Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power - Chapter 1110

Time passes outside my body, but there are no souls or energy for it to act upon.

The white glowing Immortal Emperor floats in a state of suspended animation within an angel-shaped membrane for as long as it needs.

The only change that occurs is one in the outer realm of the Void Creeper’s domain.

The golden light that shrouded the realm like a sunset slowly fades away.

With it, the entire structure of the realm fades too.

Every tablet manifestation that linked to the systems within every galaxy disfigures and fades into darkness within the fabric of this realm.

Even the Void Creepers themselves fade away and disappear.

They are just mental manifestations of the creator of this space, once referred to as the Mother long ago—so long ago that a time scale in the current universe could not measure it. That is because they are an entity from a time before, wrapped around this universe to keep its laws intact.

The actual mind behind it moved on long ago. These fragments of what they used to be materialize as shadows of their former race. The Void Creepers only had one directive left: to watch the current Emperor move on, and help to make sure they do so without fail.

The process of the Great Cycle is repeating once again, and the consciousness in the outer realm breathes a sigh of relief. Its purpose fulfilled, and a successor for its role chosen by the strings of laws left behind by the Mother before them.

The golden sunset fades to darkness, and every Void Creeper in the outer realm ceases to exist once the final system user in the universe goes dark.

I feel myself die the instant my rank-up is completed.

Half of the flawless-grade ether I collected from the octillions of souls that were farmed within the galaxy I ruled has been entirely burned through in order for my rank-up to succeed.

The other half is held by Maria, and it has been fully saturated into her membrane artifact filled with source resin.

The system that constrains us to levels and skills is completely burned away.

This is a similar process to the fate of those Ascended Ones, but instead of relinquishing my rights to use the system, I’ve conquered every directive it can conjure. There is no longer any law of complexity within its mechanisms that I cannot comprehend or create myself.

When I open my eyes again and look down at my body, it is no longer bright with the endless sparks of mana and demonic energy colliding.

This reaction has been compressed and nullified into particles of invisible packets of information. They are continuing to destroy each other and be summoned back to collide again; yet without any observer, their reactions have been hidden within the membrane to do so privately.

The membrane I’m floating in has evolved and expanded quite a bit.

I can feel that it is still Maria’s Immortal Body, but it has been super-saturated with the essence of life and matured for an unknown amount of time while I completed my rank-up.

The perfect mental link I hold with her is still present; it is just far more complicated now.

It is like anywhere I look in this void, I understand its thoughts and desires, and in turn, it understands me back.

When I peer into my body to try and find what is left of my silver core, I find that it is completely gone and has been replaced by a compact orb of golden threads instead.

There is still a perfect gravitational pull in the depths of my consciousness that senses these silver threads, but instead of in my chest, they reside within the flowing river that still fluctuates in my soul sword.

This sword slowly rotates around me in the membrane.

It has also completely exhausted its ether stores, and all of the mana and demonic energy that was devoured within has turned to sparks and has been nullified by the pressure of this membrane that does not allow me to die.

There is no longer any time passing, no energy available to me, no matter or purpose left.

The only things I have are Ember’s memories and my own attachment to the enormous membrane I float in, connected to Maria’s soul.

Either she has grown infinitely larger, or I have shrunk to an infinitely smaller size, because I can no longer sense anything outside.

The only way I could possibly look would require the use of my golden threads, yet all of the laws of reality scream into my instincts to stop every time I attempt to try.

I feel like I’m floating in place without moving, but at the same time, it feels like I’m falling down deeper and deeper into this membrane, closer to its true center.

There are no physical changes, nor any bends in the laws around me.

It is only a feeling I get from the soul bound void.

I reach out with a hand made entirely of golden threads and grasp the blade of my solid sword artifact, the only proof of real existence left.

Its golden glyphs shimmer, and I feel a single thread of instinct pulling me forward to pierce an infinitely small point in the void.