Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power - Chapter 900

The clapping from above gets louder, and the hot aura that surrounds us becomes unbearable.

It is like invisible heavy molten metal has just filled the air and holds us in place. I try to move my hands, or even shift my stance, but searing hot pain makes it feel as though my flesh is being melted.

We’re forced to stand and wait…

I begin to replay my memories for answers and debate unsealing my corruption all over again, despite barely healing from the first release. Maria’s Vibrations are in the same mode of emergency, ready to go all out again if necessary.

However, both of us know whatever is coming our way is not even remotely close to the same level as those High Nobles.

There is a very distinct frequency piercing through us, and that is one that only emanates from the higher life form of a Royal.

It is terrifying for a number of reasons.

The first is the fear resonating in our soul, that is identical to the feelings I’ve absorbed from the demons we just killed. I’m getting the same instinctual reaction, like we’re standing below an ancient monster I can’t possibly understand.

The second is the fact that this aura does not feel like any of the Royal Family heads.

I’ve mentally imprinted their Vibration’s signatures in the back of my mind from feeling them in Miriel’s memories, and whatever this creature is, it is not one of them.

The last, and most shocking thing about this Demon, is that I can hear its hands clapping.

I haven’t heard any real noise in years… and this is crisp and perfectly audible, like it’s right inside my ear.

It is slow, maybe one clap every two seconds.

Yet, while frozen in space under the increasing hot pressure, it feels like hours go by in between each one.

I can’t even tell what direction the enemy is even coming from. The longer the aura descends, the more it feels like it is coming from every direction. Even if I were to go all out and use my corruption to try and escape, I don’t know what direction to run in.

My pupils shrink even more once I hear a calm, low voice in my inner ear, like a perfect telepathy is being used to speak right into my mind.

“That was an excellent show. I haven’t seen anyone make it up the temple steps in a long time…”

The outer edges of my ether senses above us, about 5 kilometers away, start to fade to black. It is not because my senses are being suppressed, but that the Celestial Energy that floods into it is not normal like the Demons in this abyss I’ve seen before.

The aura spreads as seconds pass, and I watch a massive Royal Demon float down toward us with nothing but a calm smile on his face while clapping.

Its armor is extremely simple, only a lightweight set covering its vitals. It glows extremely dark purple, the color of the essence I’ve been absorbing from Demons’ cores, and it matches the glow coming off its calm eyes.

It has two lighter purple-colored horns. Two of them curl out from its forehead, and spiral upward as if they have been growing slowly for an eternity.

The Demon’s skin is almost jet black, and its muscles are compact. It is far leaner than the High Nobles, but from what I can tell, it’s over 200 meters tall, and the strength contained inside its insidious body cannot even be compared on the same scale as the Demons we just fought.

Not even Miriel gave off this kind of pressure.

It’s as though I’m staring death in the face. It is in no rush to prove anything, it knows its victory is inevitable.

It holds no hatred, no malice; and no erratic behavior can be felt in its Vibrations.

This calm and indifferent aura is far more offputting than a mindless angry Demon.

The slow clap finally stops as the Demon speaks again, and its tone sounds like it is amused, talking to us like we’re in on some kind of light friendly joke.

“I haven’t seen another Royal come down here since the Vanguards Ascended… Never did I expect to see a pair of humans with their paths awakened. I thought there were no resets remaining.”

A smile slowly forms on the Demon’s face, showing off its bright light purple teeth that match its horns in color.

Not only do I see its whole face up close for the first time, but I see its soul weapons as well.

Over a dozen of them, in fact.

Slowly rotating above its head, just over the tips of its horns, like a multi-colored halo, there are countless soul weapons. Some of them glow bright white, others in many shades of purple, a few jet black, and oddly enough, a few that glow bright cyan.

They range from small daggers to enormous axes, shields, longswords, spiked maces, and many other weapon shapes I’ve never even seen before.

The Demon continues to speak, letting out a laugh to itself.

