Gracefall Chapter 2: Monsters of Grace

Read chapter 2 of Gracefall by arsy on NovelPedia.

Several moments later, crimson, stormy clouds had surrounded Lucia. Pale lightning thundered down like shooting stars. Horrifying roars of monsters could be heard in the distance. Storms like this would happen almost every night, although sometimes, it could be a more devastating disaster instead. That would be more dangerous than a bunch of lightning, but it would also leave behind more grace. After waiting a little while, lightning crashed down close to where Lucia was, she immediately began running in its direction. Running over scattered rubble, she ran past countless broken buildings. Their interiors were visible through the holes in their walls, some were even missing their towering roofs. This was the city she was born in, Luminara. A vast, yet broken one. Its dark buildings rose with tall windows of shattered glass, crowned by spires and conical rooftops. At the heart of the city stood a grand cathedral, its formidable size was unrivaled. It had colossal spires atop each of its corners along with a larger one in its center. Its windows lay shattered, and chunks of its walls had crumbled, yet it was somehow largely intact. Approaching the crash site of the lightning she had seen and heard earlier, she halted. A monster was limping toward the light of the fallen grace. The bright grace stood atop a perron of stone stairs with broken rails in an open space resembling a town square. Small pieces of rubble from the buildings were scattered across the floor The monster looked slightly humanoid. It had a crooked back, its right arm was about twice the length of the other as it ended in a sharp, bone-like scythe that scraped the ground as it moved forward. Its legs and feet were purely bone. 'Looks pretty weak, I'll stab it in its back!' Her hands trembling slightly, she came out of hiding and lunged toward the skeletal monster. It noticed the sound of her footsteps, but it was too late, she had dug her blade into its back. The monster fell to the ground as Lucia twisted her blade deeper into it. A slight smile found its way to her face. The monster screeched loudly as its elongated and bladed arm began moving. Lucia noticed this and quickly took her sword out. The boned scythe of the creature's arm flew backward. Simultaneously, Lucia jumped back just in the nick of time as its scythe scraped her cheek. The arm of the skeletal creature remained in the air as it began getting up. After escaping the perilous situation, she wiped her hand across the cut before gripping the hilt of her sword firmly. Lucia saw an opportunity to cut the weapon off its arm and took it. Taking a step forward, she fiercely lashed her blade out against the creature's arm. Slicing through its arm, the creature loudly screeched again as its weapon fell off its arm. It got up and turned its head completely, without its body turning. The skin on its body was rotting, its sharp teeth were visible through the holes of its decaying face. It stared at her with its pale, glowing eyes. Then, it simply crouched down and grabbed its weapon with its other arm. “What the hell…” While the creature was getting up, Lucia lifted her blade above her head. She then swiftly pushed her blade down, quickly and fiercely performing a downward slash. The crushing weight of her blade hit the skeletal creature's skull and split it open. Its body lifelessly fell to the ground, it was dead. Suddenly, vivid words appeared in her mind: [You have slain, Corrupted Nameless.] “I-I did it! I killed a monster!” She grinned as she thrust her blade into the creature's lifeless corpse one last time. Then, she saw that the monster’s corpse began glowing. ‘Grace?’ She then extended her arm forward, her hand open. It instantaneously responded to her gesture, as the grace lightly moved from the creature's lifeless corpse and gradually made its way to her. It touched her palm, and was then slowly absorbed into her body before completely dissipating. [You have absorbed grace.] She focused on her O