Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power

Bri's voice echoes throughout a local sector of the massive mountain above the divine flames.

Rodrigo questions all of the top officers within the headquarters they've taken over in mere seconds and finds city maps pinpointing the other control centers that manage security and a link to wire into the transmission coverage across the other nine districts.

Bri's words of the big three that lived in the floating black boxes high in the sky and the fact that the creator of those yellow flames surrounding the tower is being defeated right now is heard by tens of millions of system awakened men and women.

Her words about the Great War get many of the older crowd interested, especially when Bri gives instructions on how to help in the Second Great War, to help finish it once and for all.

Even if they don't know or care what she's talking about, the permanent stat buff bonus that she mentions next brings in the younger crowd's attention.

As her voice echoes through all ten districts of the Central Association's Mountain Civilization, Bri repeats this message over and over again, and small amounts of people begin to give it a try, reciting their sworn loyalty to a mysterious Flame Emperor figure to get a few extra stat points or give in to the fleeting hope that this woman's words of the Great War are true.

It starts off as a slow trickle, but with the expansive scene that is instantly transmitted into their minds of a demonic statue swinging silver swords at a 250m tall flaming figure that can only be called the Flame Emperor, the word spreads like wildfire that it's real...

Echoing transmissions fill every major city, but at the same time, over a dozen red cores and an orange core circle the building that Bri and Rodrigo have infiltrated with angry looks on their faces.

The orange core gives the order for all of the red core Central Association scouts to eliminate the threat.

–

Meanwhile, a battle begins in the center of the Dark Continent.

Raven's blades clashing against the black-horned demon's spear sends a shockwave through the entire silver dome, notifying everyone that the strongest forces here have begun their battle.

The hazel-eyed sword wielder doesn't want to reveal her divine stealth trump card, as an eerie aura comes off this demon that makes her feel extremely on edge about getting too close.

While the 7-meter-tall demon's appearance is menacing enough, it has a True Core strength slightly less powerful than Raven.

Even its level is just below ten thousand, but the monster has incredible natural strength and Demonic Soul Energy that can easily rival Raven's pure mana.

Their speed and reflexes are very similar as well; there is just a confidence behind the demonic white eyes and an invisible aura that makes her hesitant at first to use all of her tricks.

"Is that all you've got?" the demon laughs while their exchanges begin, and Raven's mind flashes back to the battle she had not too far away from here with the Flame Emperor; going all out with no fear of dying at all, and enjoying the fight itself.

She doesn't yell back, only grins an unnoticeable amount, and disappears before the demon's eyes.

–

Closer to the tower, the front lines of the Crimson Army's forces collide with one of the demonic forces.

Fisher and Lydia send waves that look like an icy tiger and a water serpent into their main forces, imbued with orange and yellow divine light, killing a dozen red demonic knights instantly, and a single orange-cored general, while the Crimson Army's elemental elites team up to face the red cores left behind injured from the initial strike.

Waves of dense divine energy and soul energy come out of the two leading the battle while my doubles hold the rear with the pure Qi manifestation wielders.

After Fisher and Lydia send off a few more attacks, and the Crimson Army's forces get deeper into full battle, dense black arrows come flying into the mix from Arie watching from far behind with Luna's eyes above.

In moments, right before disaster, the lives of Crimson Army members are saved so they can battle on with full force without the fear of death.

–

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Abby and Maria erupt with power from their general's 1% buffs, and the high-level yellow cores that come their way with killing intent in their eyes meet an unexpected early end.

Two women that looked like overconfident, easy, low-level yellow core prey moments ago turn into an indestructible green flash of light and an enormous blue ice goddess.

Abby decapitates and shatters the core of the demon that follows her in mere seconds, and Maria's icy blue blade doesn't even need the extra pulse from her soul energy core to come crashing down on the archdemon below her in the sky.

Its blade moving upward to block is broken into pieces on impact, and the demon's body freezes to pure ice, shattering to icy bits while Maria finishes the entirety of the swing.

Both of them stand in the sky, without any change in their breathing, with sharp eyes waiting for a real opponent while level-up notifications ring in their ears.

–

The bronze-horned demon subjugating the Central Association's troops turns his gaze to Sector 1, the direction in which two high-level generals just went dark out of nowhere.

His eyes widen and he yells out orders while pushing himself off the desert floor with a massive amount of Demonic Soul Energy.