“Lucian Morvale. Did that liar finally die? Is that why you’re here? The Lower Realm finally stabilized with the stolen energy up here, didn’t it? One of his toys finally got to him and finished the job? Or no… He would have planned for that too. Maybe he’s just finally gone crazy—he’s resorted to using other races in his experiments now because of the new generation’s declining talent.”

He becomes serious, and his deep purple eyes shift right down toward me.

“That must be the case. Your path is completely messed up… Half Demon, and half… well, I don’t even know what to call that. I can see why he’d want to run his tests on someone like you.”

His eyes shift to my sword next.

“I’ve never tried fusing with an amplifier. That will do just fine as the next addition to my collection. It hasn’t fully awakened its own path yet, so this is perfect timing.”

It grins even wider, floating down right above the crack in the temple, less than a kilometer away from us.

The Demon’s deep purple eyes shift to Maria next, and it pauses for a couple of seconds. The intensity of the aura around us gets hotter and heavier. I can’t even breathe without fear of dying. Even my heart beating makes my body move just slightly enough to cause great pain in this domain around us that has formed.

“You’re even more interesting. That maniac figured out how to awaken one of those paths in a lesser race. He’s certainly lost his mind.”

The Demon laughs out loud to itself, but stops prematurely, like it was faking its amusement this whole time. Then, stares at Maria’s blade.

“You’ve brought me a Destroyer Class Soul Weapon from one of the Origin Worlds too? They would never let us go near that Sector when I was deployed in the Lower Realm. Whoever inherited the Green Zone must really be clearing everything up before the sealing.”

The Demon looks up into the darkness with disgust on its face, then shakes its head.

“Maybe this is your sick way of saying thank you for killing all your weaklings.”

It turns its head back toward us, and the instant I feel the aura pressure change, I don’t waste any time. I release the seal on the only power I have strong enough to break free from this prison.

At the same exact time, I feel Maria’s Soul energy core contract and pulse outward with murderous force acting on exactly the same impulse.

This Demon sees us as nothing but a lesser race, bugs that it can suppress with its aura and take the gifts we’ve brought it.

It is the truth. Ever since we entered this Ravine, we have relied on our superior paths to defeat our enemies even if they had higher-powered Celestial Energy. Even in that last fight against the High Nobles, we still both used extreme versions of our Royal Vibrations in order to overpower the Demon’s wills. Their Celestial Energy purity and volume were far greater than ours.

Yet now, there is a Demon with an unfathomably strong Celestial Energy base, with a unique dark affinity that is countless times stronger than us. It has Royal Vibrations of its own, and has been honing them far longer than those two false guardians.

In fact, it even mentioned the Royal Family of the Dark Blue Zone… This Demon is most likely far older than I can fathom.

A dark red and black aura bursts out from me, and a royal blue and rainbow explosion flows out from Maria. We focus our energy all throughout our bodies to give us enough strength and defense to withstand the pressure around us, and the remaining all into our feet to blast off the ground to escape.

We fly backward toward the stairs where we came from, but in the back of my mind, I watch the Demon smirk, then completely disappear from our senses.

Just as we’re about to fly off into the darkness, a massive dark demonic figure appears out of thin air in our way.

It reaches up above its head, and pulls the smallest purple dagger from its collection.

I can hardly even interpret its movements, as they’re too fast for my eyes to comprehend; even as corruption seeps into them and enhances my vision.

It swings the blade across its body, and neither of us have any time to even react.

A thin line of dense purple essence emerges from its blade and bursts toward us, colliding with both of our chests before we can even move our blades down to block.

Our soul armor is shattered head to toe on impact, and the dense energy slices through my flesh like butter.

My vibrations all compress inward toward my cores, and the layers of corruption solely focus on saving my life. Maria’s aura contracts all the way too, not even bothering to try and protect any part of her body from the pressure in the air; only freezing a crystalline layer around her cores.

The Demon’s voice echoes in my mind as the only thing I can hear while its slash collides with our last layer of defenses.

“Oh, come on, you’re the first interesting visitors I’ve had in millions of years, and you’re leaving so soon? I insist, stay a while.”

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