Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

'All four are unique... This is good for now... but could get troublesome,' Ember thinks to himself while analyzing the generals auras, but he does not have a pleased look on his face.

Ember is calculating what his next move should be, and trying to conceptualize every piece moving in the Upper Realm right now.

With his close call with the Demons that arrived here two days prior, he's both relieved that nothing came of it before everyone was ready, but also on edge.

He knows that Sisco Vermillion is no pushover, and the fact that no results came back from his questioning of all the Berserkers here on Ellipsia and over on Mensa means they will either tear the Grand Citadel apart to find their mark, or this Demon is already steps ahead and the polite gesture of sending in 1st Class Demons is just to toy with him.

'It's hard to tell who knows what after being away for so long again... especially when I didn't climb the Demons' ranks from the Lower Realm...' Ember thinks, then activates his perception technique again, making his eyes glow silver to let out a pulse of invisible radiation outward.

The first thing he senses are Torvak and Asic finally leaving this Tower with precious cargo, carrying over 8,000 Premium Grade Avatar Shells that need to be fitted to the correct specs for the Demonic Servants that the Rising Emperor promised new bodies to.

They had almost everything done, but the two-day wait while the Citadel was locked down and 1st Class Demons were wandering about put a small pause on the operation.

Many 2nd and 3rd Class Ogres and Orcs are helping with the installment and assimilation process in the old headquarters where illegal Exile contract business was carried out.

What Ember senses next, much further out than just the Citadel level, was already expected too, as he felt them leave the Fortress over a full day ago.

It is a dark shadowy army slowly soaring through the green skies with no fast travel orbs, as they are not linked to any Citadel Systems. There are hundreds of them, some with horns, some with long wings, but they are so close together, and let out a dense demonic aura, that it just appears to be a Citadel-sized cloud of dark energy soaring in the direction of the Sea of Corruption, where Seraphel still lies.

Ember's technique scans the Mensa Citadel as well, but he catches the Noble Lord there on a holographic call with another familiar face... Miriel Vermillion.

This technique at such long range only gives him a small snippet of time to perceive things, and it begins to fade away the moment it makes contact. Though, he can make out a few words from the Royal Family Head before his silver vision fades.

"The Arena Events will be starting soon. I've invited Drako to come and participate, so any suspicions you have will be dealt with. You finish your job with the Wyvern, I'll deal with the new blood personally."

Ember looks up at the ceiling of the High Orc tower he's standing in, looking over to Zashen, whose bright red aura has been growing in luminosity for days, watching his eyes slowly start to open.

"It's about time you woke up."

–

During this time that has passed, I've been sitting in the same position on the cold, hard, and dark cell floor beneath the Grand Citadel.

Periodically, the entrance that I came in through would open up, and new 2nd and 1st Class Lords are tossed in.

The general tension in the room, and sight of massive hand and leg cuffs resting in front of two sleeping humans with avatar remains scattered on the floor at the back of the room is enough to keep many beasts away.

Some of the unintelligent monsters thrown in here are handled by the stronger 1st Class Lords to stay away from me, as they do not want to get on the wrong side of my kick like the example I made of the snow leopard Lord.

While the two kicks that decapitated and crushed the core of this Lord were not necessarily strong, possibly nearing the 3rd or 2nd Class Lords' natural strength, everyone here has their stats and ether defense commands suppressed. They only fear me because they don't have their full power, and that is fine to me for now...

All I'm focused on is the millions of ether commands I've cautiously and meticulously let slip through the cold black cell ground and seep into the Citadel around me.

With Ava in a cell about 50 kilometers away, and the Admin I've created a link of loyalty with returned to his post on the outer wall of the Citadel, I have clear vantage points to how deep and far I need to push my perception.

In the calm silence of this room, with my eyes closed, I can feel the thousands of massive cells like this at a similar altitude underneath the green dome.

There are tons of tunnels and pathways, with smaller rooms in between all of them where demonic Servants work surveillance and ether command repair and management.

Above us, oddly enough, the massive dome, spanning around 40,000 kilometers in diameter, has nothing but dense divine threads, mana, and ether commands closely packed together.

At first when I felt it, and tried digging my way around the ether commands, it made no sense.

