Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

All of the fluctuations and spinning microscopic glyphs within this Demon’s system and the skill he activates are laid bare in front of my eyes.

The mysterious sensations that felt like ominous, untamed magic in its memories, and even in its form before my eyes, now look like nothing more than simple systems. It’s all just pieces of a puzzle that can be fit together.

Activating skills present on one’s status automatically triggers all of these pieces into existence, allowing for complex actions to be made. However, there is another way to achieve the same result.

The wave of strange energy I release, pulsing out from my merging cores, is a complete mirror image of the system activation coming at us from Noctus. A simultaneous mental link rushes through Maria’s mind, and her cores also burst outward with a slightly altered version sparkling with rainbow light.

There was no formal system activation, but the essence of the energy being pushed toward our enemy is identical.

Every single microscopic spinning glyph and attachment to the void is being replicated and forcefully pushed outward. It is like we’re creating a brand-new array, with countless functions all merging together.

At the point of this force’s emergence, I feel an abundance of emotions as memories link themselves to these sensations.

The first slightly eerie one being the very feeling I experience every time I absorb new skills automatically through the system. There is no new line lit up in my list of skills, but I can feel a heavy shadow in the blank space of my status where this skill could be.

I’ve manually recreated a system function, and it is struggling to quantify the output of energy I’m producing. In the depths of my mind, I can almost see this skill flickering in and out of my status with a sharp silver light.

Yet, this is not the only thing my subconscious floats to.

It also explores the actual function of this [Space Time Manipulation] skill. After instantaneously recreating it from scratch, I can also see the exact limits and functions it holds.

According to the amount of pure energy siphoned into the skill, it is capable of creating pockets of either extremely slowed or extremely sped-up time. There is no function capable of moving backward, only forward at a multitude of desired rates.

The entire existence of that Demon in the void makes total sense. The pool of consciousness we cut through to get to its main body was being used as fuel for this skill. The denser the energy form used, the more drastic the time flow difference can be.

It also triggers many memories from the Lower and Upper realms within my own life.

The first being the Realm Waves that would distort time between sections of the construct. The functions of these waves feel so simple now that I look back at them.

Yet, there are also much smaller instances where a similar force was used. The first that comes to mind being the Void Creepers back on the human world, and the mana-based accelerated cultivation chambers that were made by the craftsmanship dashboard of the system. Both of which created small isolated worlds using enormous amounts of energy, yet worked in mysterious ways until now.

Even their mechanical makeups all seem extremely simple to recreate now that I’m witnessing matter bend at the mercy of these systematic collections of glyphs.

The Demon’s true system-based Realm Wave clashes with the artificially summoned copies coming out of our cores, and a devastating explosion of energy pulses into the void.

An overconfident grin on the Demon’s face quickly turns to one of shock, then fear, then pure rage.

An overwhelming force of strength drags my blade to the side.

I watch the silver Demon’s clawed hand gripping around its sharp pointed edges, not caring at all that its flesh is being cut through.

Moments ago, I felt entirely trapped in time, but as the Demon drags me and the blade away, I feel the grip of the void loosening. Instead, now it just feels like I’m swimming through extremely thick molasses.

Maria is dragged away in another direction to the opposite side of the orb, and Noctus lets out a demonic screech followed by another pulse of silver light emanating out of his entire body.

A Demon-shaped Realm Wave explodes outward as he lets go of both our swords, but faces a palm toward each of us.

It does not appear as though we’re far away, but the distance between myself and Maria is equivalent to multiple galaxies. I feel the strength of our soul bond trying to pull us closer, but there is a Demon blocking our path.

Even the instant relay between our memories starts to lag ever so slightly. To withstand this attack we have to rely only on our own strength.

The instant the wave of silver light crashes into both of our forms, radiant artificial Realm Waves burst back and tear wide open holes to allow us through.

As the Demon’s screech comes to an end, both of its palms are stuck through by blades of fire and ice, and they do not stop. The force pierces deep into this Demon’s arms, splitting them in half as it tries to hold us back.

“How… how have you learned my skill? It is a unique skill only born from the first generation of Demons. No other races can ever learn it… That is impossible!”

The innermost portion of this sphere of essence has become filled with countless silver threads.

Many of which fall into the depths of my blade, and others being blasted out of the white bubble of shattered glyphs around us. When they touch the darkness of the void, they fold and bend away into invisible pockets of space and do not return to the Demon’s core.

The total amount of silver threads in this Demon is being diminished.

I see it happening with my senses, and also feel it with the next pulse of a Realm Wave that it releases, at barely over half the strength of the first.