The dagger-wielding demon lets out an angry yell while rocketing through the air, traveling hundreds of kilometers in seconds, releasing his True Core's real aura, and waves of killing intent, while planning to kill the two women before him.

The remaining two high-level yellow generals, and forces of red and orange cores, plan to do exactly as their captain said, setting out to slaughter the entire Crimson Army as they are clearly unfit to take orders from the proper demonic authority.

–

While this battle begins, on the inside of the tower, the first of nine silver blades comes down toward me.

An abnormal amount of links of loyalty are rushing into my body, but I don't believe it will be enough...

I eat a handful of all the remaining green fruits I have leftover from the divine construct, and at the same time, clear my mind, focusing solely on doing everything I did in the eighth round, but with extreme and total precision like the fate of the world truly depends on it.

Unbeknownst to me, as I swing upward with all of my offensive skills activated, a defensive array forming in front of my blade, ripples of green light pulse out from my Astral Form's chest; strengthening my body like strong green veins or an exoskeleton of aura.

As the first blade shatters through the hexagonal barrier like it isn't even there, the blade comes crashing down against my Red Soul Sword, and against Ember's fire pillar from his mouth, and silver claws, now fortified with twice as many silver threads as they were for any of the last rounds.

This first blade feels heavier than all eight of the blades combined on the last round.

I feel my bones and cells within my body vibrate with sharp pain, and my Astral Form desperately wants to dissipate on the spot.

However, the green lines of energy that wrap around my form hold everything together, as the entire room lights up with a bright yellow and silver glow.

The ringing in my ears of divine energy poisoning from staying enlarged in this form and exerting myself grows over ten times louder in a single strike, so loud in fact I don't even feel or see the next blade coming.

It slams down, and the ringing gets worse, and the pressure on my body becomes unfathomable.

I black out.

Or, to better put things, I white out.

My body and mind continue to push upward with instincts alone, and the silver swords keep slamming downward one by one while my mind escapes elsewhere.

I hallucinate, seeing images of the first day I awakened my system, farming goblins just to pay rent.

My life flashes before my consciousness.

The smile of an old merchant who bought my mana crystals even before I had a hunter's license, showing up to Maria's awakening ceremony, meeting Abby at the Association, and traveling to the capital of the Vice Region for the first time with a small guild.

Images of working for the Association, good and bad, farming dungeons, going to the C-Class exams where I met both Arie and Ember, meeting new teammates, and eventually being betrayed by the Association but continuing on with all the cards I've been dealt.

My adventures through the Dark Continent, learning of Qi, Divine Beasts, Demons, and expanding my empire back to where I started, the 8 Great Regions, eventually all show up in stunning detail.

Awakening a Divine Core, and learning who really controls this world, touring city to city to get support before a battle that will decide the fate of all humans.

Even the battle against Redgrave replays in my mind as the silver swords continue to fall down on me...

The green energy that gave me a boost, holding my Astral Form together, all fades away, as energy of higher tiers does not stay in one's body until the core is fully formed.

However, the mental trip I've experienced flashes through everyone's minds that shares my link, showing now over 22 million people the equally beautiful and dreadful world I've seen in such a short time.

Unknown to me, still in a fugue state, almost 4 million people in the Central Association have just seen the outside world for the first time in many decades.

My links skyrocket, hitting 24 million by the seventh sword, and 27 million by the time the ninth and final sword in the center of the demon's grasp comes down.

My massive fiery Astral Form shows cracks all over its surface as I hold the nine blades back, with Ember's flames still bursting outward at full force, filling the room with fiery heat.

As the timer counts down from three, more links flow in, and more cracks form all over my greater form's surface.

By the time the counter hits zero, over 30 million pairs of eyes watch through mine while the nine swords disappear, and my Astral Form shatters as I stop giving it any extra energy because my job is done.

–

All of the demon's arms move back to their starting point.

Silver text hovers in the air.

[Round 9 of 9 Complete.]

[Trial 1: Body: Complete.]

[Calculating prize based on trial difficulty...]

[Prize Calculated.]

All of the text disappears, and the entire silver demon statue fades away shimmering with the same silver light.

Two small black boxes fall from the ceiling and hit the floor in front of the massive arching doorway that now glows completely silver just like the door I entered to begin these trials.