Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

The enormous demonic dragon, flapping its wings above in the cubic dueling room, swoops down, dark demonic energy trailing behind it.

None of the Warlords move a muscle, and the Noble Demon closes its eyes, digging deep within its mind to unlock its Noble Bloodline Transformation.

It is the only technique on its status that doesn't use a system command; it has to be unsealed naturally. This is what sets many Noble Bloodlines apart from all the other Lords in the Upper Realm.

As its eyes open, waves of dense Ether and demonic energy imbued with natural intimidation ripple through the room, causing the gravity to increase by dozens of times.

Ember gives a slight nod, releasing the relaxed, crossed-arm grip he held before to take up a fighting stance. The three 1st Class Lords to his left take this cue to release their full power and continue the plan they've agreed upon.

Torvak immediately bursts with thick bolts of lightning surging all over his body and Soul Weapon. He jumps upward as his greater form grows around him, increasing his range and size by over ten times.

Around Asic, the air starts to smell sour, like blood. Dark red, almost brown crystalline structures begin to form around his being, and sharp fragments of this dark rock summon from thin air to cover his dual-bladed axe.

A dark energy form grows around the High Orc, creating the imagery of a dark knight's armor. He jumps upward as well, right beside Torvak.

The Demon still on ground level doesn't even bat an eye as the two massive, growing figures soar over him, on a direct course for the demonic dragon swooping down their way.

Zashen, the Berserker Giant King, on the other hand, lets out a sadistic laugh and begins spinning while twirling his blades.

While his movements look chaotic and emotional, the extremely sharp eyes of this killer never leave his target despite the show of excitement he's putting on.

The grey-skinned, green-eyed, sharp-toothed creature summons more and more wind magic around his being as he spins, and his figure begins to glow with a sharp white light.

It's equally imbued with pure mana-based wind magic, fortified by newly refined Ether coming straight from the depths of its mind, where it has been lying dormant for over ten thousand years.

As Zashen grows in size and the swirling wind around him increases in strength, while he waves his white glowing longswords, the Noble Demon's body begins to grow as well.

The black and purple demonic mist expands to keep up with the Demon's bulging muscles, growing horns, and expanding flesh.

Ember has seen a transformation like this very recently, within the throne back in the human world, when another Noble Demon began unsealing its bloodline.

The end result of that was a monstrous form nearing two kilometers in height.

Every Demon's bloodline transformation is unique. However, for everything to go as planned, he's going to have to step in and use far more power than he did in the fight against the 1st Class Demons.

While exposing his silver threads and full dragon form would make this fight a blowout, that would have far worse long-lasting consequences that outweigh the immediate needs of this public stunt.

If any Lord of the Five Great Families' Demons die, all of the Family Heads are notified, no matter the cause, even a natural death of old age.

Whatever happens here will be thoroughly investigated after the fact. Even though the Citadel is locked down, surveillance is still being recorded, and public records are continuously shared between all four of the Citadels once a month in the Green Zone of the Upper Realm.

Ember is aware of this fact, thinking to himself, 'This will do... It is an unlikely feat for a human, but I have firsthand experience seeing it is, in fact, possible,' while he grins and closes his eyes.

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As Zashen grows to over two hundred meters in size, showing off a deadly Wind Form that seems to still be growing, Andras Vermillion yells out as his body grows in size at a rapid rate too, and his custom Avatar adapts to these changes.

"You puny Lesser Beings! Your energy forms are laughable. A 1st Class Lord could never understand what a Noble Bloodline Transformation really does to one's soul. This will show you how hopeless fighting back really is!"

Breakthrough after breakthrough makes the room fill with the Noble Demon's strange aura, pushing outward to the walls almost instantly, hundreds of kilometers away.

In less than a second, the Demon's size matches Zashen, but he continues to grow past the 200-meter mark like it's not even an obstacle.

The Demon's face still shows no signs of emotion, as if it is merely taking out the trash.

It grows past 500 meters while pointing its three-pronged spear forward at the growing Berserker King.

The sharpened gem on the end grows in size and luminosity at the same rate as the Demon, and without hesitating at all, the Demon lets out a beam of energy from its strange soul weapon.

While Zashen is a battle-hungry warrior, he does not mindlessly throw himself in the way of attacks he has not fully analyzed.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

His greater wind form appears to be slowing down in growth at around 300 meters, and Zashen lets out a massive release of wind magic to boost himself upward, flying into the air to avoid the deadly beam of black energy.

The black beam hits the floor where he stood just moments ago, and it tears through many layers of the green divine protection before slamming against the white outer lining of the room, making the entire battlefield shake.

The Demon's eyes track upward as the wind-covered Berserker Giant sends two dense white crescents of wind and Ether straight toward it, bending around in curved trajectories on course to hit it from both sides.

However, the Demon ignores these attacks while its greater form continues to grow and focuses its sights on the human that stands beside the black hole in the ground with its eyes closed.

The end of its spear shifts toward Ember, and it begins channeling even more of its demonic energy into it to release another strange beam.

The two wind crescents disappear into the strange black fog that surrounds this Noble Demon, and at the same time, Ember opens his eyes to release a powerful green aura, activating his Astral Form.

–

Meanwhile, inside the Central Tower on the lower floors, many of the servant guards get to work on tasks they've been programmed to do.

Many of them leave the tower in organized batches to control the crowds, as they know when the Vermillion Lord kills the owners of the three largest businesses in this city, there will be outliers attempting to cause riots.

To cement this victory in stone, they have been ordered to eliminate anyone who dares speak against the Vermillion name, making this a silent and powerful victory that destroys hope in all citizens of the Ellipsia Citadel.

Others use fast-travel orbs to reinforce the guard positions at the entry and exit points of the Citadel, ensuring no one attempts to override the travel ban or manually leave without authorization.

In addition, many teams within the tower monitor citywide surveillance, reporting crimes that need real-time instant solutions.

Another team sends a transmission to a privately owned facility on the edge of the Citadel, controlled by the Demons but operated day-to-day by many lower-class black market Lords.

"We're closing your operation early today. We cannot have any weak points on this Citadel until the event is over..."

A team of anonymous servants within the Central Tower overrides the Exile Facility's Citadel Power Plant functions and begins closing the access point early.

Everyone working in the Citadel, even the Lords within the black market, have already left their posts, swept into the streets by mandatory fast-travel orbs to the nearest projection site to watch the duel.

–

This ripple effect of events quickly reaches the Exile zones below the floating city.

A loud rhythmic twang, followed by an eruption of bright white light, green divine energy, and the metallic scraping of the thousand-kilometer-wide access point doors shifting, echoes throughout the entire mountain below.

It's hard to see through the thick fog, but the outer edges of the white circular light in the sky begin to shrink very slowly.

Memories of the Goblin King's countless treks through these lands remind me that Ava and I should have more time... There have only been a single digit number of times the doors were shut early, and the timing makes me assume this could be the result of Ember in the Citadel above.

Even if this is a coincidence, and the doors are closing because of a criminal Lord being locked in, or to protect visiting Demons from other Citadels; it doesn't change the fact that I want to get through those doors before they close.

I'm still in the same exact position as before...

High-level hordes of triple ranked up Demonic Orcs and Cyclopes are running toward me and Ava as we've trespassed in their zones.

I yell out to Ava while taking a risk and opening my item storage long enough to grab the handle of my Soul Sword.

"Come on, pull all of the stats you can so we can get rid of these small fry and head straight for the guardian."

My eyes gaze forward, past the 6 shadowy figures that emerge from the fog, staring toward the real enemy that swings its ball on a chain at the top of this peak.