Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

My full mind is occupied by the task of absorbing this never-ending wave of corruption I’ve allowed to flow into my body.

It acts much differently than the corruption that was attacking my Sacred Body before, as I’ve given it pathways to follow without any pushback. In turn, it does not try to destroy me either. My Royal Vibrations are aligned with the final desires of this Demon.

At least, a portion of them.

It is not only pure energy I’m absorbing, but this Demon’s will.

It merges with my own, yet I’m able to separate it, and contain the dark rage and hatred-filled energy inside the black demon core deep within my chest.

Every single pulse of its energy triggers many of its old memories and thoughts surging through my mind.

My Soul Energy Core burns outward with bright white Celestial Light, and my High Noble Vibrations shift toward that of a royal that strives to create, protect, and build a better future to protect my generals, commanders, knights, and 1 billion worlds’ worth of citizens that have sworn their loyalty to me.

Yet, the Vibrations that evolve within my Demon’s core, and merge with Miriel’s, embrace the path of destruction, revenge, hatred, and rage.

Not only do I feel the resentment of the Royals from Miriel himself, but they also align with a portion of my own feelings toward this race. Well, at least the ones that have sworn loyalty to the 5 Great Families.

Starting with my first true interaction with a Noble Demon, Draco Vermillion.

He looked at my home world as nothing but a mana farm, and had a disgust toward lower races. Many times over he would comment on the fact that those close to me would be used as personal slaves as he drained the human world of its profitable energy.

My next interaction with a Noble Demon was short, but it was with Andras Vermillion. The hundreds of thousands of lords mining ether beneath the Citadel in contracts created to only run out after these lesser lords would die was cruel as well. Not to mention, the thousands of demonic servants he trapped within avatars, unable to move or think for themselves.

Memories from the Demonic Beasts that guarded the entry point to the Citadel also come to the forefront of my mind, as even after death, they are used as tools and tortured for being weaker than the Demons.

My visuals from Kelfar in the Lower Realm, and the war that took place above the sea of corruption show me that this has always happened. The strong will always suppress the weak, and perceive them as less valuable. It is the nature of Demons, and the natural will of the 5 Great Families.

What I’ve seen in the Grand Citadel is arguably even worse, and more cruel… trapping lords in an endless wilderness simulation to keep the ether in this zone of the Upper Realm from regressing. Those that are strong enough to get to the center of the wilderness and break free were forced to fight in the arena tournaments. Those that lost, or went broke gambling their ether, were all turned into admins or demonic servants for the Lord of this Zone to do with as he pleased.

However… for some reason, out of all the cruel power-hungry monsters and demons I’ve fought and killed in the past, I feel slightly bad for Miriel.

If not subjected to hundreds of thousands of years of manipulation and labor for the greater good of his family that uses even their own kin as slaves and pawns, he would not have turned out this way.

In fact, in the last 18 thousand years in his memories, he never really attacked anyone without them harming him first. Other than the direct orders from the family heads above him, he never harmed other Lords for the fun of it like he used to in the Lower Realm, now it is only out of duty. Since seeing the royal holograms in person, his goals shifted.

His single-minded hatred for the Royals, and his eternal cursing of the system itself, for bringing him into such a cruel and unfair reality… this is what vibrates with an incredibly strong resonance within my Demon’s Core.

Deep down, I understand his desires. A part of me feels exactly the same way.

–

The moment this clicks, the waves of corruption seeping into my palms start to move faster and faster.

The bottoms of my feet, back of my neck, shoulders, top of my head, and even the middle of my back all begin to drain the corruption around me as well, not only the outward burst from the source.

Finally, the pressure within the Celestial Orb starts to lessen.

Nine dark black streams of corruption move through my body from all sides, and only connect into my core. The outside of these oily black coiling tendrils of energy are compressed with the Royal Vibrations of our merging wills.

Outside the massive 1 million kilometer wide orb, the black hexagonal lines of energy where the seams looked like they were about to burst retract.

The tens of thousands of defensive arrays are able to charge up stronger, using the flowing Celestial Energy I siphon through it, and heal up the cracks that nearly shattered. The dense shells of elemental summoned energy, and raw divine threads all tighten up, to fully seal the orb.

