Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

My instincts are correct.

The instant the waves of Demonic Essence flood down into the crater below, the outline of an energy from a billion-kilometers-tall Outer Guard with two curved daggers comes rocketing toward us.

Both its blades are coated in dense Demonic Essence, and its eyes are sharp, focused on us while we continue to form more protective arrays after the last impact from the cannon.

The Outer Guard moves faster than any of the others I’ve been watching, but that may only be because he hasn’t worn himself out fighting the monster trio and has been building up his energy in the shadows.

There are streaks of black and purple aura trailing behind him, and his whole being is veiled in a shadow of darkness, like he’s using some kind of dark mist, or shadow step ability. Both of which I’m very adept at, from fighting demons of the past with them.

However, it seems like the Glyph Imprints he’s using aren’t able to properly assimilate these moves. It’s only his natural body that activates them. That is why they do not react on such a massive scale, flooding this entire forest into darkness or making him teleport through shadows avoiding my gaze.

They still increase his movement speed and abilities to a noticeable degree, it is just an intriguing understanding that crosses my mind while both his blades collide with our protection arrays.

There is a destructive force of impact that does not budge at first, but quickly begins shattering layers of our defenses. It feels like a heavy gravity weight is pushing down in two thin points of contact where his blades have collided, and it only gets stronger as Demonic Essence floods out of his core and into the blades to push harder.

Our Glyphs do not melt like acid is being poured on them like everything else, but they are breaking under the enormous stress.

Fractures begin traveling through the layers, breaking through patterns of glyphs below the surface. It allows the pure Primordial Aura, Divine Core Strength, Ether purity, and Royal Vibrations of this Outer Guard to bleed through and touch our souls without any protection in between.

My consciousness instantly goes into shock.

It’s the pressure that the divine threads and ether purity pressing down on our souls that feels unbearable. The gravity difference makes it feel like my divine core’s effectiveness just dropped by twenty times, like my internal gravity has shifted, and it’s that much harder to move a single finger.

The ether purity pushes billions of sharp needles into the outside of my soul, as the pressure of real High-Quality Ether limits the speed of my refined medium-quality ether’s flow speed.

However, the Vibrations are lackluster. They seem similar to that of the Ancient Royal I was expecting, and its Primordial Aura mimics its strength. My will and Maria’s combined are easily a hundred times stronger. This gives us a small advantage in the moment.

While our entire protection array shatters into mist and fractured glyphs, we are blasted backward even further away from the mana-based monsters on our side. There should have been an easy opening for this Demon to kill us, but its eyes open with even more shock than ours.

The instant our barriers are crushed, the overwhelming bubble of Primordial Aura, and the Vibrations of two Royal Humans with wills stronger than any Outer Guard this Demon has ever interacted with, makes his mind go numb.

“What are you?!” he yells, shaking himself out of the daze.

A kick off the air leaves a trail of darkness behind him as he follows us after the blast.

Red and blue glyphs rapidly form around us again, using large amounts of our ether pools to build them. He yells again, “How could a Lesser Race with a lifespan this short become so strong…? It makes sense why the First Bloods sent out a kill-on-sight order…”

His eyes become even more fierce. “I will give my life for this mission. Even if I can only come back as an Ascended, I will be praised by the King for eternity for killing specimens like you!”

More Essence pours out from his core, covering his curved daggers in demonic energy and countless white glyphs.

We’re too slow.

The Demon collides with us again, shattering through every one of our defensive arrays.

It feels like he’s sending many attacks at once, like pulses of energy come out from his blades every time they make contact.

My eyes shift behind the Demon, watching Vardon turn our way, but he’s way too far for any attacks to help right now.

Another explosion of black and white auras even further away signals that Ulgar and Axel just killed the remaining three Outer Guards.

We’re on our own here.

Maria and I both push our Celestial-grade all-seeing eye and foresight skills outward, and bounce strategies off each other’s minds.

The strength of our Primordial Aura alone is not enough to suppress this Demon; it needs to be paired with a concentrated use of our Glyphs.

I can tell its exact strength just from a glance, and after witnessing all of the Outer Guard’s defensive arrays and attack patterns, I’m certain with one good hit either Maria or I could kill him.

