Chapter 301. Lilith (1)
[I"ve been… waiting…]
A heard a voice. It seemed to belong to a middle-aged man, but it also seemed to be that of an old man and a young boy. I shouted in surprise.
"You can talk…!?"
[I"ve been watching you… since the 81st floor…]
He pretended to not hear me and continued his speech. I looked around in case anyone else was here but there wasn"t. In the Floor Master battle room, there were only flowing droplets of blood, which came together in ma.s.s to form a wave of blood.
[That person… seemed to have high expectations of you…]
"That person? Are you talking about the Dungeon Lord?"
[In any case… it"s great… If I kill you here… It"ll do as a small revenge…]
"Sorry, but I don"t plan on dying here."
[That"s… an interesting thought.]
He smiled.
[Dungeon… In this place you call the dungeon… Do you know why you don"t die even when you "die"?]
Like a predator eyeing its prey, waves of blood silently began to surround me.
[Before you actually die… that person removes you to a safer place.]
"That"s what I heard too."
It was impossible to bring a dead person back to life. That was an ability in the domain of the G.o.ds. From my knowledge, only Caduceus was capable of doing so, and even Caduceus had strict requirements. Not even Sherafina should be able to bring so many explorers back to life.
Not to mention, it was unlikely that Sherafina had as power similar to Hermes. The more I used Hermes" power, the more I felt that it was rare and special.
[Simple… Before that person can save you, I will kill you and absorb you. That person won"t be able to do anything…]
Now that I thought about it, he wasn"t wrong. The only reason the thought had never crossed my mind was that I had absolute trust in Sherafina. Until now, she had never made a mistake, almost like mistakes weren"t allowed for her.
[During these countless years… do you think… she never once made a mistake?]
"Hm."
After a short contemplation, I held up my spear and began to breathe.
A breathing different than normal humans, it was a breathing of a Death Knight who was about to face an enemy. As I utilized death energy from 81st floor to the 85th floor, I had gotten used to Breath of Death.
[Hey.]
Hm? That was my voice.
[Even if you talk nonsense to scare me, nothing will change.]
[Huhu… Does it sound like nonsense?]
Crimson h.e.l.l"s voice sounded like the combined voice of despair of all human beings. I didn"t mean to have a fight of voices, but my current voice was nothing to scoff at.
[No, what I mean is, it doesn"t matter whether your words are true or not.]
Dark blue aura came out of my mouth. The corner of a wave approaching me became dyed grey and crumbled down. Crimson h.e.l.l let out a faint groan.
[Until I conquer this dungeon, I don"t plan on having my vitality hit zero.]
One death meant one week and, at the worst, one month. I didn"t have even a single day to spare.
[I see, your mind… is like an impregnable fortress.]
[My body isn"t so bad either. Though, you won"t have the chance to experience it!]
With that, I charged towards him. Chaos flames ignited above my spear and mixed with my death energy.
[Using you as food… I will obtain a new power… The world"s power inside you, I will obtain it!]
I didn"t think I"d hear something like this in the dungeon, but as I said before, nothing he could say could scare me. Rather, I became more spirited.
[Even if you obtain my power, nothing will change for you.]
My spear shattered a wave. Not only that, but a portion of the wave became petrified after a clear flash in my eyes. Crimson h.e.l.l cried out in shock.
[What!?]
[If you"re so weak as to be affected by my Evil Eyes, do you think you can overthrow the dungeon just by obtaining my power? If you do, then you"re gravely mistaken.]
[Evil Eyes…!]
[When I first met you, I happened to think about why you lost without being able to steal the world"s power.]
Crimson h.e.l.l had an ever-increasing body and sucked in more mana than a mana eater. He was quite close to being invincible.
Plus, with his body being in a liquid state, he could freely go wherever he wanted. Since he absorbed magical attacks and nullified physical attacks, I couldn"t help but wonder how the Hero of the invaded world defeated him.
Was the Hero a Death Knight? Impossible. Even if there was someone who could wield death energy like me, just one person wouldn"t have been enough to deal with Crimson h.e.l.l.
Then how? The answer was simple.
[You"re strong, but your league is extremely low in comparison. What that means is you aren"t a powerful enemy that only the Hero can contend against. Anyone could fight you. Right, you"re a weakling that only relies on superiority in quant.i.ty. You didn"t lose to the Hero, right? You must have lost to an army. Against an enemy that fought against your quant.i.ty with quant.i.ty.]
I was probably correct. To be honest, it wasn"t that he was weak. With his sheer size, I doubt the Hero alone would have been able to stop him. Still, he wasn"t so strong that only the Hero could fight him.
The fact that my Evil Eyes were working on him was proof.
[You see, even though my Evil Eyes got stronger, they shouldn"t be strong enough to petrify a world"s enemy.]
