Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

Ulgar floats forward after killing the swarm of insects and absorbing the white mist they left behind. Maria and I jump upward and follow him away from the Domain barrier of the Black Ogre’s that just closed and left it invisible to the rest of the Primordial Garden.

As we float through the small bits of residue left behind in this mist, I don’t exactly sense any usable ether readings, but it does feel warm. It is similar to the hot feeling that briefly stimulated my glyph imprints while using that elven artifact, but so much weaker. I can’t even feel the glyph outlines at all.

Beside this feeling, the Primordial Aura pushing down on us from all the trees around us feels even stronger than it was before. It’s like they’re targeting us now, or maybe it’s just that they notice us more because of the small stimulation we experienced.

Whatever the truth may be, I feel my depth of strength and understanding growing exponentially with every passing second. Both mine and Maria’s bubbles of Primordial Aura reach over 40 billion kilometers outward, almost double what it did before. This additional volume, plus the increasing mental proficiency, is pulling in far more stray Celestial Energy and divine threads from the environment.

Our minds are churning with new information, staring up at the green leaves that flicker with intricate patterns beyond our mental capacity, and thick tree trunks that hold auras capable of shattering our minds and souls if we look too deep. The clouds of dying lizards and insects that Ulgar occasionally kills in front of our path spew fractured high-quality ether commands directly into our clouds of consciousness to better understand.

While all this happens, our purple cores become more saturated, our soul energy cores pool with more celestial energy, and we cycle it to make it more and more pure. All of the chaos around us actually makes the refining process even more efficient.

Every tree we pass, more power flows into us, and my comparison to the lifeforms in the Blue Zone, Cyan Zone, Green Zone, and Lower Realm becomes further and further apart. Our Royal Vibrations grow tighter and stronger, approaching a new wavelength as we realize we are shifting to become even higher lifeforms.

Everything around us is so beautiful.

Every new glyph I see fills me with endorphins and a rush of new power, and the fact that we’re in our base royal forms with a protective layer of Primordial Aura makes it so much more exciting because it’s clear we’re only scratching the surface.

We’re sharing another trance-like experience, but this one is self-induced.

Hundreds of enormous trees pass us by as we get lost in the moment, following Ulgar while he destroys dozens of swarms.

A bright flash of white in the sky is what breaks us out of our daydreams.

“Get down, and don’t say a word. We have company,” echoes through our minds while the Black Ogre dives down toward the forest floor.

We follow and hit the ground right behind him a few billion kilometers away.

With the panic in his voice, I immediately assume the worst and believe one of these Imperial Outer Guards he spoke of has arrived. However, the Vibrations pouring out of him don’t only scream fear, they have compassion and trust in them too.

The flash of white light lands right in front of Ulgar, but the Ogre doesn’t reach for his weapons.

Instead, he clasps his fists together and gives a slight bow.

My eyes focus, and a familiar body shape materializes. A majestic White Griffin bows its head back, but its yellow eagle eyes are still sharp when it looks past Ulgar and yells in a raspy tone.

“State your business bringing outsiders near the White Griffin Domain. Our agreement was to ally with you and your underlings, nothing more.”

The Griffin has Royal Vibrations of his own, and a Primordial Aura that fills out his entire bright white Astral Form. The Ogre and Griffin are of very similar size and power on the surface, but when my eyes try to make sense of the spinning arrays and glyph patterns on its body, they’re entirely different than the Ogre’s. Not a single symbol matches, and I remember Ulgar saying they used a unique technique to awaken their imprints. Whatever I’m seeing, it’s the result of a White Griffin Legacy.

Ulgar smiles back. “We were just on our way out, Axel. I noticed you were surveying nearby and decided it’d be best to warn you of what I’m about to do.”

The Griffin’s gaze grows sharper, and its claws grip the ground tighter. “If it’s war you want, I don’t recommend it. I may not be able to kill you one-on-one, but we have numbers…”

Ulgar laughs and throws his hands up, “Come on. Not war on you…” He turns back to look at us.

