"Ah you made it back!" exclaimed an excited Rowena as she clapped "so how was it?"
"…"
Underneath his scathing scrutiny her smile was slowly wiped from her face "that bad?"
"You didn't tell me she had a fucking Skeleton army."
Rowena blinked "I was unaware. I hope that did not present too much of a problem."
"…" the stink eye she received in return held her hand up in surrender.
"Were there any other complications?"
"Did you know about Moira?"
"In regards to…?" she trailed off meaningfully.
Based on the bits of lore he discovered, his own theories and the experience he had with the Banshee herself Stanley formed a hypothesis that more or less told him what Moira's deal is. As a human Moira was your typical priestess devoted to the church and the Chief God and as is the theme with MGE she was also sexually repressed. At some point what was likely a Demon came along under a disguise and wormed her way into Moira's good graces before corrupting her.
Unfortunately for said Demon Moira's sexual awakening didn't exactly go to plan since she had a special case of fanaticism. Even when she was spiritually too far gone instead of turning into a Succubus or Demon or switching to worshipping the Dark God as a Dark Priestess Moira rejected both and chose death at the hands of the Inquisition. According to the journal she wrote of the events she burned in holy fire with a smile on her face and love in her breast.
Her devotion impressed Hel, the God of the Death (and Life apparently) and seeing her potential decided to pluck her from the afterlife using what Stanley believed was a loophole. Moira may not have been monsterized but she was still corrupted when she died so the Chief God wouldn't take her soul into heaven. Since she already rejected the Dark God Hel decided to make her pitch.
Using her authority over life and death as a Goddess she offered Moira a second chance to once again devote herself to the Chief God. Moira took the deal and was resurrected as a priestess of Hel otherwise known as a Banshee. Although since she's a Mamono now, her fanatic devotion to the church and the Chief God got twisted into an obsession layered with sexual overtones.
"To make a psychological analysis short" Stanley explained to Rowena "Moira's a closet pervert masochist role-playing as a fallen former priestess of the church trying to redeem herself while fantasizing about being punished for her since and gets sexual gratification from being hurt by holy instruments."
With his bland expression and deadpan delivery it took a moment for Rowena to parse through that information in which she blinked owlishly at him.
"E-excuse me?"
He kept up a glare up for a few moments more before retrieving the flashlight out of his inventory and after switching it on shined it on Rowena's face.
"Ah!" the Wight yelped before ducking under the table of her carriage shop "what do you think you're doing!?"
"Hurts right?"
"Yes!"
"Well I just spent the last half hour using it to pleasure your girl in her masturbatorium of a church."
"…you jest."
In response Stanley pointed at himself "hey, look at me."
Rowena hesitantly poked her head in view.
"Look at me"
"I am looking."
"Do I look like I'm joking right now?"
Rowena searched his expression while getting to her full sitting height and grimacing "you are not" she frowned "so it is true then, her 'devotion' has all been an act."
Stanley made a so-so gesture "kind of…she's basically delusional is what I'm getting at."
"But then that means…" she trailed before her expression into one of righteous fury "that bitch!"
"Hey as much as I'd like to stand here and listen to your tirade, I still have three more of your former subordinates to get through."
Rowena seethed "is she dead?"
Stanley clearly remembered her body disappearing after wat could be described as the most powerful orgasm of her unlife.
"Yes."
"Tch, missed opportunity"
"Meh, I got mine."
'And also ideas for what I'm going to do with Ezraphel later.'
Somewhere a disguised Lilim felt a pleasurable chill go down her spine that had her lips trembling in anxious excitement.
Rowena huffed "well at least now with that device you will be able to bypass the protective enchantments on Beatrice's armor" she paused "though you will have a harder time since her enchantments are much stronger than her subordinates. And she will not simply stand by and let you weaken her so be careful."
"I get it."
"I don't think you do" the Wight narrowed her eyes "Beatrice is the most skilled warrior in these lands. You will not find her an easy opponent like the ones you've fast so far."
'I expected as much from a boss.'
He didn't say that though and instead switch subjects "speaking of subordinates, what am I dealing with for Beatrice? Not Zombies or Skeletons I think."
"The former, as I understand it most of them have their combat prowess supplemented by armor enchantments."
'So basically Zombies in supernatural power armor'
"Got it" he stated before offloading his loot.
Despite his complaints about the whole Moira situation the drops he got were pretty sweet actually. As an example after her defeat Moira dropped an effigy of the Goddess of Death (and Life) herself that had quickly gained Rowena attention. Stanley gave the undead highborn a moment to marvel at the effigy before clearing his throat.
"You can make goo goo eyes at the statue on your own time woman."
His words caused the Wight to glance at him and, in his mind, suppress her embarrassment by clearing her throat.
