Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power-Chapter 688

Hundreds of millions of additional stats rush into my system as I make full use of the 40% of borrowed power accessible to me, and simultaneously my Astral Form pulses outward.

The future possibilities using my foresight skill shift, and far more options that don't end in my demise or losing limbs become crystal clear.

While I grow in size, I shift my body and swing my soul sword to release a crescent of red fiery soul matter that flies in a circle, slicing through five of the Demonic Body doubles coming my way.

They are destroyed, leaving only the Demon's main body for the final collision.

Its black Soul Sword blocks mine, pulsing with purple energy, holding us at a standstill momentarily.

However, as my Astral Form continues to expand, becoming reinforced by more and more Divine Power, the Demon loses its upper hand in strength. Its blade is pushed aside, allowing a direct hit across its chest.

A deep red and yellow gash tears through its armor, and the force of the blow sends it flying across the room, tens of kilometers away.

Power surges through me as I lunge forward to follow the Demon, expanding in size past 100 meters tall, feeling as though there is an endless pool of power to pull from. With the ceiling towering high into the sky, unlike the 1st Trial, I feel as though I'll get to use the full extent of this Astral Form's power.

The Vermillion Family's Demon coughs up dark blood as it's overpowered, but there is no fear on the monster's face.

Even with the total extermination of its entire army outside the tower seconds ago, pure confidence and superiority are the only emotions I feel from the Demon as it grins and closes its eyes.

Less than half a kilometer away from the far wall of the room, its glowing white eyes open to release an aura that makes my skin feel like pins and needles are poking me all over.

Absurd amounts of Demonic Soul Energy tethered with Divine threads pour out from its core, covering its body and completely healing the fiery wound on its chest and armor.

Its momentum backward halts instantly, and it floats in the air, growing in size at the same rate as me, filling the air with murderous intent while the two dragons above clash for the fourth time.

Ember's form has grown to over 400 meters long, dwarfing the purple and black dragon's greater form. However, the moment this Noble Demon's Bloodline began to unseal, the same sharp insidious pressure awakened within the Dragon, and its form starts to grow again, reaching for a second peak similar to my own overlapping energy forms.

The Demon kicks itself off the air while both its body and greater demonic form grow.

The shimmering red horns expand from its forehead, and a third crimson horn grows from the center.

Huge muscle mass grows from its body, and the blood-bonded obsidian armor around it expands with the monster's growth.

In fractions of a second, the 10-meter-tall Demon grows its true body to over 40 meters tall, and the Demonic Energy Form around it breaches 200 meters almost instantly upon unsealing its bloodline.

This pulse of energy collides with my own expanding yellow and red aura, and we both continue to grow in size, continuously pulsing with power. It speaks up, laughing out loud for the first time while projecting its voice throughout the entire tower.

"You, a human, have an Astral Form? It is a well-known fact that these abilities do not manifest in worlds below 1st Class. Are you an outsider, come to claim this world for a human settlement closer to the source?"

I hear its words, but am far more concentrated on unleashing my full power to combat what happens next.

In addition to this, my perception and understanding of the matter around me skyrocket, and I see into the Demon's body, taking a good look at its cores.

There is a massive yellow Divine True Core glowing in its center, and rotating around it, I see three dark black Orbs filled with an even mix of Demonic Energy and Qi. They vary in size, and from small to large their status readings in bright purple text read [Greater Demon's Core] [Arch Demon's Core] [Ascended Demon's Core].

Even looking deep into the bodies of all the demons outside the tower before this battle, none of them had more than one core. On top of that, I've never seen an Ascended Core... I always assumed the next rank was just a Lord.

While these questions race through my mind, I'm more focused on the fact that my Astral Form is surpassing its former limits, breaching 300 meters in height.

There is still more room to grow, but the Vermillion Demon lunges my way, its greater form growing to become a similar size.

Gravity bends space itself around the edges of our bodies and blades as I, too, jump forward and clash sword to sword.

The entire room fills with scorching Divine Astral Flames and insidious dark purple energy that pours out from its three cores.

If not for the Divine Energy and Qi holding this Mana and Demonic Energy together, if our basic power were to clash, a destructive explosion of golden sparks would fill this tower and destroy us all.

