Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power-Chapter 911

Extremely strong surges of power flow from this Demon's cores through my sword, and into my body and soul.

Pure white Celestial energy flows into the bright red fire in my soul energy core and strengthens my flames. It is like a violent eruption of a volcano finally being contained by pathways secure enough to contain the molten lava flow.

There is dark purple Demonic Essence that is torn out of this Demon's core and siphoned from its dark black aura. This is devoured by the coiling corruption that flows through my being.

Even the raw Royal Vibrations that have been unraveled and terrorized, shattered into digestible parts formed from my mental attacks, are completely dominated, assimilated, altered, and absorbed into my will.

There is a sparkling mist of Celestial Energy trapped in blue ice falling from the sky. Every bit of it that touches the growing crimson domain around me flows into my being as well.

Fragments of the Soul Weapons stitched together on the dragon in the sky begin to flow through me and settle in my sword. The bright white armor and sword that were last wielded by this demon turn to liquid energy on contact and flow directly into it as well.

The explosion of this Demon's body has sent many of its soul weapons flying through the air, but the strong sensation of hunger builds up in my fiery blade, locking my senses onto every one of them.

The surge of power it gains from just one of these soul weapons is hundreds of times greater than the entire collection of 1st and Noble Grade Weapons I've been feeding it to satiate its hunger throughout the Ravine.

A flash of Crimson zigzagging light fills the sky as I chase down the strongest weapons.

They all strengthen my blade in unique ways.

Some increase its durability, others its raw power, some its sharpness, and a few directly affect the way it reacts with reality. Especially the pure cyan weapons, they make its gravity more powerful, making heavier dents in space while others tighten its vibrations to solidify this sensation even deeper.

This is only halfway through the devouring process.

I can feel the structure and raw power of the sword shifting. It is a process that only happens when it levels up. I have no access to the system to tell if this is what is happening. However, I can instinctually sense that I can't reveal its full form until I release mine.

There is so much power trapped within this Demon and Dragon that it feels like it should have been a tougher fight. Just as I let my blade devour the last of the soul weapons, a wave of memories floods into my consciousness explaining why this feeling is true.

–

They're crisp, like I'm living through its eyes.

Unlike all of the other Demons in this Ravine, its mind has managed to hold together without many fractured or splintered portions of the past.

Its earlier years are unremarkable, similar to the upbringing of the two High Nobles I fought before, actually.

Yet, from the strength of the Elite Worlds it was conquering, and the abundance of Nobles and High Nobles in the Demonic Realm at the time, I'm certain this Demon's experience in the Lower Realm was millions of years before the arrival of any Demon I've killed in the Ravine so far.

In its early years, lasting about fifty thousand in total in the Lower Realm, after it passed all of its trials and tests to ascend, I witness an even more diverse and flourishing Green Zone. The Family Head, Lucian Morvale, was there to greet this Ancient Demon on a private Citadel the day he arrived.

He and thousands of other High Nobles were trained in the Fortress, and even sparred with the Elite Wyverns, Scarlet Berserkers, and a Mammoth Clan that was exceptionally strong during the twenty thousand years or so he remained in the Green Zone.

He ascends through the Grand Citadel, with the watchful eye of a familiar white Wyvern, and Lucian is in the center of their group meant to ascend.

During the transition, while in a bright void of pure white celestial energy, their family head pulls out a purple and white device and gives them a speech about passing a final test.

The familiar scene I saw with the two High Nobles plays all over again in my mind, but this must be the first time the Family Head did it.

Out of the thousands of High Noble Demons ascending next to their dragons, Lucian only flicks his finger upward on a few hundred. The rest, he points down, to send them into the Imperial's Forgotten Prison: The Ravine.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"The first of you to make it out... and pass this trial... I will grant you the Green Zone. You will become the 5th and final Family Head."

These are the last words this Demon hears before being plunged into darkness.

–

I witness a never-ending slaughter.

Even combining every memory from every enemy I've ever killed... it does not compare to the endless battles this monster has been through.

At first, he does not question this trial. As it must be like all the others he faced in the zones below.

The Demon used to wield a pair of black throwing knives as his only soul weapon. They would complement his dark mist and shadow step skills so well that he could make them duplicate and teleport to defeat anything that moved in a one-on-one fight.

However, in his generation, there were many talents like this too. High Nobles all were masters in their Domains throughout the galaxy.

He followed the pedestals blindly, sensing pulsing white lights and slowly coming across the Temple just like many other Demons. This is where the strongest always ended up, so he made it his home to challenge stragglers left behind he couldn't kill.

