Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

A massive purple trail of light is left behind the spirit arrow as it rockets toward the Lich's bright yellow attack.

Arie's breathing and heartbeat synchronize, as time feels as though it's slowing down.

Though this is not a phenomenon of the Noble Vibrations suppressing his mind, it is quite the opposite.

As his body is in the tailwind of the enormous attack he just threw, all of the suppressing cold aura is being pushed aside and torn through by the arrow he just sent out with the full-powered might of his 3rd Ranked Up Buff, Demonic Soul energy, and True Core ability—to make the yellow core of an arrow almost identical to the Lich's, which has sent one flying back his way.

In this brief moment, where no suppression is limiting his mental capacity, even more variables become noticeable to him, and the human archer's eyes glow bright as he prepares for what is about to happen.

A horrific twang of energies vibrates through the entire space between the two archers.

At first glance, it appears both arrows have collided at their tips and stopped in the air entirely, as if someone pressed pause on their battle.

Though, upon closer inspection, something quite strange is happening.

Invisible ripples of energy tear away the outer layers of the purple arrow, deactivating and stripping away the demonic energy collected and compressed from the atmosphere, along with the pure mana imbued into this attack as well.

The concentrated essence, absorbed from many beasts back in the human world's abyss and from the large amounts of Qi Arie has condensed into his body, however, does not get stripped away in such a violent manner.

Even though its outer layers have been suppressed and weakened, the core of the attack deep within still hits the Lich's arrow head-on and threatens it with an equal amount of divine energy density, along with the pure strength and speed rivaling its Noble Stature.

Neither arrow can break through the other, and as a result, they both begin to splinter and release energy from within.

After the first crack, more and more form until it turns into a chain reaction, and the entire sky is lit up with a blinding yellow light.

For a moment, there was silence and uncertainty. Now, there is only destruction.

An enormous explosion, large enough to split the human world into pieces, erupts from the two attacks' destabilization.

From the moon base above, Bri and Alveron see a massive dome of yellow debris completely cover a region and even send parts of the planet flying outward into orbit.

––

Down on the planet, the Lich is blown backward by the unexpected shockwave. It believed it was going to hit this weak creature head-on and be done with the annoyance, but somehow, this isn't the case.

Arie, on the other hand, knew that even his full-powered attack wasn't going to be enough and shot another arrow off before bracing for impact.

While this second shot was triggered in a hurry at roughly half the potency, it is the maximum he could muster in the fractions of a second before the shockwave of his own attack sent him flying backward into the air.

On the other side of the expanding dome—twice the size of the eruptions Abby's pillars of stone created—a dark spot in the yellow wave of light appears right in front of the Lich's vision.

Not only was it thrown off by being overpowered by an ant, but now it has been outsmarted, and a purple arrow rockets toward its chest with no time or ability to dodge.

Even now, its eyes stare forward without a hint of its resolve wavering.

The arrow's outer layers are stripped away, losing their luster, and even the core of the attack itself loses some speed as the Noble Aura around this creature is enough to make attacks slow like natural armor.

Though, it doesn't work entirely.

A yellow arrow hits the Lich's sternum, and a second burst of yellow light follows, sending the skeleton flying backward while bones break and its divine core is punctured right through—shattering into pieces.

However, a large amount of Arie's concentrated essence is in this arrow, and at its very core, it is linked to his True Core.

The human archer doesn't celebrate just yet, as with this shot, he can feel the Lich's very being and understand its intricacies far better than before.

Contact with its core allows him to see the outline of its greater form and true body—the black bones of a humanoid-looking creature. He can even see what this body used to look like long ago when it was still alive...

While humanoid, he feels many differences. It has far stronger arms and legs, along with highly sophisticated eyesight and longer ears that can perceive things a normal human should not.

Along with this outline of the being, Arie can feel the separation between its true self and these foreign Noble Vibrations that have been infused into its mind and body.

While he cannot directly see the Vibrations of Nobility, they appear as an outline interwoven into the fabric of this Dark Lich's existence. Like a poison soaked into its body for so long, it is impossible to turn back, but dead echoes remain of what it used to be before.