It feels like an eternity in my mind, as I must keep total concentration, to push the flow of corruption in toward me, while simultaneously keeping the defensive arrays steady. There is also the matter of controlling the transition of my Celestial Absorption upgrade that has turned my entire system white, and finally conceptualizing the step up from a High Noble to a Royal myself.

It is so mind-numbing, that my consciousness shifts to autopilot. I can feel multiple Grand Citadels’ worth of mass of Corruption flow into me, while at the same time I continue to process the raw divine energy, ether, and mana I gained from the Citadel’s mass.

My body deep within this Orb glows bright, with a white, red, and black aura as I digest, absorb, and control everything at my fingertips.

My yells of simultaneous pain and satisfaction are drowned out by the sea of corruption around me, and the celestial prison I’ve created for myself.

Yet, as seconds pass, I feel progress being made.

The resonance comes to its natural peak, as I process all of the energy from the Citadel and surrounding green zone as I can. In the same instance, the flowing waves of endless corruption finally cease.

The Royal Demon’s Rage has been released in its entirety, and it has found a vessel.

As the final tendrils of dark energy flow through my body, and become fully contained in my Royal Demon’s Core; a dense layering of our combined vibrations surrounds it so the unrefined corruption cannot escape to attack my body. Yet, there are still cracks all over my core’s surface, that have not healed from the many violent body-destroying attacks I received during our battle.

Even my Soul Energy and Divine Core are slightly fractured too. These at least have begun to heal, but the Demon’s Core is much slower.

Even so, the fact that this energy is finally contained, and many foresight futures show the green zone not being obliterated allow me to finally open my eyes and let out a sigh of relief.

When I do, there are still massive dimension cracks that surround me, scarring the green zone, and leading to the Lower Realm, as well as the cyan zone.

While terrifying in nature, the future I see allows me not to worry.

As the pressure and violent release of Royal Vibrations has been contained and dealt with, all of the massive cracks around me start to shrink as well.

In the next few seconds, some that were tens of thousands of kilometers thick shrink and fade away.

The strange gravity waves and stress on the green zone’s stability fade with them, returning the fabric of space back to normal while I smile.

I stare down at my hands, as they reflect back at me with a metallic white, red, and black obsidian-colored hue.

For the most part, I am calm, and all three cores in my chest are stable.

Yet… there are still High Noble Vibrations spilling out from this Sacred Body’s Form. Some are Royal Vibrations from Miriel, and others, I’m positive, are my own mutated Royal Waves, as my consciousness has grasped what is necessary to break through; but there is still something holding me back.

A few conditions have not been met, and in this moment, I cannot tell exactly what they are.

I take a deep breath in and out, activate the suppression technique that Seraphel taught me, in order not to release my aura on the green zone, to keep it contained within my body for the time being.

Then, I release the Celestial barrier around me, letting the tens of thousands of defensive arrays on my soul sword copies dissolve, and the energy used from them flow back toward me to be absorbed.

The moment I do, instead of a peaceful quiet zone celebrating our victory, reality hits me with horrific waves of cold Vibrations I didn’t think I would have to face so soon…

My gaze shifts upward, and my enhanced vision can see exactly what the source of these waves are over 15 million kilometers away.

Maria’s Angelic Form is lighting up the sky with a rainbow, blue, and white light, pushing out a domineering pressure on the entire zone.

As she continues to grow in size, I witness cracks in reality form all around her too, just like the ones I managed to suppress.

Yet, hers are spreading much faster… There are dense cyan threads bursting out from most of them, as they only lead upward. Unlike the zone fracture Miriel caused, none of these cracks lead to the Lower Realm.

They are fueled by Celestial Ice, glistening with the rainbow-refracting glow of the source resin from her sword.

Even from here, I can feel the pressure and strength of her Vibrations, and they are somehow nearly as strong as my own… and only increasing by the millisecond.

I step forward, leaving a massive white dent in space behind me, and fly toward these cracks in the sky, pushing my Celestial Grade Foresight skill to its limits once again to find solutions.