Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

We’re left in silence for a few seconds, but no matter how many times I repeat this Black Ogre’s words in my mind, they only make less and less sense.

“We have no domain affiliation… but, we come in peace. I see no reason to fight you!”

The Jet Black Astral energy manifestation nods slowly, but it turns its gaze to Maria beside me, as if it is waiting for her response as well.

“It’s true. We didn’t even know your domain was in our path. We can go around if necessary…” she adds to my reply.

Silence follows longer, and the Ogre’s massive manifestation of white eyes deep inside its astral form tightens on us. High Quality ether commands must be activating, but none of my senses are proficient enough to notice right now; it just looks like mist is pouring out of his eyes and pulsing toward us.

It harmlessly flows through, and simultaneously, buzzing sounds come from a few trees away.

The Ogre’s eyes move away from us, and it pulls its other machete from its back with its other hand.

A swarm of insects begins to fly toward us, but the Ogre swings its left arm, and a wave of white mist in a crescent shape bursts out from its soul weapon. There are more purple divine threads tethered to it than I have in my entire divine core, and trillions of layers of royal Vibrations’ intent hold it together. There is even an echo of Primordial Aura that follows behind it.

The crescent of energy bends around the trunk of one of the nearby trees, then collides with the swarm, obliterating them into nothing more than white mist, just like the lizard he sliced in two moments ago.

The Black Ogre sheaths his soul weapon again and nods.

“I believe you have no hostile intent, and that you were not aware of our domain’s whereabouts. However, you cannot exist in the Primordial Garden without a domain affiliation. Even if you have permanently left their arrays, I must know where you come from before I can let you leave.”

We both stare back with confusion on our faces.

Clearly, there are civilizations of some kind up in this zone, what he called the Primordial Garden. Either that is what this section of forest is called, or just what the entire purple zone consists of.

Now that I think about it, even this Ogre could be an illusion or automated defense system for the Demons. I can’t comprehend the ether commands being activated at all… this could be a demon in disguise for all I know. However, if it was truly one of the Imperials, and it knew who we were, I see no reason for it to waste any time talking. It would try to kill us on the spot.

Therefore, I don’t want to give away the fact that Ember is in this zone… and that we are true enemies of the Royal Family Heads. But at the same time, I do not want to drive them away or anger them by lying and saying we’re allies of the demons. No matter what side I choose, this could go equally wrong with both.

After a long wait, I speak up with a calculated response filled with the truth but leaving out enough details to make us appear neutral until I gather more information.

“No domain… we didn’t come from anywhere in the Primordial Garden. We were teleported up here after opening up a legacy tomb.”

I stare the Black Ogre in the eyes, and he looks like he is scanning me over and over again.

During this moment of silence, I talk back and forth with Maria over many strategies and options, but we settle on the most simple one. She speaks while the creature before us still hasn’t replied.

“If your domain is open to guests… we’d like a place to rest and learn about this place. We’re… a bit lost.”

The Ogre’s eyes loosen up, but no other expressions show on its face.

“I’ll allow you in. It does not appear as though you’re trying to deceive me. You’ll have to answer a few questions about that legacy tomb you say you’ve found. It is odd… most legacies instantly activate in the garden, but from your lack of High Quality Ether efficiency, it seems like you haven’t managed to activate your glyph imprints.”

Both of us nod, but he speaks again before we can get a word out.

“You must control your Primordial Aura, though. It is impolite to spew it outside of your body with such force. I can handle looking into the depths of your souls, but many of the younger ones will not be able to handle it.”

My eyes widen at these words, and I feel Maria’s consciousness shiver too.

We pull back the invisible aura that has been floating outside our bodies for over 25 billion kilometers, protecting our psyches and gathering celestial energy and divine threads for us. While it seems invisible, and unreadable to us… I did not consider the fact that maybe those of a high mental status could see things in it that are very revealing.

Our Primordial Aura sinks back in to only hover a few kilometers around our bodies in a much more potent and compressed state. This reflexively causes our royal Vibrations to fall back inward as well.

All of the long-range echo location disappears, and our field of view is limited only to where our eyes can see, and that doesn’t stretch much further than the few trees around us, leaving the only living creature in our senses as the massive Black Ogre.

Despite our field of view being limited, all of my power being compressed into a small area does make me feel extremely secure and in control. There is no longer any bit of my resources being used outside my body, and the compressed Primordial Aura acts as a much different type of defense to the complex ether commands than the large bubble before.

They seemed like soft white mist moments ago; now I don’t even see residue. The trees surrounding us look like husks with thin lines that appear as thin white, almost translucent barriers. My mind does not even attempt to analyze what’s inside.

The Black Ogre turns around.

“Very good. Follow me.”

We float after him in silence.

Every few trees we pass, he pulls out one of his massive blades and slices through more insects or an occasional falling lizard.

Again, I see no mist like before, only very geometric translucent barriers splitting into pieces and dissolving into the air. Many of the shards fade into the trees or roots eventually.

It’s like my visual inputs of everything around have been simplified so much that I can actually start to understand it a little better.

I start seeing manifestations of dots where the creatures’ joints bend, and thin lines connecting them and swiveling where they move. It’s like some crude computer rendering of an animation keeps playing out over and over.

These strange outlines start showing up even in the Black Ogre’s movements. I can see the direction and strength of the High Quality Ether Commands he infuses into his complex attacks. At least, on the surface. I still cannot fathom how they are summoned or manipulated.

Maria begins seeing the same thing, and we’re totally consumed by observing this the entire travel time while following our guide.

“This way.” The Black Ogre speaks again, turning abruptly and raising two hands in the air without anything in them. He’s stopped in between two massive trees.

At first, it looks like nothing is happening, but the longer I wait, the more lines and dots start moving all throughout the air.

It’s only a few hundred at first, in random places, then it turns into thousands, and millions, then far too many to keep track of. They form an enormous archway, roughly a trillion kilometers high, and start glowing so bright that even my totally blocked and limited senses start to perceive an overwhelming white glow.

The archway that was summoned out of thin air splits in half, forming a line from its center down to the floor of the forest. Double doors open up, and instantly hundreds of true purple cores with royal Vibrations pop up in my mind’s eye.

Moments ago, they were completely invisible to my senses, but now the space behind this door is as clear as day.

There’s a black winding road at the base of the door that leads inward. Our guide wastes no time and floats through, following it as though he has done it this exact same way every day of his life.

Maria and I look at each other, then get one last view of the complex structure of this archway before floating through after him.