It's clear that this cold power it is using is borrowed strength, and not originally its own.

An even more alarming fact is the feeling that it has degraded overtime. The weakened state these Noble Vibrations are in now, are not at the heights they once were...

Half of its ribcage shatters off, and even a portion of its left shoulder cracks, making one arm swing limp.

Though, once Arie's arrow completely destabilizes and explodes, his close-up vision of the Lich is gone; and the last thing he sees is a strange black sphere inside its divine core. From the final glimpses of what he sees, extremely potent concentrated essence and yellow divine threads pour out, as if its true life force is trapped deep within. The fractures in its True Core begin to float back toward the orb and heal around it to reform the bright yellow sphere...

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––

Arie's eyes widen at this imagery, and he pieces together the information in front of him.

A being that should be dead long ago, yet has been kept alive for millennia, even surviving its Divine Core shattering into pieces.

Whatever this Dark Orb within its Divine Core is, it must be its power source, or at least a vital weakness...

Though, Arie whispers to himself, "I need more power," as he scans the battlefield to come up with his next move. His gaze locks onto dozens of 1st Class Demonic Beasts still roaming about in this third of the world that the commanders weren't able to exterminate, and he senses large amounts of refined Qi in their bodies.

"That'll do," he states while flying past the massive crater he just created in their last exchange.

As the debris falls and the yellow light dissolves into the atmosphere, even the Lich's bones begin to heal, and it regains mobility in its arm.

The glowing purple eyes of this demonic creation lock onto Arie again as he attempts to fly away—this time, it looks quite pissed.

When its gaze watches Arie streak across the sky in the direction of the throne, an additional fury of instinctual rage takes charge of its mind.

Arie feels that ripple of cold darkness even 5,000 kilometers away.

The Lich's eyes grow darker, and the shadow of false Noble Vibrations takes even more control, as if it is merely a puppet and there is no free will left behind the dead eyes of this Lich.

Its broken arm raises, shattering more of its shoulder's unhealed bones, and draws another arrow into its massive black bow.

Arie turns to face it, gritting his teeth and prepping to send a defensive arrow back.

However, the instant the Lich releases its attack, it disappears.

A small black portal opens up right in front of the Lich, and the arrow shoots through.

Arie's bones grow even colder, as milliseconds later, a black portal opens up behind the human archer, less than 10 kilometers away, and the Lich's yellow arrow rockets out with its full momentum.

He turns, recognizing this perk from the mana-based Dark Summoning Combat Magic, but with no time to dodge or ponder long either, Arie spreads out his two massive demonic spirit palms and takes the attack head-on.

Another enormous explosion lights up the atmosphere with divine yellow light, as Arie's Spirit Arms are blown to bits and he's sent plummeting down toward the planet's ground.

––

Below him, a grouping of massive First-Class Orcs, Cyclopes, Lizardmen, and Berserkers mindlessly roam the dark barren landscape.

This is where Arie was planning to fly to—he just didn't anticipate such a direct crash course.

Over two-thirds of his Third Arms were obliterated in the blast, but he still has hundreds closer to his back, still able to fire off shots.

Arie lands on the dark rocky ground with an echoing crack, followed by raising purple arrows, instantly killing 14 First-Class Demonic Beasts and over one hundred of their Second- and Third-Class underlings.

The arms on his back begin to slowly grow back after being destroyed by the Lich's arrow, but to fully reactivate this buff, it's going to take him a few seconds to gather the strength.

Out of the corner of his eye, just as he touches down on the ground, another black dark-magic portal forms right beside him, and the entire atmosphere turns cold and domineering again.

All of the beasts that managed to survive Arie's rain of arrows freeze in place and bow down—even in the presence of a mere arrow from the King.

Arie, on the other hand, has to make another decision—whether to sacrifice his remaining Spirit Arms or retreat...

––

Meanwhile, as world-shaking explosions light up the dark skies of Kelfar, Raven has her own King to deal with.

