Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

My soul sword grows in size with me, now over 20 kilometers long from tip to handle, sparkling with white ethereal light, yet glowing equally as bright with a crimson fiery aura from deep inside its core.

I slam it downward as my best defense, yet it collides with its target and stops like it has hit a solid wall.

The middle of my sword connects with the open palm of Miriel Vermillion. My growing Astral High Noble Form against his raw unaltered demonic flesh.

When I stare into his eyes, they look dark and emotionless, like deep pools of cold liquid shadows.

The shockwaves of pure white and red versus dark black and purple light instantaneously burst outward off this collision.

All of the small cracks and fractures in the nearby streets and buildings in the Citadel are filled with the increased density of hot and cold auras flowing through the atmosphere.

In an instant, the entire inner City of the Grand Citadel shatters like glass.

An unfathomable number of fractures spread through every single structure, even colliding with the barrier between this inner city and the surrounding wilderness.

Large cracks begin to streak upward on the pillar of ether commands that conceals the inner city in the center of the Grand Citadel.

Yet, my only focus is below me, as numbers and status screens finally begin popping up in my mind.

Half are faded, some are bright white or dark black, others purple and red.

My inspect and appraisal skills only work for a fraction of a second, but I get all the data I need to understand what is in front of me.

A bright purple [Lv. 159,102] burns into my mind, and three ranked-up buffs show up on its status below it.

One is deep purple colored, and it reads [Noble Bloodline Transformation], while the buff below it is covered in purple and red energy, with question marks and strange symbols blocking me from reading what it says [????? ???????? ??????????????].

The last buff below this one is also impossible to read [????????? ?????], but it feels very strange. It's only grey, and glows with a hot white aura.

This Demon has only two items equipped on his status, one is a [Demon Lord's Core] [+15,910% All Stats], and the other is named [The Royal's Protector] [Soul Bound] [Demonic Energy Affinity].

Then lastly, Miriel holds only one skill, and it is dark black in his status.

[Corruption] [Celestial Grade]

The moment I see these stats, something shifts in the Demon's eyes.

Instead of nothing but a calm, emotionless pool, rage flows out. I feel an instant switch flick on.

The entire outside of his body glows deep purple, matching his eyes, and matching the coloring of the only buff I can see on his status.

It even ripples through all of the corruption below him, making it pulse with a purple light, like it is all connected to him.

A bright aura bursts outward, making the already enormous demon start to grow with an energy form himself.

I feel the tight fingers of this monster grasping around my blade with an iron grip, and the sea of corruption below that he flew out from now surges upward to follow.

It surrounds his body and grows with him.

Instead of an equal strength clash like I thought we had, the Demon unseals his Noble Bloodline Transformation and matches my size in an instant, pushing out High Noble Vibrations of his own.

We're both over 50 kilometers tall, and still growing in size.

My energy still comes from the divine threads in the atmosphere to grow my Astral Form, and his, from the seemingly endless pool of corruption below.

The overwhelming heat that filled the air and pushed his cold out before gets neutralized, and a wave of cold washes back in to do the opposite and match my High Noble Aura's Strength. My downward sword swing is countered, forcing me to be pushed upward by the Demon's now glowing purple hand.

I have a few options left, one being the activation of my soul sword's new ability from reaching level 3, as well as consuming that elixir Ember gave me before I left for the Grand Citadel... but looking at the enemy below me, growing in size, power, and rage; I know this will still not be enough...

After all, all of my instincts scream that the two buffs I cannot see are even stronger than this first one.

The only other times I've seen question marks on status screens was when my strength or level was simply too low to comprehend the data the system was sending me.

"What are you? I command you to tell me! A human could never reach this strength!" comes out from the Demon's mouth, in a deathly low toned monstrous roar.

I can feel horrific cold ripples of energy flowing through me just from interpreting the sound waves.

It seems during our collision, it received enough data on my body to understand I'm not a Demon after all.

Though, I don't respond. I just focus on gripping my blade tighter, and focusing with everything I have, activating my [All Seeing Eye] [Clairvoyance] and [Foresight] true core abilities to their max, watching tens of thousands of purple tendrils of energy shoot upward from behind the growing Demon, and prepare to counter.

–

At the same time, the entire Inner City and infrastructure below the surface is shattering. Some of the buildings are crumbling, cracking in half, and falling over.

All of the strongest fighters from the Arena Tournament had automated ether commands activated, and moved away from the center of the blast.

These entries, and the many other Lords in the Citadel all fly upward, joining the over 370 Million Lords watching from above as their Citadel is obliterated by forces of strength they can't comprehend.

All of the ether orbs fly through billions of layers of protection, acting as a shield, separating the atmospheres.

High above, behind a white veil of light, all of the citizens can safely watch on the provided holographic screens.

Though, all of the Demonic Servants on duty are grouping up Lords, and making sure suppression commands and cuffs are fitted on the strongest ones until the event is over.

Acts of public rebellion like this often spikes the emotions of citizens and can lead to riots, and in turn lead to even more unwanted or unpredictable chaos.

With the Avatars provided by the Grand Citadel, Lord's strength can be remotely suppressed, so it is an easy feat, for most at least...

One of these transport Orbs holds some of the most important cargo here. A green glowing Goblin Queen, a bright white elf, an extremely confused Griffon, and a few dozen other Elite Berserkers, Mammoths, Serpents, Golems, and Mantis Lords.

An army of Admins greet these entries at the top of the protective barriers.

Though, the suppression commands are not working on a certain Goblin Queen that is borrowing 4% of stats from hundreds of thousands of worlds, and wears an unaltered illegal avatar.

Instead of blending in with the crowds, she borrows a [Screech] skill and yells out while fighting off the Demonic Servants that try to restrain her.

"Do you want to be free... to lose your restraints... Like I am now?"

A burst of green light surges out from her.

It only travels a few thousand kilometers, altering a small section of seating filled with 5 million Lords at most within visible and audible range.

Some Lords turn their heads, but many do not, their eyes are glued to the hologram showing the first appearance of the royal Family head in many of their whole lives.

The majority of the attention she gains is from all of the Demonic Servants in the area, seeing her break the avatars of a few dozen of their fellow servants.

This leads to swarms of thousands of 1st and 2nd Class Guards to start flying her way.

The Goblin Queen grits her teeth, and looks down at some of the strongest Lords here, the few hundred that participated in the main event of the Arena.

"If anyone would listen to me now, it would be all of you... If you want to be freed of the Demon's Constant Suppression, swear your loyalty to the human that bested us all."

She points to the holographic screen showing the fight below, and at the same time, gets covered in a massive cluster of Demonic Servants trying to put cuffs and activate suppression commands.

Yet, green aura bursts out from the gaps between them, and hundreds of servants fly through the air.

She doesn't kill any of them, only shatters their avatars, or greatly injures them.

Ava looks back to the Lords below her, especially down at Ren. Then, back up to the small crowd she has drawn attention from, using [Screech] to yell out and cause a scene.

"Swear your Loyalty to the Rising Emperor. There is no better time than now to fight back, when will you ever have another chance? Even if you do not believe he is a human, look at me, another Lower Race that still has the resolve to fight. None of you have lost yet, in fact, the war has just begun."

Ava smiles, and looks upward, as in the back of her mind, she feels a tiny trickle of additional stats flowing into her borrowed pool from a few hundred links of loyalty being added from far off in the crowds.