Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power-Chapter 863

Seconds earlier:

"This may be our last meeting... Fallen One. The Upper Realm will be sealed after this stunt you pulled. It's been your best try so far, but you are not strong enough to defeat me, Miriel's one weakness..." The Demonic Dragon beams directly into Ember's mind.

A deep white and purple claw mark is visible across Ember's underbelly, and across the bottom of his left wing.

Dense silver threads hold it together, but just like Celia's purple threads, they are a pale degraded old version of the true power of what they used to be.

Ember still has to rely on his pure Low Quality Ether pool, and every moment using these silver threads, his mind and body fatigue more and more.

He was able to hold off many of this Dragon's attacks with his defenses before, but as the battle goes on longer, the silver threads become weaker.

The Demonic Dragon continues to mock him.

Even sending a wave of demonic energy imbued with Celestial energy from his mouth.

Ember is forced to use his other wing to block this attack, leaving a dense hole, tearing through the defenses.

The silver threads may be able to block pure physical attacks, but the difference in ether quality is so vast, it melts through him from the inside.

Despite this, Ember keeps a straight face. It irks the Demonic Dragon, to see the losing side of this battle even grinning at him.

All of the attacks of white fire are blocked and dissolved into the atmosphere without leaving even a scratch on the massive purple dragon.

"Do you understand? You have lost! The Royals have secured every single zone of the Upper Realm! Now that we have located you, and can confirm that we have sent you back, there is nothing you can do! You are too weak to even lay a scratch on me, you have failed at the only chance you had at killing a Royal! It's over!"

There is a golden light stirring inside Ember's mind, but he thinks deeply to himself while swooping downward to dodge another one of the Dragon's Demonic pillars of Celestial energy. 'I could use this power... but last time I did to wake up that sleeping elf, I was nothing but a yellow core. Now, I am at the peak of a True Green... the consequences would be far worse...'

Ember mentally debates with himself while his borrowed stats paired with the Rising Emperor begin to grow higher and higher. 'No. If I save him now, he will not have the confidence to rule. The Rising Emperor must face certain demise, and will the system itself to pull him from the darkness.'

As the white and red dragon spins around, with two deep Celestial wounds on his body, he's struck in the back by a third.

The layers of dense silver threads keep him from being torn in two, but another nasty Celestial burn tears a hole into his flesh, and even seeps into his mind.

"Goodbye, old friend! Our last meeting was quite fun! It will be the memory I savor most in our eternal kingdom above the Lower Realm. I was the last to kill the Fallen One, and it was clear this was your best chance! Yet, you were still too weak!"

As the Dark Purple Dragon charges up another demonic celestial energy burst, Ember still grins calmly.

He even stops flying away. Instead, he swoops upward and faces the massive Demonic Dragon face to face. The silver threads shimmering in his eyes fade, and all that stares forward is a pure pair of crimson dragon eyes.

"I may be too weak, but there are far more ways to kill you, a Soul Bound Dragon. Maybe you weren't the weak point after all..."

All throughout their clash below the Citadel, shockwaves and auras clash above, making noise, and leaking out with ether, but nothing is quite like the eruption of power that explodes downward after these words.

The entire Grand Citadel cracks into pieces, and a burst of red and white light explodes downward.

It appears to be in the shape of a human, but a few tendrils of corruption follow it, destroying it and eating it alive.

Hundreds more continue to slam down on it, cracking the Citadel more and more.

In just fractions of a second, Miriel Vermillion, in his fully unsealed Royal Form, comes bursting out from the cracks in this structure and unleashes his aura and full power of tens of thousands of Tendrils of energy on this tiny indestructible set of three cores.

Both of the dragons are frozen in place a million kilometers below, near the Realm floor.

One with shock and fear, the other with excitement and pride; watching the impossible take place.

A Celestial Humanoid body erupts from the tiny point of energy that was getting battered moments ago, and it grows large enough to hold these coiling black corruption tornadoes without issue, and even slice through tens of thousands of them to collide with the Royal Demon.

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Ember glows extremely bright white as well, his synchronized level reaching 100,000.

–

Every fractured particle of the Grand Citadel explodes out from our collision point.

Not only can I sense the two massive dragons below the Citadel, but I can feel the fights taking place high above in the sky above the hundreds of millions of lords that just swore their loyalty to me.

The shockwaves do weaken as they blast out further, but these waves ripple through even Ellipsia, Mensa, the Fortress, and far out into the far ends of the green zone, over the Sea of Corruption where the other generals finish their battles.

The notifications bursting through my inner ear, pushing my linked worlds over 1 billion, include Demonic Servants from other Citadels. Even the small trading centers that float around the outer ring of defensive ether commands in the vicinity of the Grand Citadel are effected.

The whole rest of the zone only accounts for 10% of the worlds linked through the Grand Citadel, but the far-reaching effects of this shockwave are instantly noticeable to every single living organism in the Green Zone of the Upper Realm.