Every few thousand years after his arrival, there would be even more Demons dumped into the Ravine.

At first, only Nobles and High Nobles, but eventually Lucian began experimenting. He would send fledglings, commoners, 3rd through 1st Class; everything and anything into the Darkness to see what would happen.

This dagger-wielding Demon already killed his entire class within the first years in the Ravine, and with every passing generation, the challengers sent down here only became weaker and weaker.

Every hundred thousand years or so, there would be a genius or mutation that showed up, and he would finally have a stimulating fight.

These are the drops he would look forward to.

Over and over again, as over a million years passed by, he grew strong enough to never even receive a scratch from the strongest of High Nobles on the brink of breaking through.

It built his mind, body, and soul up strong enough to comprehend his purpose. He realized that he must become the undisputed strongest champion of this Ravine. He awakened a Royal path extremely slowly, by never losing a battle.

Another few million years passed as he slowly developed this mind, the one he full-heartedly believed that Lucian wanted him to achieve. Every time more Demons would fall into the Ravine, the rift above would fluctuate, and he would look up to thank his Family Head for trusting him to awaken this power.

Some of the Demons dropped down in this era were tests done by Lucian in the Lower Realm, of faulty royals with half-awakened paths. They are still unfathomably stronger than any High Noble, and this only built up this nameless Demon's confidence further.

However, after a while, his progress stalled.

The Demons sent down only got weaker, to the point where he was lucky if even a dozen High Nobles came to challenge him every 10 thousand years.

With his skills so honed, this Royal could sweep the whole Ravine for enemies in a matter of days, and kill them all with his aura alone.

While at first it was exhilarating to be the strongest, millions of years passed by again, and I watch this Demon unravel into insanity.

Its path starts to decay, as doubt creeps into its mind.

It witnesses the fall in strength of Demons as the generations pass, to the point where only a handful of Nobles even get thrown down here if he's lucky.

His skills regress, and he comes to realize he's been tricked... and used as a prison warden exterminating the weak failures that couldn't ascend for a family head that threw him away just like all the others.

I watch a million years go by where he slams his daggers against the rift above the Ravine and tries everything in his power to escape.

The Royal Vibrations this Demon held at its peak would have easily rivaled mine now... I certainly would have had to use my new form to contend with him.

Yet, he falls further and further into despair.

With countless weak wandering demons and the soul weapons he's been collecting from the strongest Royals and High Nobles of the past, his last resort is to try and create a new path.

He's managed to awaken as a Royal, so in his defeated and tired mind, he believes that picking a new specialty will allow him to ascend even further.

For millions more years, he uses the soul weapons of Demons he defeated in the past, and channels the essence from every new batch of Demons that arrive to the final temple into them.

He assigns Nobles to the pedestals, and whenever a strong High Noble would drop down every few hundred thousand years, he'd appoint them as the new temple guardians to lure others his way.

He began experimenting with the weapons he couldn't bond with, using their souls to merge with his dragon, to try and create a unique sentinel to ascend with him...

Despite successfully soul-bonding with almost a hundred Royal Grade weapons, this step toward insanity only led to his Royal Path becoming more convoluted and weakened at its core.

Any True Royal can defeat a monster that has strayed from its foundation.

This comes true, as its final memories are of our battle and the release of its resentment toward the Royal Family Heads for selling it a false promise of glory.

–

As my corruption devours these emotions, and my Celestial Fire drains all of its past will and drive, a shockwave of pure white light ripples through my body and sword to release into the Ravine.

I'm positive that was the feeling my system gives me from skill upgrades, or a new buff, or a rank-up of some sort... but I still cannot tell what it was.

I let my blade fall into my soul and look upward to see Maria floating down my way.

She lets her blade disappear as well, and we float down together even further to the bottom of the ravine. We hold hands again to link our Celestial Energy Cycles, as I have an absurd amount of higher purity energy to refine with her.

Our instantaneous cycling begins, and she releases the same bright white shockwaves after a few seconds.

Once we touch down on the smooth stone ground, we've already cycled this energy through each other's cores a few thousand times. It's transitioned back and forth from fire to ice enough times to enhance its purity by almost double the raw power I absorbed from the Demon, yet the excitement tingling through both of us is more focused on our final prize.

The head of this Royal Demon begins to melt into black and purple goo, just like everything else that dies down here. However, its enormous ancient spiraling horns still glow bright white with power. Royal vibrations still radiate off it, far more sturdy and concentrated than those within its cores; like they are time capsules of trapped will. Each segment of the twisted celestial bone echoes with the memories of the past I just witnessed.

Foll𝑜w current novels on fre(e)w𝒆bnovel