It isn’t a matter of speed or raw strength either. Borrowing stats to boost our mana output right now wouldn’t help to increase our ether pools. The raw amount of glyphs are all that matter.

If the attack we’re formulating is blocked by this Demon’s daggers in any way, our entire ether pools will be exhausted, and we’ll lose. However, both of its daggers are plummeting toward us, there will be no breaking his concentration.

If we summon another set of glyphs right now, using the entire remainder of our ether pools to act as a violent explosion-based propulsion array, we could escape one more time; but would be killed once he catches up.

This Demon’s aura has seeped into our souls again, and it knows exactly how much energy we have left. Our options are very limited, and he knows it.

I try to contact the sword deep in my soul, but after this Demon’s probing, it’s retreated even deeper, falling into a dormant state so sound that it’s hard for me to even tell it’s still there. I’m weaponless… all I can do is defend.

“This Outer Guard is guaranteed to land a hit, so that’s exactly what we’ll give it.” I send through a telepathy link to Maria as my final option comes to mind.

“Risky. I don’t like it… but that will work.” She sends back and nods, pushing me downward with her left hand filled with blue glyphs, and jumps upward, propelling herself away from me with even more. Her soul sword starts to materialize in her other palm, but it doesn’t take shape quickly. It only looks like a sparkling refracting ball of source resin at first.

The Royal Demon lets out a laugh as it watches me pour my entire ether pool into hopeless defensive arrays.

“Ha! I love it! A useless betrayal! I’ll enjoy killing her even more once she realizes she could have died by your side with some dignity instead!” The Outer Guard’s trajectory shifts, and both its blades turn toward me.

I rocket downward into a crater already formed from earlier, with nowhere to run. It should be an easy kill.

When its blades collide against my layers of red arrays, made of almost 200,000 total solo glyphs, massive shockwaves burst through the forest.

Billions of glyphs flood through the Demonic Essence, all of far weaker strength, but the volume of high-quality ether is so much greater.

One after another, my arrays are shattered, and the Demon’s eyes grow more crazed. I can feel every bit of intent in his aura, as he truly feels like he is now fulfilling a lifelong mission of glory that will gain him respect from the figures of authority in this Zone.

There is no way for me to possibly escape, so he doesn’t bother hiding anything. His every action is like reading a wide open book.

I start shifting my internal organs and vital points to prepare for an inevitable blow.

The last barrier shatters, and I feel my ether pool become completely exhausted, only small drops are left.

This is followed by the sharp swing of two purple daggers.

They are so thin and sharp, I don’t even feel them cut through me at first.

One slices clean through my neck, and the other right through my chest, perfectly avoiding all three of my cores as all of my mental energy went into controlling this result with my foresight skill.

My Astral Form breaks apart, shattering, and my body within mimics it, as it is an outward manifestation of my soul. I continue falling in three pieces, and hear this Demon’s laughs echoing through the forest.

Though, the only expression on my face is a grin.

A flash of blue and sparkling rainbow light erupts from behind the dark demonic figure that was blocking out the sky in my vision.

A diamond-colored sword slices through the back of this Demon and collides in a single point, fracturing its Royal Demon core.

All of Maria’s ether pool is thrust into this attack as well, but it is stored at the tip of her blade. Hundreds of thousands of icy blue ether commands activate in the defenseless core of a Royal Demon entirely caught off guard.

Crystalline structures explode from within its chest, shattering its core, and spreading all throughout its body.

As its eyes grow colder, and the life begins to leave its soul, there is still some pride in its face as it believes I’ll die once I hit the ground.

However, I feel the Outer Guard’s Vibrations grow weak, because the last imagery it sees is of me releasing the hold on my own Demon’s core, and tendrils of corruption soak up the Demonic Essence that cover my wounds. The black coils of corruption spread through my energy pathways and jump out of my chest from hundreds of points, pulling the pieces of my body back together.

My Astral Form is healed as good as new once I land on two feet at the bottom of the crater, and the dead remains of the Outer Guard crash down in a pool of liquid, horns, daggers, and shattered rainbow-colored ice all around me.