Thankfully, this isn't the case, and as we collide with equal force, the Demon yells out again.

"Come on! Answer me! I am at the top of my Class in the Noble Bloodlines. No mere human from a world like this could ever dream to even withstand the pressure of my final form!"

Its excitement and bloodlust pour out, as for the first time since touching down on this world, the Demon feels as though there is a real worthy challenger.

Beckman's words of how he believed even he had a chance against this Demon now sound like a child's fantasy, as there is no way he ever took into account the absurd amount of power coming out from this unsealed Demonic Form right now.

Being in contact, Soul Weapon to Soul Weapon, allows me to feel that this Demon is nowhere near unleashing its full power either...

We both bounce back from our clash, and my foresight ability shows thousands of massive Demonic Forms growing and launching attacks in the future.

Fractions of a second later, we clash again, and everything plays out just as I see it.

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Sword strikes collide with so much force and gravity waves radiating off them that if this tower wasn't here, I'm certain we would split this world in two.

It creates more body doubles as distractions, but they pale in comparison to the Demon's True Form. I'm able to easily distinguish which is which, and a single crescent of my Soul Swords Red fire is enough to send flying around the room to kill its doubles with ease.

Once all 5 are destroyed each time, the crescent of Astral Soul Flames explodes into thousands of droplets of fire and reconnect with my blade.

The massive tower that seemed to have endless room inside it now begins to feel cramped as our auras spread out, and both of our energy bodies surpass 500 meters.

At this point, it stops using its doubles and focuses its full power into its Soul Sword for maximum damage and power.

We circle the silver pillar in the center of the battlefield, sharing over a dozen clashes, and the two dragons above us grow in size as well, both surpassing a full kilometer from nose to tail.

As Ember releases another wave of bright yellow flames, and the Demonic Dragon releases a beam of purple energy from its mouth, their energy blasts collide while two murderous, reality-bending Dragon's Roars echo through the tower.

The Demon yells out while raising its sword again.

"Tell me your name. I want to use your story as a reminder that even the weakest race can raise strong warriors. A human clashing with a Noble Demon with a fully saturated True Core? They won't believe me once I tell them in the Upper Realm!"

The Demon lets out a laugh, as its energy body surpasses 600 meters tall, and at the base of its Soul Sword, a massive black and purple eye opens up to release another aura that nearly doubles its power in an instant.

I yell back while lunging forward, "Call me Jay, The Flame Emperor. Though, maybe you should tell me yours. I'll remember it as the final fight I had on my home world."

The Demon lets out a deep laugh as its shimmering purple blade collides with my massive Red Astral Soul Sword, and another devastating gravity pressure ripples through the tower.

This time, however, even standing at over 650 meters tall myself, I'm overpowered...

Its Soul Weapon is too strong.

Every single possible future timeline I see with my foresight ends in that purple eye tracking my every movement and my Soul Sword being overpowered.

*It was still holding back...* is all I think while choosing the path with the least downsides.

I twist my body and don't fully block this last incoming strike.

Doing so would result in a sword lock that I would not be able to free myself from without a severe wound and my Astral Form cracking all over, just like it did when I blocked that final sword from the first Trial.

Instead, I conserve my power, redirecting a large portion of the energy from its attack, and compromise by allowing some of the Demonic Energy to hit me head-on while pushing myself backward to negate its full force.

The Demon's victory yell echoes through the tower as a deep demonic wound opens up across my side.

It hurts, and can't be healed with a simple self-regeneration on the spot, but this is far better than the alternatives.

The Demon takes advantage of this moment to follow up with a counter, yelling while all three of its Demonic cores and the purple eye on its sword pulse in unison.

"I am Drako Vermillion. For such an incredible display, I shall award you by letting you know my name as you die!"

He swings his blade with even greater force than his last strike, matching my height at 700 meters now.

However, I push off the back wall, activating my hexagonal defensive array in front of my sword as I counter.

As we collide again, the Demon's incoming strike is slowed by the massive shield of dense Divine Energy.

While it does shatter and the purple-eyed sword breaks through, the fractions of a second delay add up, and I'm able to dodge just in time.

The explosion of power that follows blows both of us to opposite sides of the room, and I have a moment to breathe and explore my options.

