Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

The slow ooze of black liquid from outside my ether senses grows in size.

At first, just a trickle, now it looks like the floor is being flooded with this dark demonic waste.

We slowly take steps backward, until the wall behind us, covered in scratches, comes into view again.

However, after a few more seconds pass, the flood of this black liquid even covers the demon's remains, speeding up its decay.

There is no way to smell in this void, but if I could, I imagine it would be disgusting.

My boots are already covered in some of the demon's remains, but now, as we're cornered against the wall again, it looks like it's going to be worse.

The wave of dark liquid floods in faster than we can back up; and as our backs hit the wall, the wave of decayed avatar splashes against us up to our shins.

The wave recedes and spreads thin across the floor pretty quickly, and the fact that it's decaying must mean it's dead, so it's of no actual threat, but it is gross.

Shortly after, another small wave comes in and splashes our feet again.

The corpse must be decomposing in parts, and sending waves through this strange cave.

We both let out sighs and follow the direction this black goop comes from. It must be coming from where we entered.

As we take steps forward, more of the cave walls can be seen.

It widens more and more the further we walk, making it impossible to sense both sides even as we move in a wide zigzag pattern.

There is no ceiling that can be sensed, but the fact that there are walls, and even random loose rocks that crumble off the walls reveals that this demon lured us to a dead end.

I thought we were traveling out in the open, with nothing but flat ground.

We could only sense a meter away at most, and the only directional sense to run was from the dense white footsteps. Yet, whether it was a conscious decision or an instinctual predatory one, we were deceived by this creature.

Walking into the darkness now, still not sure if this is a cave or a valley, or really any idea what we're walking toward that is melting and sending more gushing waves of dark liquid our way, the vibrations of tension and nerves heighten between us.

After absorbing the Demon's celestial energy, and the excess dispersed into the air, everything but myself and Maria has gone dark again.

So, as we approach, and small waves of white light ripple through the floor from the same direction as the calm waves, we both reflexively summon our soul swords again.

Our steps grow slower as we scan the area with far more depth, but whatever these small white pulses are, they aren't coming closer.

They are erratic and seem to be extremely weak, in varying sizes.

My first guess is maybe whatever died, their soul energy core is still decaying and leaking out, but that guess is quickly disproven.

Out from the far edge of my ether senses, up in the air, a white mass of celestial energy hits my psyche, and I turn its way, slicing upward with my red sword.

All I feel is my blade piercing flesh again, and a strong, hot pressure being absorbed by the gauntlet I just crafted.

My nerves turn to excitement, and a grin grows on my face as I follow through and cleave upward all the way through this tiny creature, less than a meter tall.

It's a fledgling Demon.

It doesn't even have a Demon's Core, nor does it have a True Divine Core. It only has a weak, uncompressed Cyan Core, and a body full of celestial energy that isn't theirs.

The creature is sliced in half instantly, and at the same time, two more of these tiny fiends jump toward us.

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I shift my stance and slice through another, while Maria slices through one that jumps toward her side too.

It isn't even necessary to use the peak of our cycle to kill these creatures.

Tiny amounts of cyan threads, celestial energy, and horribly fractured memories are drained into me from each kill; but surprisingly, none of that black and purple demonic aura is transferred.

Their corpses fall into the pools of liquid on the floor and dissolve far faster than the larger demon. None of them even have horns. Nothing stays behind after their deaths.

We take a few steps closer, both slashing through one more fledgling demon each, before the waves of white light stop pulsing our way.

We either killed them all, or the rest ran...

Finally, the source of the decaying avatar appears.

Half of a Demonic Dragon's head still sits sideways on the black floor.

Chunks of its flesh are clawed out, and other portions are bitten off by small mouths that look the size of the fledglings that attacked moments ago, and the mental picture becomes clear.

They're like scavengers, waiting for things to die in this abyss, to feed on their celestial energy to make it their own.