"What else do you need?"
"Got anything new?"
"I'm afraid not. Unfortunately Beatrice runs a tight ship. You'll have to cause some chaos to distract her forces in order for my agents to make a grab for anything useful."
Taking a look at her wears he found that not necessarily be true "what about that?"
'That' referred to the canister of green gas.
"Oh it's just something an agent managed to find laying around. Why? What is it?"
"It's a fuel source for some of the weapons."
"Oh?"
With that he retrieved his Tokyo Marui Hi-Cappa 5.1 from his inventory.
"I had a feeling that was the reason why you went back to the mansion."
"Yeah…" he trailed off examining his new semi-auto gas blowback pistol.
Turns out like any church Moira's has a donation box but instead of regular currency it had a dozen silver coins in them. Stanley actually took a detour back to the mansion's showroom to finally get the Hi-Cappa as well as a few gems the latter of which he sold.
"I'll take the gas, you got any more?"
She shook her head "unfortunately such things are now locked within Eileen's sorcery tower which is protected by magic. So far it's the only place my agents have not been able to infiltrate. Eileen is a brilliant sorceress and does not have servants, preferring to rely on her magic."
That means he won't be able to go HAM with the Hi-Cappa until after he secures a steady supply of gas and who knows if he'll come across other gas blowback weapons?
'At this rate the damn Proshop is going to be sticking with me till the end'
He ended up buying a few spare shotgun shells, bb pellets and health potions.
Later…
The three other bosses were situated in the castle proper with Beatrice taking it upon herself to act as its first line of defense. To that end she closed the doors and put up fortifications while her forces maintained a constant vigilance. Going through the front door was suicide but luckily Rowena knew the castle like it was the back of her hand and gave him directions to a secret entrance.
Said entrance was a crawlspace tunnel that led him to a dungeon of all things. A dungeon that had not a lick of light forcing him to use his flashlight, luckily the thing had different settings that enabled it to function like a regular flashlight. He found that if he stopped blasting holy light before the battery overcharges he could use the regular flashlight to save himself a blowout that would plunge him into darkness. The best part is that he can use it like a regular flashlight while the batteries cool down.
That is an especially important aspect because as it is with these things the dungeons weren't empty. He really shouldn't have been surprised but you try creeping through a dark dank dungeon with dilapidated cells and medieval torture weapons complete with dry bloodstains, scrawling notes that imply human experimentation and actual bodies left and not be surprised when one of the bodies suddenly lunges at you.
Ezraphel did too good a job at the horror aspect god dammit.
'How the hell could a snowflake who still screams at B-rated horror movies be so effective at evoking fear?'
In any case he made it out of the basement dungeons to a side entrance that led him to the battlements overlooking the courtyard. Down below he found over two dozen knights patrolling the area. If Rowena hadn't already told him he old never guess that those armored soldiers were Zombies, they didn't look or move like Zombies at all.
'Those must be some pretty good enchantments.'
They have to be in order to turn a horde of shambling corpses into an effective medieval army. And unlike every other enemy he's encountered so far these looked and move like actual soldiers. Their armored feet clacked with sharp rigid movements, their bodies are completely covered with armor that gleamed with a faint hue of that ghostly aura and they carried actual weapons like spears and swords. That's not all, there were towers scattered about with archers and few sentries with freaking trumpets on the lookout.
All in all not only could he not go in guns blazing but it looked like the stealth option was also out if only because he didn't think he was good enough to actually pull it off in this setting. He's betting those sentries have more special awareness than a videogame AI.
'Best to avoid that' he then paused 'except if I'm betting man I will definitely have to go through that courtyard to get to Beatrice.'
Eventually he came upon a fork in the path and according to the map one led to the courtyard while the other led to somewhere unknown. He decided to travel the unknown path passing a row of armor suits on display.
.
.
.
'Hold up.'
Stanley spun around just in time to duck a halberd to the neck from the not-so-inanimate suit of armor.
"Nice prank bro" Stanley snarled whipping out the Proshop and firing a round into the helm only for the pellet to ping harmlessly off the armor.
'The fuck?' he thought in confusion before using the knife to parry a thrust and doing a front kick that only resulted in a slight stagger.
Stanley noted that the area where his foot hit briefly lit up in purple runes.
'Oh right, enchantments' he thought before whipping out the holy flashlight.
The holy light had an interesting effect on the armor. He saw the magic runes briefly lit up before burning away and with it gone the shining armor lost its luster and the once slow yet precise movements of the knight became even more jerky and cumbersome than even the regular Zombies as the wearer bore the weight and stiffness of the armor itself. A single shot to the knee and a stab through the face hole in the helmet finished her off.
After this he turned to the other suits of armor that stood immobile the entire time "well?"