I can feel my Astral Form's growth beginning to slow down as the air density in this room is finally starting to fill, and even the full power of my True Core is reaching its limit.

The three-horned Demon, grinning ear to ear at the other side of the room, still feels like he's pulling from endless power, and it seems that soon our power gap will deviate far too much to hold off with my foresight and Astral Form alone.

Just as I prepare for another clash, my foresight shows countless gruesome scenes, and reality catches up very quickly as the Demon's immense 800-meter-tall Greater Form disappears and reappears right in front of me using its Divine Shadow Step technique.

I block as best I can, positioning my body for the least amount of damage possible, but I receive another Dark Demonic Slash through my Greater Form, twice as large as the last one.

It sends me flying, and portions of my Astral Form waver and fracture as I receive a devastating blow, simultaneously reaching its full size potential.

It reappears in front of me again in an instant, traveling faster than even my foresight can predict as its strength continues to grow while mine has stalled. Another deep slash across my chest cracks my Astral Form even more, sending me flying to the back of the room.

Above us, the Demonic Dragon from nose to tail grows to almost 2 kilometers long, while Ember stalls out just shy of 1,500 meters.

Instead of evaporating each of its Demonic attacks and forcing the purple dragon to dodge and be on the defensive, now, they are nearly equal in strength, and the Demonic Dragon is still growing.

---

Before this battle began, Rodrigo and Bri used teleport crystals to leave Central Headquarters to avoid the incoming Divine Cored Scouts. When they return to the Apex Region, they call every single Association Branch within the 8 Great Regions to get more access to long-range transmission devices to spread the word to smaller, isolated nations all over the globe.

They discovered that while they were away notifying Central, many independent parties had created their own networks of association hunters that shared links of loyalty and felt it was their duty to do exactly the same.

Before this final battle began, there were 20 million links within the Dark Continent and 8 Great Regions, 25 million in the Central Cities, and over 5 million scattered across the world in nations that didn't even know of these foreign countries until today.

However, with word spreading that the battle around the tower has been won and the final fight to save the world is underway, new links surge upward even faster.

---

During this fight, the links have surpassed 70 million, with a large number of these new links coming from the foreign nations.

Before the system connected to this world, the human population peaked at nearly 9 billion.

This was 80 years ago.

After the initial surges and breaks in the first few years—when humans had not yet leveled up and were unable to defend themselves—the population was massacred and fell below 3 billion.

Over the next 30 years, as the world adapted to these changes and hardships, focusing solely on survival and protection of the well-populated cities, humanity's monster hunter strength grew. However, despite the average hunter growing stronger, far less families settled down in this stressful time. The population dwindled again, down to just over 1 billion.

When the first Noble Demon arrived 50 years ago, a great war was staged, and a silent agreement between the world's leaders was made.

Since then, the population has remained stagnant, and the common people have enjoyed the luxury of not having to awaken their systems to survive daily life.

Large amounts of the population are below 18 years old and unable to awaken their systems just yet, and others choose to stay unawakened, hanging on to the remnants of the old world.

The total amount of potential links of loyalty connected to the system on this planet is just over 500 million.

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I can sense this, easily able to see every single person in the world with my advanced perception. My power is growing at millions of links per second now, but as the Demon Shadow Steps my way to land a fourth slash I realize I'll need to find another source of power. It sends me flying across the room again, and I'm certain that even gaining every single link of loyalty in this world isn't going to make up for this growing gap.

Ember is hit in the side by the first wave of pure Demonic Energy from the dragon above, and his Astral Form takes damage, leaving a dark stain just like the slashes across mine.

The Demon's voice rings through the tower as 73,401,995 pairs of eyes stare through mine.

"It was a valiant effort! If this is truly your home world, then you have made your race proud. This may be the strongest human planet in the entire System. It has been an honor fighting you, Flame Emperor. I will remember you well when I ascend!"

Its noble demonic voice spreads throughout the entire world as its Soul Sword glows bright purple.

The Demon is far larger than me now, surpassing a full kilometer in height.

If this next slash hits me, my Astral Form is going to shatter.

The Demon disappears into the shadows, and I reach into my storage to grab a small compact green Divine Orb that I received as a prize on the first floor of this tower.