This Dragon must have been injured even worse than its bonded demon in one of their past battles. Now it makes sense why it was being dragged along, and also why this demon left it behind to fight us, it was its weakness...

Maria and I stand before the Dragon's head in silence as it continues to melt away completely, and leave nothing at all behind.

Some of it flows toward us, but a large amount flows away in all directions.

To my left, the puddles of liquid thin out far quicker than to my right. These waves splash up against something and make far more ripples.

This must mean there is a rock wall in this direction to the right, and in the other, it leads to only open air, most likely where we walked in here from.

Both of us instinctually step to the right, to follow the wall, so we can use it as a landmark to follow and gauge distance traveled. It will be far more efficient than wandering in the dark void like before.

Red and blue glows still tint my ether senses with color as we walk over to this wall. Once we get within a few meters, the deep scratches all over the semi-smooth surface return.

I try to imagine what kind of creature could have managed such a horrific site, as even with the full power of my Soul Sword against the hard ground, it didn't leave a scratch. Lying down on this hard ground, and even the fact that my ether senses can't push through it, means this is an extremely hard and dense material.

My mind wanders as I examine the wall further, and we begin to turn to leave in a new direction away from that death trap, but something catches my eye.

I stop in place, and Maria grows scared for a moment, because our ether senses are linked, and she cannot see a thing.

Everything is dark black in the surroundings but us...

It is no off-putting movement, or stray wave of celestial energy I sense; it is one of the scratch marks in the wall that makes my heart rate rise.

I take steps closer and let my sword even fall back into my soul so I can place my free hand against the wall.

These are no random scratches. This is text, but in a strange language that I've never seen before.

Most of it is, at least.

A symbol that catches my eye, in the furthest point of my ether sense about five meters in the air, reads out 'World', but a more accurate translation in the Originators language would be 'Planet with Life'. Without any context of the words around it, I cannot decipher its meaning at all, but this is written in a different language than the rest.

This one symbol is of the same language from the tomb where I received my Soul Weapon's core, far beneath the sea on the human world, inside the head of a dark black humanoid statue.

The memory of the thousands of glowing white and yellow symbols from that day, that lifted off the wall and became a part of my soul and mind, is slightly faded in the back of my memories.

I do not have a vivid crystal-clear image of it, as my mind palace would provide if activated, but I can recognize which symbols are from that text.

Maria stares up at the symbol I look at and begins to realize that I can understand it.

When I turn to walk back into the dead-end cave where we nearly just died, she has no resistance, and is even excited to follow along.

We walk up against the wall covered in these scratches, and I expand my ether sense as far as it can go upward. There are only small spots in the wall every ten meters or so that have patches of writing.

We pass two more, but none of the symbols make any sense to me.

I've seen the writings of the Wyverns from Abby's point of view before, and these look nothing like them. I even vaguely remember seeing elven texts in faded dreams from Ren, and they do not look alike.

I've never seen a demonic language, and considering I have memories from some of their strongest and oldest and there is not even a mention of it, it's very unlikely it's theirs.

This is some other race entirely, yet I have no idea where to begin to guess...

We walk further in, all the way to the back wall where we were cornered less than an hour ago.

The Demon's avatar remains are all spread thin and dried out now, so there are no pools of liquid to avoid.

I only stare up at the back wall, the fourth section of this text I've found so far, this one being the largest.

My heart rate spikes, and Maria's does too in reaction, turning her head where I look as I finally recognize another two symbols next to each other reading 'Great Split'.

My focus shifts quickly across the text over and over, then we take a few more steps to the side to get the full coverage of this massive wall, and I see a repeat of that complex word again, but it's surrounded with even more symbols I recognize.

'The World Eater Returns' is the final legible text I can read...

Below it, there is a very ominous picture.

It's not written in any language, it is a simple drawing carved into stone.

It is of many long-limbed humanoid beings, with no facial features. They all stand around a single large black dot with their arms in the air.

I can't tell if they're dancing, praying, activating some kind of spell, or something else entirely.