Soon, it could lead to the death of 90% of them if I don't do something about this microscopic shrapnel shockwave heading upward toward all of the Lords above.

It all feels malleable, like I can bring it closer to me using my control over the environment. But—at such a massive range, some of the outer chunks will not be able to be moved or stopped fast enough...

At the same time, the sword in my grasp is growing colder while corruption spreads through it.

The only direction I can move is down, backward in the direction I don't want to head...

The final notification that floats in my mind, showing the new milestone of my Rising Emperor's Domain perks, lights up, specifically a new feature labeled [Administrators].

The instant I think about it, all of its information flows into my consciousness, and even more text boxes float to the forefront of my mind.

–

[Appoint Administrator][0/5 slots] freēwēbnovel.com

[Select]

Administrators may borrow up to 1% of all borrowed Base Stat Points and Mana Control efficiency from all subordinates under the allegiance of the Rising Emperor.

Additional [World Wide Connectivity System][i] and [Fast Travel][i] perks applied.

–

When my attention hovers over the selection tab, every single individual link of loyalty bursts into my mind as well. Hundreds of millions of Lords on each of the 1 billion worlds that are now connected to my system.

With the new [World Locator Perk][i] I obtained from reaching 1 million worlds earlier, I can now see the exact location of every single one of my linked worlds on a galactic scale.

My mind spreads through the Green Zone of the Upper Realm, and below it, through curved, compressed, and distorted space; I feel the entire Lower Realm sitting below us.

It is vast. Unfathomably large, actually.

Filled with mostly empty space.

Compared to this Green Zone, it is billions of times wider.

Yet, there are small pockets of energy within it—clouds of red, orange, and yellow divine threads. There are scattered veins of unrefined Qi, Mana, and even Demonic Energy too. Some areas of space are dense enough with energy to form stars and solar systems.

This is where I sense small clusters of worlds.

They are like tiny white pinholes all over the impossibly large fabric of space deep inside my consciousness.

Through the senses of many links of loyalty on these worlds, I can even see other planets within solar systems that are not under my rule.

Many pockets of open space do not have any planets that I hold a link with, in fact.

There is far more empty space in this endless darkness that I cannot sense than areas I can.

In this moment, I feel both incredibly powerful, but simultaneously miniscule and in awe of the sheer scope of this galaxy.

In the Green Zone, I can feel everything, but reality below it is far more of a mystery to me... I have tiny pockets of vision, but it's clear what I see is nothing at all compared to the truth hiding in the vastness of space.

Even with these tiny peeks into reality, there is something extremely ominous at its center.

The moment I even try to peer toward it, a ringing sound echoes in my mind, and a silver light starts pouring into my consciousness. I feel something watching back... and it forces me to lose concentration and pull my mind out from this massive mental construct.

I feel a very familiar sensation wash over me, like I've seen something I wasn't supposed to. It feels just like the flashes of golden light that blur my memories when Ember tells me of his past.

It makes me shiver, and fall right back into the reality of my situation extremely fast. I click the first name that comes to the front of my mind, as a memory of them using a protective technique countless millennia ago, as well as just seconds ago, are both fresh in my mind.

Ren is appointed as the first system administrator.

I trust that elf to finish what they started, and I'll do the same.

A grin covers my face when I feel a small pushback against me as I lose 1% of my borrowed stats, but at the same time, watch a white light that is not my own cover the sky.

It gives me the mental fortitude to push through the cold.

I don't back down from Miriel, and begin pulling all of the Citadel Mass in the air toward me at once.

Fragments of the Grand Citadel nearby all fall in with ease, as my pull is stronger, but many other fragments burst outward 2 or 3 million kilometers in every direction.

Large amounts of them begin to bounce off a white dome high up in the air, while others hit the back of Ember's large wings down below.

He glows with a bright white light and grows in size... The sensation of a Celestial Energy breakthrough ripples through the air, as he too is ranking up to release a new form.

–

"What are you...? How is this possible?!" comes out of the mouth of the Royal Demon that was positive I would die.

I smile back, as the waves of green and white clouds in the atmosphere are all sucked in toward me like a whirlpool.

My Celestial body begins to grow in size again, and manifestations of my Soul Sword start to form around me, rebuilding the tens of thousands of shattered versions that were absorbed by corruption moments ago.

They fend off the coiling black energy that starts to reform around Miriel, and attack me from all sides again.

I only focus on his true body with my main blade, and yell back.

"I already told you who I am. The Rising Emperor. I am the human that has come to kill you. Miriel Vermillion, you will be the first Royal Demon of many in the five great families to fall by my hand!"

It is followed by a laugh, to mock his own.

The cold monster's slow, echoing laugh stops once the corruption being pushed through his hands into my blade cannot travel inward any further.

Instead, my Sacred Body glows hotter and hotter, growing in size—and for the first time, I push forward; and the Demon's hands give way.

Miriel Vermillion is pushed backward, as the sharp side of my Celestial blade sinks into the flesh of his palms.