After successfully using her Divine Stealth Dimension to protect portions of her body from the cold pressure of the King's aura and combat its attacks, she flies straight toward the Demonic Berserker, periodically slipping out into the real world to give away her position and send attacks in the direction of the mad King.

It screeches and turns its burning red and purple eyes in the direction of the sword-wielding woman like killing her is the only thing in the world that matters.

Every time Raven appears, two massive demonic slashes are sent her way with pinpoint accuracy.

If this human has one lapse in concentration or does not properly slip into her stealth mode in time, this ravenous war machine will take full advantage of it.

Dozens of crescents are sent her way, and each time, Raven tests the limits of her abilities, figuring out what is possible to endure and pull off.

The Berserker King only becomes faster, more filled with rage, and with crimson red aura overrunning the demonic energy the longer she leads it on.

However, doing so is certainly worth it.

Once she's tested the limits, Raven leaves huge explosions from two more destabilized demonic crescents behind her and goes in for the attack.

This is the first time she's moving inside a 500-kilometer range of the massive creature's greater form.

The Berserker King's beady eyes and sharp teeth look around the sky where Raven has been baiting it for over a dozen attacks at quite a safe distance away.

Instead of following her usual routine of reappearing every second or so, she stays in total stealth mode and dives deep into the cold aura that surrounds this King.

Every kilometer closer she speeds through the air gets tougher and tougher.

Even though she is tucked away in a pocket of stealth-infused space, there are factors at play that challenge the dominance of systems that clash.

She feels reality crushing down on her from every square centimeter of her being, and the cold begins to make her limbs tingle and her mind feel as though it's being cornered.

Yet, she expects this, and with every step forward through the air, expects things to get a lot worse.

Raven grins as her heart beats with the rhythm of a true life-or-death battle.

While the cold pressure gets worse and worse as she draws closer, she only feels more alive.

The next second is like a blur in her mind—only operating on instinct.

Once inside the 10-kilometer range of the beast, to her brain, even behind the veil of stealth, everything feels like it's moving in slow motion.

But her eyes are locked on the enemy, and energy from her saturated True Core is being infused into her blades with everything she has.

The last few kilometers feel like hours have gone by in Raven's mind, yet her thought processes are becoming full of cold fog. It gets harder and harder to think clearly or summon more energy from her core. If Raven were to lose focus for an instant, she would be lost in the darkness and overwhelmed by the cold, dull silence. It may feel like an eternity, but outside, only a few milliseconds have passed.

She times everything perfectly, letting her fully charged blades out from her stealth dimension and plunging them both deep into the Berserker's chest—ripping open two long and wide gashes as she continues to fly by and past the monster.

––

In the red, black, and purple greater form of the demonic beast, two massive yellow lines appear on its front side, and the beast is sent flying backward, even more filled with rage and desire to eliminate the threat—to not let it near the throne, even if it costs it its own life.

At the same time, Raven's blades, hands, and forearms feel as though they're frozen solid.

Like hypothermia has completely taken over and killed off these portions of her body.

That is, however, until she's far enough away from the King.

Once at a range far enough away from the presence of its overwhelming power, feeling in her blades and hands returns to her as if it never happened in the first place.

It's like an illusion has lifted, and this curse of cold has been removed.

She tested this theory many times with the crescents of energy coming her way before this attempt, but none of them ever froze her parts solid like this.

In the moment of contact, even her body that was still hidden behind a veil of stealth couldn't even move anymore. She was reliant on momentum to keep her moving out of range.

Though, as warmth and fast mental processing speeds return to her, the rush of battle fills her mind completely as she stops and turns to the demonic beast—preparing to go in for another attack.

––

As both Arie and Raven manage to injure the Kings of this world—beings that have been unmatched by any lower lifeforms for tens of thousands of years—Abby touches down in a calm desert region on the far side of the planet.

The ground vibrates lightly as massive explosions tear up the planet's surface far away, and bright flashes of yellow light can be seen on the horizon.

However, Abby's full concentration is captured by the magnificent vibrating black Wyvern Skeleton before her.

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