“I found a couple of barrier smiths. They’re able to crack Domain Barriers without setting off the automated systems, and in just a matter of seconds.”

The Griffin’s eyes widen. “War on the Imperials then…?”

Ulgar nods, but the Griffin only flaps its wings and flies away. He doesn’t say another word, and disappears out of my range of view.

“What was that? He didn’t look like the trusted ally you made him out to be?” I call out.

Ulgar turns, changing directions slightly.

“He’s just protective. It’s a complicated time in the Primordial Garden. Both of us only have one Domain left, it is only natural to fight back when part of our agreement is tested.”

Ulgar floats up in the air, but he speaks again once reaching a height right below the branches. “If you thought he was uncooperative, wait until you see Vardon. It would probably be best if you stayed a tree or two away from me until this next meeting passes. The Fiery Mammoths can be… a bit temperamental.”

Ulgar takes a step forward and begins flying through the air again.

Nerves and excitement both rush through me. Images of a massive war starting in the zones below me are flashing through my subconscious, but the majority of my mind is still fascinated by the Griffin’s Glyphs.

Just thinking about it, I get a prickly feeling all over the outside of my soul.

We move through the trees even faster than before, and stay further back. My mind is racing and expanding; it is so easy to fall back into a trance while Maria experiences the same bliss-like feeling right by my side.

The more I adapt to the zone around me, the more vast and unexplainable it becomes. It’s like I’m falling deeper and deeper into a well of understanding that I need to learn more of to possibly claw my way out. It is addicting, yet so satisfying.

The prickling sensation begins to grow warm as I start to relate some of the glyphs I saw on that griffin to a few I recognize from the elven artifact, then flashbacks from the creator’s legacy begin pouring back into my mind. They only come in glimpses, and every time they do, they’re either impossible to understand or followed by a flash of golden light that deletes my memories of comprehending it.

I grit my teeth and dig deeper each time because I feel like I’m getting so close, but there’s just something missing. I know all of the pieces of information floating in my mind make sense; they’re just fractured and not in the correct order. I need a strong enough glue to hold everything together.

Just as I feel like I’m about to reach another glimpse of vital information, my whole body starts to feel hot.

Reflexively, a smile grows on my face as this is even hotter than the Elven Artifact made me feel. However, Maria’s sharp thoughts pierce into me and break me out of my trance.

At first, I’m a bit aggravated, but when I see her activating her mana-based Ice Goddess form in front of me, creating an ice wall and pulling me backward, I realize this is a very different situation than I thought it was.

I activate my mana-based greater form too and grow to be about a hundred thousand kilometers tall.

We both lurch backward and curve around the trunk of one of the nearest Primordial Trees.

The ice wall does practically nothing, instantly engulfed in orange, almost rust-colored flames.

The sound of a Mammoth fills my ears, and it even echoes into the deepest parts of my psyche.

Even though it’s not in my visual range, I see the outline of a ferocious Ancient Mammoth standing in our path. Its royal vibrations clash with mine deep in my soul. Maria’s pool with mine deep in our consciousness, and we stay awake. The bubble of Primordial Aura blocked a lot of the blunt force, but the heat itself is filled with High-Quality ether commands that actually give off energy we can’t ignore.

Unlike the lizards and insect swarms, these ones are actually damaging us somehow.

I feel a glint of Ulgar’s Vibrations start to fight back, and he yells loudly, but the mammoth’s roar is overwhelming him.

It’s hard to tell at all what is happening here… I didn’t even see this beast coming. It’s easily five times taller than the Black Ogre, and by the pressure being emitted in the air, it feels like it’s at least that much stronger too.

Options run through my mind of how to get out of this alive, but I feel my intuition pointing to something deep inside my soul. My Sleeping Sword grows restless, and ripples with a faint but familiar feeling as one of the orbs of light it absorbed in the Blue Zone starts to resonate with the rust-colored flames bursting through the air from this Mammoth’s Aura.