Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse — The Prophetess Arcana Location and Petrifying Gaze

The Prophetess is Medusa’s Arcana card in Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse. It gives Rose the Petrifying Gaze spell, and the same fight also hands over one of the keys to the Catacombs.

Quick answer: Defeat Medusa in her flooded arena beneath Holy Innocents’ Cemetery, entered through the Serpents’ Lair. Then hold E (R1 on PlayStation) until absorption finishes, about ten seconds.

Where to get The Prophetess

Medusa holds The Prophetess. Her door is in the Serpents’ Lair under Holy Innocents’ Cemetery, and her arena is a flooded hall where you fight her across walkways above the water.

The Ancient Sewers Mirror of Life is close to her door, so save there before you go in. The route to the door and the fight itself are covered in how to beat Medusa.

How to absorb The Prophetess

After you defeat Medusa, her body turns to gold and breaks apart, leaving a bright Arcana orb in the arena.

Wait for the prompt. The game displays “During the Absorption phase, hold down E to absorb the power of the Arcana.” On PlayStation, the button is R1.

Hold E and do not let go. A quick press or a short hold won’t finish the job. Keep the button down until absorption completes, which takes around ten seconds.

When THE PROPHETESS card appears, press See Spell to open the spell it grants.

The Prophetess Arcana card shown full screen with the See Spell option at the bottom — The Prophetess card screen, where See Spell opens the card’s spell.

On the PETRIFYING GAZE spell card, hold the button shown for “Hold to equip” to slot it right away. Press Continue instead if you want to leave it unequipped for now.

Petrifying Gaze spell card with its description and the Hold to equip prompt — The Petrifying Gaze spell card, with the option to hold and equip it before continuing.

Seeing both cards means the absorption worked. The Prophetess is yours, and Petrifying Gaze is ready to use.

What Petrifying Gaze does

The spell card reads “Petrify enemies in front of Rose.” In practice, it turns enemies standing in front of her to stone.

If that sounds familiar, it should. Medusa uses the same kind of attack on Rose during the fight, firing a beam from her eyes. Absorbing the card puts that power on your side.

What else Medusa leaves behind

The fight also awards THE PROPHETESS’S KEY, a key item. Its description reads “One of three keys needed to open the sealed door to the Catacombs. Obtained by defeating Medusa.”

The Prophetess's Key item screen with its description and a Continue button — The Prophetess’s Key, the key item you get for defeating Medusa.

The key goes into the Gate to the Catacombs together with The Fallen’s Key and The Warrior’s Key. To place all of them, follow our guide on how to open the Gate to the Catacombs.

If this is your third key, Rose says: “Medusa was absorbed into the ‘Prophetess’ card, and now I have the last key to the door.”

Defeating Medusa earns the achievement: “Snakes speared in the ruins” (Defeat the Prophetess).
Objective: GET TO THE GATE OF THE CATACOMBS replaces your current goal after the fight.