slow and most importantly — traveled in a linear trajectory. In other words, they were easily predictable for Iris.

One by one, Iris activated the devices. The Ghost Hunters down below were struggling to keep up with the knights, and had been forced to back up into a corner.

“Last one…!” Iris gritted her teeth, but her own mana was running low, and she had to reload.

Yokru took advantage of this and launched a barrage of attacks at Iris, but she suddenly threw her sniper towards the Wraith, blocking all of the projectiles and buying enough time for her to reload and shoot the device. In an instant, it lit up, and Iris did not waste any time before tilting it to the final location, at the very bottom of the Big Dipper.

“No… NOOOOO!” Yokru screeched in anger and fury, tilting its head upward as the points of the constellation aligned, and the entire room was lit up by a golden light.

The Ghost Hunters, confused, blocked their eyes, while the knights all faded away to nothingness and collapsed onto the floor, for good this time. Yokru’s figure began disappearing as well, burned away by the light, but not before leaving behind one final message.

“My master… will devour… you… ALL…!”

Iris spun around the revolver in her hand and blew out the smoke rising from it in style, then smirked.

“Yeah? Well, I’ll put a bullet in his head.”

*****

Once the light faded away, Iris finally flew back down and landed on top of Finn’s shoulders, who caught her firmly. Fortunately, since Yokru’s essence was exploded and dispersed by the light, Finn was able to consume it and gain its power as well. He just didn’t know what just yet.

“Ivy… did you make that light?” Acaya asked in awe.

Iris nodded. “It was a simple puzzle, really. I just didn’t see it earlier.”

“That light…” Toth muttered. “Sphinx, is it…”

Acaya — whose alias was apparently Sphinx — nodded. “Without a doubt… that was the Holy Light the Theocracy worships. Its warmth and radiance is like no other.”

“But why was it inside a Temple like this?” Iyesha murmured in confusion. “That doesn’t make sense…”

“The Light is wherever we need it to be most,” Obo said. “Don’t question it, and just be grateful it was here.”

“Y-Yes…” Iyesha backed down, slightly scared of Obo.

Meanwhile, the Phantom Slayers had no idea what they were talking about. Apparently, the Theocracy of Light was based on the same light that had been shot out of those eight devices, but Iris really couldn’t care less. With a cute yawn, she wrapped her arms around Finn’s neck and whispered into his ear.

“Finn… I’m going to sleep a little. Wake me up when you need me, mkay?”

Finn, realizing she must be tired, nodded. “Got it.”

Suddenly, a new shimmer of light appeared a few meters ahead in the room, but this one was blue and gentle rather than gold and glorious. After several seconds, it faded away, and in its place was a beautiful white chest, similar to the ones found in the Dungeon Finn and the others had conquered a while back.

“Treasure…” Obo’s eyes lit up in excitement, and he immediately moved to rush towards it, but Acaya stopped him with an arm.

“Wait, Scarab,” he said. “I believe… the rewards for this boss belong rightfully to the Phantom Slayers. We barely did anything in this fight, despite the main enemy being a Wraith-archetype.”

“Ngh… I guess that’s true…” Obo (alias: Scarab) sighed, clearly disappointed, but gave in regardless. Acaya then turned to Qi Ling, and gave a firm nod.

Qi Ling didn’t bother giving a response and instead coldly brushed past them towards the chest, still in a bad mood due to Finn not praising her. Despite how she seems on the surface, she was, deep down, a frail girl who sought approval from the man she felt affection towards — even if she hated that affection and didn’t want to admit it.