The commands were so random, and jumbled, and seemingly pointless. However, when I sat for longer, and let my tendrils of ether commands soak outward further, past the massive Inner City, and set my sights on the wilderness itself, this smaller dome's purpose became much more clear.

The wilderness itself is all a complete facade.

Just like the construct Celia created back on the human world, everything looked and felt extremely real, but as I inspect how it's created from the inside. It's all just advanced holograms, with elemental magic and divine energy imbued into every structure to make them interact with avatar holders as if the environment is real.

My ether commands brush through many massive towers full of hundreds of thousands of Demonic Servants each, all hard at work, designing and creating biomes to swap out with ones that have been used up and destroyed in massacres or massive black zone events.

The same technology is being used for whatever is beneath this dome, as the arena events are unpredictable and different every month, because they are created on the spot...

While my curiosity is piqued here and information about the Citadel itself is very interesting to me, I could have made educated guesses to figure this out prior to my scans, just not with such intricate detail.

The real mystery still lies in every one of the safe zones within the wilderness. I try to gain more information by lightly sending commands to these regions, but at this distance, I can't do much more than very simple scanning and analysis commands.

The Crown Cycle Structures are too well guarded, and it feels like I'm trying to look through an unbreakable black box.

Every time I try to look through, the strange cold sensation I had with my meeting with Miriel Vermillion returns, so I look elsewhere.

After all, I know where these rooms lead, and it's beneath me.

In addition to outward, I send strands of ether commands down deep underground.

Below, it feels as though there is only solid black material, similar to what the etherstones beneath Ellipsia were made of, but in a dense solid form.

It takes hours and hours of concentrated effort to push through, without triggering any of the automated surveillance commands.

If I didn't know that the wolfmen's trackers were brought over a hundred thousand kilometers beneath the surface, I would have no confidence that there was anything at all down here. The further down I send my tendrils of ether, the denser this black bedrock-like mass becomes.

There are small pathways with less resistance, but for the most part I have to use a large amount of mental and even physical power to push further down.

My body becomes covered in sweat, and I can physically feel pressure from my Noble Vibrations building up behind my first seal, as extra energy from this is necessary to move further down.

Though, the pain and effort is worth it.

After these days of long effort, I finally feel a breaking point, and make it to the other side...

A rush of information comes into my mind, and the memories of endless massive black skyscrapers that I remember in Andras Vermillion's and the Demonic Guardian Cyclopes' minds link up exactly to what I see.

There is an entire massive city on the underside of this Citadel, like I'm staring at a mirrored version of the Inner City above. The only difference is a central tower that projects so far downward, deep below the depth I ever traveled down in the Exile Zones. I can't even perceive where it leads down to.

On top of this, there are no Lords present in the streets, nor are there any ether commands or fast travel orbs active. It is desolate, empty, and silent.

Everything is covered in dense surveillance protection, just like the Crown Cycle buildings. All I can manage to perceive is the outsides of these buildings. It feels jet black and cold. Eerily cold, even making me physically shiver, perceiving it hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.

In addition, from such a distance, what I'm seeing isn't crystal clear imagery—it is more shapes, shadows, and an instinctual feeling that pieces the visuals together.

It strains me so much to keep these active, and with no additional information to find, I come to terms that this is as good of a scan of the Citadel as I'll get right now.

Just as I retract my strands of ether, three notifications hit my consciousness at once.

I open my eyes and stand to my feet out of surprise, and many of the Lords in the room flinch at my fast movements, but I'm more focused on the first sound of a Demon's voice from the Lower Realm hitting my mind for the first time in a while.

"My Lord, Rising Emperor. This is Pluto—Pluto Vermillion at your service. My offering was accepted. I have successfully gained a position as a temporary commander in one of the newest task forces. There will be an opportunity to rank up to a general after my first mission, a takeover of a star system named The Great Belt of Brymia."

My heart races at the impact of the news from this update, but I can't ignore the second voice in my head, from the Admin currently inside the Wilderness.

"I've made contact with the wolfmen that have completed their Crown Cycles. As requested, they are being entered into the arena event so you can meet them and collect the necessary data once they're inside..."

The third, and most urgent notification, is the one that comes from within my Grand Citadel Avatar shell.

[Arena Entry #018275041 Selected to Participate in Round 1!]

[Prepare for transport!]