I smirked. My Evil Eyes currently carried death energy as well. Death aura could be wielded like any other mana. Naturally, it could be used to strengthen my Evil Eyes. This power really was all-powerful.
Anyways, Evil Eyes with death aura"s power magnificently petrified all blood in my sight. The reason I didn"t use my Evil Eyes in the previous floors was precisely to not give Crimson h.e.l.l the time to prepare against me. Though, in truth, it was also because I didn"t think Evil Eyes would work against a world"s enemy.
When I began to ponder about how he could have been defeated, I realized that his league wasn"t that high. The rest was easy.
[You… Evil Eyes… Evil Eyes of Petrification!]
[Right. I also added death energy, so it"s technically not a pure Evil Eyes of Petrification.]
Crimson h.e.l.l wasn"t a singular being. He was a colony. It was the only logical conclusion, seeing as how waves of blood swept away the dead parts of its "body". Only a colony could do such a thing.
Mana eater, which also moved freely and shot out hundreds of tentacles, could be seen as a colony, but it was a clear singular being. The mana eater shared senses and shared mana. If a part of its body was severed, it felt pain and needed to use the mana it stole from me to restore itself.
But this wasn"t the case for Crimson h.e.l.l. It stole mana from me, but killing it made the mana disappear or come back to me. Although a wave of blood sometimes swept through and took the mana, that only solidified my theory that it was a colony. That said, I did think that there was a singular being that controlled the entire colony.
[Like you said… I expand endlessly… The amount… This battle room can"t possibly contain fully… Throughout these countless years, I restored myself… And this is the result… Pantiran"s Hero, in order to kill me… sacrificed ten thousand mages and twenty thousand warriors… I wonder… Will you be able to defeat me alone?]
[Who said I was alone?]
A truly huge wave was rising up in the room. The 85th Floor Master room was bigger than any of the previous Floor Master rooms, but the wave that was rising up was big enough to fill up this entire room. Right, it was enough to drown an entire city.
[Elementals… You have those trivial things.]
[Sharana, Dortu.]
[I"m ready, Master.]
[I am Dortu. Executing Master"s commands.]
Immediately after Dortu replied, out of the near 700,000 mana I had, almost 300,000 mana disappeared. Then, countless metallic crystals became scattered in the air.
[Elementals, they are formed from mana. But they are still lifeforms. Our clones… didn"t have the power, but for us, the true body… they are nothing but food.]
[Then try it. Let"s see if you can devour Dortu.]
I replied with a grin, and borrowing Sharana"s power, I breathed out Breath of Death. A portion of the wave froze in place, and while I bought time, the metallic crystals in the air transformed into mirrors.
[Sharana, I"ll leave it to you.]
[Yes, Master!]
Sharana answered as confidently as always. She was a wind elemental, but her ability wasn"t limited to affecting wind. Like Ruyue"s ice or Peika"s lightning, Dortu"s metal could also be strengthened by her ability.
As Sharana"s power spread through the mirrors, another 100,000 mana was drained from me. I put a mana potion in my mouth, but Breath of Death corroded the gla.s.s bottle and shattered it.
[The power of Evil Eyes… It"s being scattered!?]
[Wrong. To be exact, it"s being copied while holding onto the same strength.]
I replied as I flashed my two eyes. Small mirrors floated around me as if to guard me, receiving my Evil Eyes" power and shooting it out in all directions like laser beams. Crimson h.e.l.l that happened touched the beams turned to stone and died.
[Need I say more? If I were you, I would attack me before it"s too late and try to separate me from these mirrors.]
I smiled provocatively and spun my spear in a circle. With that as the signal, the huge wave of blood swept towards me in full force.
[I"ll do as you wish!]
[Yeah, let"s see which of us runs out of mana first!]
I kicked off the ground, petrifying more parts of Crimson h.e.l.l, and leaped up to the air. The metallic mirrors floating around me followed me, spinning around me in a circle. Just the rapid spinning of the mirrors seemed powerful enough to break apart most attacks.
[Kuaaaaaaa! Be devoured by a wave of blood!]
[Call me a Newtype from now, you loser!]
Absolute Soul"s overwhelming energy fiercely combatted Crimson h.e.l.l"s attempts to steal my mana. At the same time, Peruta Circuit"s whirlpool incorporated the flames of death and rose up to the sky!
Breaking the wave apart with a single thrust of my spear, I spread the falling of the wave using the power of the Evil Eyes reflected off the mirrors. Then, I jumped again in the air.
Unable to withstand the urge rising from the depths of my heart, I shouted out. In my hand was a spear wrapped in flames of death, around my body were countless metallic mirrors guarding me like GN shields!
[Kang Shin, engaging the enemy!]