Chapter 44: Defeating a calamity beast

The fist rushed down like a falling ceiling. The wind pressure from the strike was so immense it pushed away the gas, pressing heavily against Dante.

Dante didn’t try to twist his torso or change his trajectory. His expression remained completely still as he kept his right hand locked around the grip of the Seven-Sins Asura Blade, his eyes focused entirely on the small red dot pulsing in the center of the monster’s chest.

’Let’s see if your stone density can handle the feedback,’ Dante thought.

BOOM!

The giant fist slammed directly into Dante’s left shoulder and arm. The physical impact was monstrous, enough to flatten a standard S-rank vanguard instantly. But the moment the stone surface touched his clothes, the SSS-rank Vajra Mirror Body initialized.

An invisible, violent shockwave erupted from Dante’s skin. The kinetic force of the world-crushing strike was instantly multiplied by two and blasted straight back into the elemental’s arm.

CRACK!

A sound like a mountain splitting open rang through the cavern. The monster’s massive three-meter arm violently fractured, jagged shards of obsidian and glowing magma exploding outward in every direction. The feedback wave traveled straight up the stone limb, tearing through its shoulder joints and throwing the colossal beast off balance. It let out a hollow shriek of pure agony, its massive body tilting backward on the bridge tracks.

Dante was pushed downward by the remaining momentum, his step hitting the obsidian floor blocks. The gravity of the room forced his knees to bend, but he didn’t pause for a single fraction of a second.

Using the moment the elemental was staggered and unable to move, Dante triggered Void Step.

His body turned into a dark blur, launching himself straight up toward the exposed chest of the thrashing monster. Through the vision of The Asura’s Eye of Fate, the exploding rock shards and burning embers meant nothing. The glowing red structural flaw was completely open right before his eyes.

Dante extended his right arm and drove the invisible sword straight into the red dot.

The blade pierced the core matrix easily. The clean sound echoed through the silent cavern before the fracture lines violently rippled across the elemental’s entire torso. The liquid fire flowing through its stone veins instantly short-circuited, turning a dull black color.

The entire colossal mound of hardened stone violently shattered into black sand and harmless gravel, cascading down the sides of the obsidian bridge and splashing into the boiling molten lake below.

The chamber fell into a silence, the pressure vanishing instantly. The Seven-Sins Asura Blade gave a light, cool ripple against Dante’s palm as the S-rank elemental soul was pulled into the hilt, permanently expanding his baseline physical muscles and making his arm feel perfectly light.

Dante landed smoothly on his feet, making a quiet thud against the ground as if he had just stepped over a small bug.

"Incredible," Gideon muttered from the ledge, his voice carrying a spark of respect as he lowered his bone staff. "To take a direct hit from a volcanic calamity beast, shatter its limb with bare skin, and delete its core in one sequence... You really are a monster, kid."

Dante didn’t look back at the old pioneer. He simply looked straight ahead toward the dark archway at the end of the bridge. " Let’s keep moving."

Esabella come down from the cliff ledge, her high heels clicking loudly as she closed the distance. She stepped right into his personal space.

"Dante! That was absolutely beautiful!" Esabella whispered fiercely, her eyes dilating completely as she stared at his handsome face. Her large chest rose and fell against her black lace corset from the excitement. "The way you didn’t even blink when that giant fist came down... You looked so cold, so ruthless, so perfect! I knew my bloodline belonged to you the moment you defeat me, my choice was right"

Dante didn’t say a single word. He casually raised his left hand, pushed her face away by the forehead to keep his personal distance, and walked straight through the dark archway, heading deeper into the hidden mining tracks.

Esabella manic smile returning to her lips as she followed right behind his heels, her nails gripping her whip tightly as they approached the northern fortress sectors.

.....

The sloping path of the track began to level out.

Dante walked silently as he followed the winding corridor. A few paces behind him, Gideon kept his bone staff lifted, using the faint red glow of the distant rocks to guide their steps. Esabella walked at the rear, keeping a strict three-step distance as Dante had ordered. Her eyes were alert.

Gideon suddenly stopped, pointing a scarred finger toward a small opening in the right wall.

"Right there," Gideon whispered, his voice barely audible over the distant rumble of the mountain. "That’s the old ventilation grate. It overlooks the upper catwalk of the central vault. If my mapping is right, the core is directly below us."

Dante nodded once. He moved toward the wall, crouching low as he approached the iron bars of the grate. He peered through the gaps, looking down into the circular chamber below.

The vault was enormous, carved entirely out of obsidian stone. In the center of the room, a large, floating crystalline sphere pulsed with an intense, deep violet light. This was the floor core. A complex matrix of glowing red runes surrounded the sphere, locking it inside a containment field that hummed with a density.

Standing near the base of the containment field were two elite northern captains.They carried halberds and were pacing back and forth.

Dante focused his hearing as the voices of the two demons drifted up through the ventilation grate.

"How long do we have to stand guard in this damp hole?" the first captain grunted, slamming the butt of his halberds against the floor in frustration. "The whole fortress is on high alert, and we are stuck watching a glowing rock."

"Shut your mouth and keep your eyes sharp," the second captain rasped, his red eyes scanning the chamber entrance. "Warlord Balor took his personal vanguard squad and marched out to the southern border twenty minutes ago. He felt the energy shockwave from Captain Akon’s sudden erasure. The Warlord is furious. If he finds out anyone slacked off while he was away, he will peel our scales off."

Dante’s eyes narrowed slightly as he caught the information.