Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

Patterns of mirrored demonic glyphs appear all over the seemingly simple hexagonal array.

It turns from a plain primordial aura coloring to complex and distorted. Many of the chaotic glyphs that are mirrored are red and black, yet they are locked in place, unable to be released until the pressure of the attack is lifted.

This can either happen by the stress point of the mirror being pushed all the way in, and its daggers breaking through to hit the defensive array beneath it. Or, the Demon retreats and all of the pressure he’s forced into the array will be blasted back at him.

While my Advanced Primordial Aura Maturity is steadily rising the more I move, think, and take in my surroundings, I know that my raw strength still does not add up to this Demon.

However, I’m certain this array will hold him in place long enough to trap him and do some damage.

Maria produces nine copies of herself and spreads out in a circle around us.

Her blade swings with a violent pressure from every angle, and she sends a flurry of attacks toward the Demon that has slowed down while attacking my arrays.

All of her doubles’ slashes are filled with true Advanced Primordial Aura, but only one of them has Source Resin, and the deadly power to actually damage this Demon like the first hit.

This does not change the fact that hundreds of lower-grade attacks are being sent its way, that react to his chaotic aura the same as the real strike.

Only this Demon’s instincts, deep down, can sense where the actual deadly strike is coming from.

In order to dodge the first few, he has to bend his body in extremely strange angles.

One of them even skims his leg, leaving a wide open icy blue and white gash.

He explodes with more blue and orange bursts of light, but it no longer looks the same in my eyes. Before, I saw something beautiful and graceful. Now, it’s like he’s giving in to a different power. I feel the rage of a Demon seeping into the aura that was pure and unique before. There are even faint streaks of purple energy seeping out from his core, making the chaos even more convoluted.

Maria’s decoy blades all slam into the energy body of this Demon, and he does not even flinch. They are extremely strong attacks, very similar to the strength of what a fireball produced from my palm right now would probably create.

It only disrupts a portion of his chaotic aura, even the very few of them that make it all the way through don’t even crack or scratch his deep purple crystalline skin.

This confirms in my mind: to actually hurt him, I would need to use a massive amount of my corruption tethered to arrays formed with the newest addition of Creator’s Legacy glyphs.

Even with it, I watch the icy slash on his leg heal almost instantly. Even his horn from before has grown back entirely, as good as new.

This does not dissuade Maria.

She lands more and more hits as the two chaotic daggers sink deeper into my array.

At first, it looks just like when he and Ember were facing off in the sky. The wounds just flash on his crystal flesh, then fade away faster than they come.

However, there are no attacks flying back at Maria now, only waves of aura.

Marcellus tries to lift a dagger out of my array, and instantly the glyphs that form around the stress point start to spin. His instincts blare in his mind, and he pushes harder, realizing this really is a trap, and the only way out is through.

His only defense against the icy blades is dodging, and pulsing out waves of especially dense Primordial Aura at the icy archangels that surround him.

There are waves of chaos, now partially infused with demonic essence, that burst out like sun flares and destroy body doubles that are too close and have nowhere to run. They also do not have the layers of Creator’s Legacy glyphs that Maria’s real body holds, so a single strong wave of aura destroys them without too much resistance.

She summons many more, but also gets into a rhythm, understanding the Demon’s reactions to her strikes.

Maria even mentally maps out how this Demon’s instincts work, and begins throwing double attacks from different angles, predicting where he will dodge to before he even does.

She gets closer and closer, landing hits that cut deeper and become nearer and nearer to vital points.

Her true body blips back and forth, quadrillions of kilometers at a time, swapping bodies with her doubles and forming new angelic forms that explode out of her every time too many are destroyed.

It looks like an icy sparkling tornado is forming above this tree stump, as more and more residue fills the air.

There are dozens of full-powered attacks that completely miss and slam into the Central Domain’s barrier dome. Every one of them shakes its structural integrity, filling the entire barrier with more sparkling fractures than there is untainted space.

She lands two consecutive blows on the Demon’s horns, then one that comes dangerously close to its cores.

Given a few more seconds, Marcellus would certainly break through my defenses, but this is time he does not have.

His mobility is so limited, and Maria is learning his movements so precisely, in a few more rounds he’ll face a barrage of icy blades he cannot dodge.

Marcellus lets out a frustrated roar, and I feel the pressure on my barrier lessen.

All of the mirrored glyphs that stored this built-up energy begin to spin in reverse, and the Advanced Primordial Aura that pours out of the array is extremely ominous. It feels chaotic and demonic, but it is made of my own Ethereal Fire and Primordial Corruption, only using this Demon’s sacrificed energy as its fuel source.

A pillar of horrific energy explodes upward, completely surrounding Marcellus and blasting him backward as the hexagon array throws him back and shatters after its one-time use.

The shockwave even destroys all of Maria’s doubles and pushes her real body back.

There is a domain-shaking thud almost instantly after the flash of aura pours out, and the pillar disappears almost as fast as it was summoned.

This Imperial Family Head is pushed up against the top of the domain’s ceiling, his crystal energy form fractured all over, and the majority of his chaotic blue and orange aura completely evaporated from being overwhelmed.

One of his horns is still broken from Maria’s last few hits, but his blades still glow and pulse with chaos, just like his eyes.

For a mere moment, this Demon looked weak. Frail enough that it felt like one more good hit could actually kill him.

Yet, this fleeting vision fades fast.

The small streaks of purple I saw blending with his Primordial Aura before flow out with far more intensity. He is no longer trying to keep it inside. I watch as Demonic Essence is forcefully pushed out from his Royal Demon’s Core.

At the same time, the evaporated chaotic aura grows back.

I saw Outer Guards and First Bloods do a similar thing. It even happened to me, when my aura was overpowered completely. It can be destroyed, but as soon as there is space to spread out the will again, it can grow back just as strong.

In this Demon’s case, even stronger.

Its eyes change.

There is no longer a prideful Demon that knows it has won, that is certain he will stand in this Primordial Garden for eternity with all of the galaxy’s energy in his grasp.

There is now a Demon that has lived billions of years, and for the first time, is realizing he might fail.

Something breaks, and I watch the chaotic system tags shifting above his head. He activates a buff, and the system mechanisms that I can sense but cannot fully understand begin to trigger.

Just like my Primordial Grade Shadow Step had a small lag to its activation, so does this buff.

I can only feel something deep in my soul trembling at the amount of energy that is about to be released.

My gaze turns to Maria, and her icy blue eyes are filled with the same understanding.

Both of us focus, and peer into our own systems and follow the path of least resistance. It leads us to the bright glowing [Rank Up] notifications that have been waiting for us.