In response both armors swiveled their head to him and in synchronization raised their arms and prepared to engage.
Two Minutes Later…
Stanley entered the door to find a storeroom of sorts filled with destructible crates and a familiar carrying bag.
'Can it be?'
Stanley immediately rushed over to the bag and opened it to reveal a rifle. To be exact it was the Amoeba AS-01 Striker sniper rifle. As he took up the new weapon he looked around and broke the crates receiving more pellets and coin. After feeding pellets into the magazine he refitted the cartridge, took aim and adjusted the scope. After making some slight adjustments used the bolt to chamber a pellet and grinned.
"Oh yeah"
As good as it felt to get his hands on a reliable long ranged weapon that could pick off his enemies.
His grin turned into a frown as he mumbled "except it's not going to mean jack shit because of those armors."
Switching the rifle to his flashlight Stanley pondered what to do. The only way for him to bypass the damn enchantments was to use the flashlight which meant getting in close. Not a problem except the fucking archers will turn him into a pretty convincing pin cushion if they move as efficiently as the ones he fought moments before. As he thought about his plan of action he stared at flashlight and on a whim began to finagle with it. Admittedly he should have done this before but it was just one of those things he overlooked in the grand scheme since it seemed to be a basic flashlight.
But he figured if he missed the various switch configurations then he might have missed something else. Then a thought occurred to him.
'Don't some flashlights have ways to adjust focus?'
As he thought it his hand went to the top edge and began to twist. It put up a fight at first but eventually he managed to twist it and a flick of the flashlight to regular had him see the result. He could make it wider or more concentrated which was par for the course. Things change however when he activates the holy light function. The wide focus results in a conical blast while the narrow focus results in a concentrated beam that leaves a scorch mark on the wall he tested it on.
"Huh…"
He looked from the flashlight to the sniper and back again.
"I can work with this."
Later…
The knights were milling about as per usual, their forms never tire and their training made them never waver resulting in a group of organic semi-automatons ever vigilantly going about their task of securing the castle defenses in perpetuity. The usual clanking of armored boots is disrupted however by the sound of burning followed by a sharp yet brief crack of sound.
*Bang*
Suddenly one of their sentries fell to the ground missing the enchantments of their armor as well as their head. A moment later another shot rang out and another knight fell to the ground in the same predicament. At this point an alarm was supposed to be sounded however before the knight in question could bring up the trumpet a piercing light hit her helm burning away the enchantments and subsequently deteriorating the metal before a shot rang out and her head seemingly explodes.
"Boom headshot" Stanley mutters as he toggled the sniper's bolt action before taking aim with the flashlight again.
It went like this for the next several minutes with the two prong attack of holy light to weaken and disorient them and headshots to finish them off. Even when they were able to identify his location he continued managing to take out half their numbers before they could reach him. As for the ones that did get to him they were quickly overwhelmed by a widespread blast of holy light followed by a close up point blank shotgun blasts to the face.
After half an hour of running, gunning and looting in a play style that could best be described as Alan Wake meets Doom Stanley's compass alerts him to Rowena's presence which he follows to a previously empty room that was now housing the Wight.
"Well hello there" she greeted with a smile.
'General Rowena' he thought to himself in a raspy voice before shaking the thought.
He couldn't resist.
"You seem happy" he greeted.
"But of course" the Wight answered "it has been so long since I've roamed this castle in…" she trailed off before shaking her head "regardless you have my thanks."
"Cool, you know I've searched all over the place but I can't seem to find any of those weapons you promised she would have lying around."
Under his accusing stare Rowena adopted a thoughtful expression as she used her fan to tap her chin "peculiar isn't it? I'm not sure why that is."
"Don't you have spies everywhere?"
"Beatrice is the only one to have subordinates that are completely and utterly loyal to her. It is a consequence of letting her personally oversee their growth and training as soldiers" Rowena added "she is also very good at her job in defending against all manner of intruders."
"So your reach doesn't extend as far as you led me to believe then?"
At this Rowena scowled "I did manage to find one peculiar weapon though."
As she said this she revealed…
"That's a grenade" he said matter-of-factly.
"Indeed" Rowena answered using the fan to block her mouth.
To be precise it was an ASG Storm Apocalypse impact grenade. An airsoft grenade that houses 155 pellets and has a 360 degree dispersal pattern going at 67ms or 220fps for an effective radius up to 10m or 32.8ft. It's easy to load, easy to reset, reusable and is gas powered. It is one of if not the most reliable airsoft grenades out there and his personal favorite. If there was any reason/weapon for him to save his gas then it would be for this.
Stanley couldn't help but grin something the Wight immediately caught on as she returned the grin.
"I take it you approve?"
"How much you got?"