Spiral of Madness: Ascension of the Villainous Dragon Prince-Chapter 111: The Dimensional Labyrinth’s Third Layer [1] — Fighting Aquatic Entities

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Reef Eels were eel-like Entities primarily composed of flesh and blood like normal animals, yet gigantic. The smallest measured the size of a bus, while the largest rivaled transatlantic cruise ships. They possessed long black horns on their heads, which they used to hunt prey, and they operated as a colony, usually led by an Eel King, Queen, or sometimes both.

They ranked among the first and simplest creatures of the Abyssal Depths Layer. Despite their massive size, like the Ruin Eaters, they remained Level 2 Entities. Louis had no trouble dealing with them. With Gungnir and his Ashen Frost Blade, he swiftly punctured and slashed their bodies into shreds, staining the seawater red with their blood. The Reef Eels attacked relentlessly, forming massive swarms of squirming bodies that constantly surrounded him as he slaughtered them.

"Lord Louis?!"

Zorba, who was handling several dozen himself, grew worried as he watched Louis charge through the water. Dozens upon dozens of Reef Eels swarmed him until he vanished from sight. Hecatoncheires moved to fight the swarm, but more eels appeared and wrapped around the titan, forcing it back.

Fighting underwater was incredibly difficult, especially for heavy constructs, so Zorba’s golems struggled badly. He could not reach Louis to help.

But Louis did not need help.

RUMBLE!

The water trembled as a powerful shockwave erupted from the depths, shaking the entire ocean. A pillar of light burst from within the swarm, tearing apart dozens of eels at once. Their bodies burned and shredded into bloody pulp.

Zorba watched Louis emerge from the masses of torn flesh and bone. Using a second pair of steel arms, he smashed the Reef Eels into smithereens while his sword and spear handled everything else around him.

At this point, Louis had become a pure killing machine—moving with rapid, calculated precision. Zorba had never witnessed anyone kill so efficiently, without wasting time, energy, or effort.

Every motion was designed to kill. Every eel perished torn to pieces, unable to regenerate as both cores were destroyed along with their bodies.

The colony stirred. The large coral reef-like mound shook, and even more Reef Eels emerged. These inhaled seawater and fired it back as highly pressurized bullets.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Countless explosions engulfed Louis as he endured a relentless barrage of water bullets. His bone armor constantly tore apart, but he regenerated it with Ashen Frost. Using the surrounding water, he began freezing everything around him.

The eels could no longer fight effectively, frozen instantly or impaled by sharp emerging ice. Louis continued his massacre inside the colony, where Zorba witnessed him destroy the entire structure by freezing and shattering it into fragments.

Soon after, a gigantic Reef Eel of bright red emerged from the corals, wearing a crown of golden horns. It roared ferociously, opening its maw to bite Louis.

Louis swiftly used Gungnir to block its jaws, then swung his sword into its open mouth, tearing its insides apart. He sliced the giant Queen in two and detonated both halves.

BOOOM!

"It’s done," Louis said through Fantasy Heart Language. "Zorba, you finished?"

"Yes, Lord Louis!" Zorba replied. "That was incredible! You’re the most amazing fighter I’ve ever seen!"

"Enough with the flattery," Louis sighed. "Flattery only makes people comfortable with their current selves, as if they no longer need to improve. I am a weakling, Zorba. Compared to the monsters I must face, I am nowhere near their level."

"...But Lord Louis, even then," Zorba insisted.

"Enough!" Louis said sharply. "Quickly make as many Undead as you can from these creatures. We’ll assault the other colonies using them. This one had no treasure chest, so we must keep searching."

"Yes!"

An army of Reef Eel Skeletons and Reef Eel Zombies formed rapidly. The Queen became a giant Reef Eel Queen Zombie clad in skeletal armor, leading them. The force numbered close to fifty new members. Zorba had repurposed the corpses and souls of previous undead into them, granting some elemental abilities—capable of conjuring ghostly fire and ice. These monsters had no souls of their own as Dream Entities, but their bodies could be repurposed into Undead before fully scattering.

"The Second Colony isn’t far. Hurry!"

Louis guided the entire army of Aquatic Undead toward the next colony of maritime monsters, finding them behind a large cliff leading deeper into the Layer. Two colonies sat side by side, working together.

One consisted of Shadow Manta Rays—giant, bus-sized manta rays of pitch-black color capable of melding into darkness and turning into shadows. The other was a colony of Giant Blaze Crabs—massive, car-sized crabs with blazing power flowing through their bodies and hard stone-like shells.

Upon detecting the approaching eels, both the Shadow Manta Rays and Giant Blaze Crabs cooperated to fight them. The crabs rode atop the mantas’ backs, leaping onto the zombie eels and releasing explosions of flames from their bodies, attempting to sink and destroy their enemies.

"They’re using the crabs like bombs? Wow, that’s amazing," Niflheim commented while watching through Louis’s eyes. "Creatures in the Dimensional Labyrinth resemble those from Yggdrasil quite a bit. How come there are Entities and not just Monster-type Anomalies? They even have flesh and blood."

"Not all Entities are abstract beings—they can also be like these," Louis replied. He thrust his spear forward, unleashing multiple attacks that pierced dozens of crabs and mantas, tearing them apart and making them explode into blinding nirvana flames. "There’s no strict rule about what they can be. Anomalies follow the laws of physics, laws, and evolution. These beings, though they resemble maritime monsters from Yggdrasil, likely do not share the same origin."

"What do you mean?" Niflheim wondered.

Louis swiftly dodged a giant manta ray’s shadows, then impaled its chest and tore a huge hole through which he passed. He reached another, slicing it in half with his bright sword. Dozens more attacked, but he evaded them effortlessly, using his Bone Armor—adapted for swift swimming—to maneuver across the sea with incredible efficiency. "I can sense it as a Spiralwalker. These creatures are not normal—they weren’t born from evolution or anything similar... they are likely Living Dreams."

Niflheim felt confused until she noticed some maritime monsters scattering into pink clouds and vanishing after death if not turned into undead.

That was why Louis hadn’t bothered consuming any—their remains disappeared after a time, leaving only shattered cores behind.

Living Dreams were an Entity type born from the literal dreams of another being given material form within the Dimensional Labyrinth.

The Bosses of the Third Layer—the Sleeping Mermaid Queen and the Merman King—were said to endlessly create these monsters from dreams of a beautiful ocean.

"Living Dreams, huh?"

As Niflheim pondered, Louis noticed she had become more talkative than he preferred. He swiftly moved toward the first Colony Reef Palace, breaking through it with Gungnir already charged by the Rune of Slaughter.

The Guardian of this colony emerged—a giant Volcanic Crab King. It roared ferociously and swam toward Louis, swinging its titanic claws like hammers.

Louis did not evade. He confronted the beast with a rapid thrust of Gungnir, charged with the Rune of Slaughter.

"Holy Dragon Lance Style."

"First Form – Radiant Fang!"