Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

Sharp pressure showers down on the outside of my soul from all sides.

I can feel that almost all of my Advanced Primordial Aura has been suppressed again. The density of the chaotic aura becomes greater, and the weight of the demonic essence increases as well.

Layers of the glyphs around the outside of my soul are being stained purple, and the glitching sensation is beginning to course through my entire being. It feels less like a separate entity I’m trying to suppress, and more like my own conscious thought as my connection to the system becomes intertwined.

Even without being hit, the system constantly tries to update and register the kill.

Every bit of essence I absorb, the final updated [Lv. 2,278,994] glows at the top of my status. Yet, it ticks down below two million at times, and everything becomes fuzzy.

Even my list of skills, buffs, and stats that were never related to this kill.

My entire system jitters, and the wills within my Primordial Corruption morph to be far more like this Marcellus Imperial. He is proud, strong, and has an understanding of the system that surpasses mine.

Despite his unstable chaotic nature, the baseline knowledge is assimilating as my will conquers his within the sea of black glyphs and millions of other demons’ essence.

As the quantity of demonic essence attacks becomes too much for me to block any longer, they all just collide with the outside of my soul. One after another like rain. They leave cracks throughout the Sacred Body deep within my Origin Body, and almost every single glyph on the surface becomes infested with demonic essence.

Yet, the numb static sensation becomes natural and soothing.

The only active mental and physical energy I have left I use to protect my cores, and to infuse my blade with as much power as it can hold.

I’ve entered a flow state surpassing that of my Primordial Resonance buff, it is complete and total tunnel vision.

In doing so, the static becomes a background buzz that fades away, and so does the glitching system text.

Without my active mind focusing, and trying to dissect what it means, the glitches completely stop.

Or at least from my perspective, they no longer exist.

I’m able to assimilate the strange chaotic anti-system energy like it is normal, no more difficult than mana or ether.

On the other side of the Demon, Maria’s mind syncs with mine, and the same outcome occurs.

Instead of the glitching crescents of demonic Essence breaking open her angelic ice body, they start to phase right through.

She does not set up any barriers to protect her stacked pseudo cores. Instead, she allows the Demonic Essence to flow right into the black hole in her chest.

All of its infused Advanced Primordial Aura is drained out, all of the high-quality ether imbued is absorbed by her source resin, and the leftover dark matter is ejected outward from her back between her wings.

When she does not exert any mental pressure to observe the glitching, it’s completely destroyed and negated too. There is no need to wait, or fight the strange phenomena.

Marcellus yells when he sees the last flurry of attacks hit both of us at point-blank range, but seep into us rather than tear us to shreds, “No! That’s impossible! This is not a gift of the Creator’s Legacy… It cannot function outside the bounds of the system like I can… Where did you learn this? This can’t be…”

He tries to send more attacks our way from his daggers, but all that comes out are waves of gravity strengthened by chaotic aura. It is stained purple by the density of divine threads in the strike, but there is no physical matter left.

These waves of energy flow right through me like a warm breeze, I don’t even notice them.

The only thing I concentrate on is my flaming sword colliding with a bright white Orb in Marcellus’ chest.

The waves of heat coming off this artifact are extremely intense, but at the same time invigorating. It is like pure refined high-quality ether residue.

Being in its presence every time it blinks gives off mist that flows through my energy pathways and into my own pools. Veins of pure white ether travel through my infected purple and black soul’s outer layers, and rivers of ether pour into my own core.

I can feel all of Marcellus’ chaotic aura compressing inward and attacking me.

He even tries to stab me with one of his daggers repeatedly, but it does no damage. My physical body has become far stronger than him.

The blade and this aura just bounce off my back.

I can feel the anger and horror in his High Royal Vibrations, not only from the aura he clings onto, but also from the majority of his will that is now suppressed and all mine to control deep within my Primordial Corruption.

Many of these black glyphs pour into my blade. Some of them are still covered in demonic essence that is actively being converted.

I use his own devoured will to attack his last remaining core.

A dark crack appears at the impact point of that flashing white orb, and millions of soul sword copies trigger explosions and complex strength and sharpness arrays to push the blade forward with more pressure.

The instant there is a gap of resistance, my metallic Advanced Primordial Aura enhanced by a crimson aura of mist seeps inside.

From the back side of this demon, Maria’s diamond blade collides with the orb as well. Her efficiency at draining the ambient high-quality ether in the air into her soul is even better than mine.

When the source resin in her blade feels the ether density of the artifact it’s touched, it uses a completely opposite technique than mine.

Instead of pushing harder, it sucks the energy out from the thin contact point her sword has made.

The structural integrity of the thin line she pushes on weakens, and with the same amount of pressure, she does more and more damage with every passing moment.

The core gives way on her end too, shattering open, and sparkling ice floods in.

The blinking white light hits its apex, and I cannot even perceive the time between flashes.

There is an absurd release of high-quality ether into the central domain, but immediately afterward the entire core explodes into mist from the pressure of two blades.

A thunderous shockwave and pressure shift explodes through the dome again as my blade clashes against Maria’s in the center, creating a perfect X.

The artifact has been obliterated, but it’s impossible to tell if we’ve succeeded in time… all I see is white.