The homunculus swings at Louis with its scythe, attempting to sever his neck, but not before Luci casts Ice Shard at it, causing it to freeze up. “Nice! I almost never get these bonus effects.” Luci cheers at her luck a little with Louis following it up with another couple of slashes. Shortly after, the homunculus breaks out of the ice and slices at Louis’ chest, causing blood to spill out. “Fuck, how deep is that?” Luci shrugs and casts Light Heal on him which causes the open wound to close slightly. They go back to attacking the homunculus, which has shifted targets onto Luci. Closing the distance near instantaneously and swiping at her with the scythe, which she responds with her own magic. Louis gets up behind it and thrusts through its chest. Falling over and seeming unresponsive, the two catch their breath.

“Is it over?” Luci looks at her MP, seeing it almost completely drained.

Louis takes another potion out of his sack and drinks it to replenish the rest of his missing health. “Hopefully, shit this night’s been rougher than a day in the Empire.”

It was at this moment that Luci collapsed on the ground again, feeling her body shift again. Louis notices this and throws another slice at the homunculus on the ground. He was too slow, though, as he got another fireball thrown at his face. “Persistent.” The homunculus was back in its female state while Lucifer was back as a guy again. 

“Thing must really hate dealing with my magic, now if only it didn’t force my transformations.” Lucifer grips the dagger in his hand tighter as he dashes towards the homunculus, getting met with another fireball to his face as well. Almost seeming desperate, the homunculus aims its arms at both Louis and Lucifer, before launching a massive bombardment of magical spells at them. Fire, Ice, Electricity, Wind, all of the various elements coming down on them at high frequencies.

“Fuck, Louis just start running!” The both of them start running frantically around the room, the various magic spells colliding with the rubble around the room, causing them to explode into smaller bits. A few splinters hitting the both of them. They quickly grow weaker and weaker as the homunculus continually unleashes its arsenal, with seemingly limitless MP. Eventually the assault stops as it falls to the floor and starts to shift again, forcing Lucifer to also shift as well. He fears this as his MP hit 0 during their last attack and won’t be able to offer much physical damage. Louis takes the opportunity to use the last of his strength to assault the homunculus mid-transformation only to get pushed back at the last moment as it’s transformation finishes. Luci stands up now back as a girl once again, but barely able to walk as she points her dagger at the thing in front of her.

Louis, standing away from the creature after getting knocked back, holds his sword outwards ready to strike alongside Luci. “It must be out of MP now, so it can’t fight on that end anymore. Granted, neither can you, but this is our best opportunity to win. I’ll go when you do.” He takes a stance, as Luci slowly limps over to the homunculus, trying to bide her time. 

“I just… need to get in close… Then we win…” She says with exhausted breath as she walks towards the homunculus, staggering with each step. Eventually when the distance is closed enough, she shouts “Piercing Thrust!” The skill propels her forward as she uses the dagger to stab through the homunculus’ chest, Louis joining up again and activating the skill “Double Slash”, making two strong slashes across its body. 

“This thing doesn't even bleed. Well, it's not human, so I guess it makes sense.” Louis then aims his blade vertically to slice at the homunculus’ neck, finally landing a lethal blow. The now headless creature falling to the floor, its body dispersing into the air with no remains other than the scythe it held. Luci lifts up the scythe, it fits well in her hands. Strong enough to be used in her male form, while nimble enough to work well in her female form.

Louis pulls out his last two options from his sack, handing one over to Luci who refuses it thanks to her MP refresh from the levels she gained. “Didn't think I'd need to burn through that entire supply I bought, damn… These weren't cheap either.” He sighs while Luci giggles back at him and casts Light Heal on herself. “5 whole levels from that fight” she thinks. “And I got a new weapon from it too, this would be a super rare boss drop in any normal RPG. Lucky me!” She examines the scythe in her hand, a beautifully crafted weapon with a long jet-black handle with a crimson red blade that glistens in the moonlight coming in from the collapsed temple rooftop. She notices a few fresh bloodstains on it from where it sliced Louis just earlier. Upon taking her eyes off the scythe, she sees several new notifications, signaling new upgrades that she's unlocked. However, only two of them at present noticeably pique her interest, the second causing her eyes to slightly bulge out of their sockets.

“An upgrade? I was under the impression I'd need to spend a couple skill points to upgrade that…” she opens the skill tab to see what changed about the skill.

“Looks like the new upgrade will make this skill more versatile in battle. My male form isn't as fast as my female self, so being able to pass the effect of Quicken to it is going to be a big help. However... the upgrade condition is unknown this time. That's gonna be a problem.” She closes the tab, satisfied at the new boost to her goddess-given skill. Still, her eyes trail quickly to the other thing that caught her eye, one of the biggest unknowns in her new journey thus far.

iMidnighte

I wonder what the new class she unlocked is... Feel free to guess in the comments. Anyways, I probably could've just combined these past two chapters, but regardless I felt like I wanted to get another chapter out to not keep you guys waiting.