Damien turned to scan the entire place. The tentacles. The monsters. The expedition in shambles. His friends almost dying. The entire state of the war.
He sighed.
"Sheesh... cannot even kill a mere Great Quest without me?"
"Damien!" Riveria shouted.
Everyone turned their attention to him. The soldiers who had fought with him all the way down to Floor Sixty—each of them looked at him, their exhausted faces shifting from despair to something else. Hope. Relief. Then they shouted.
"YEEEEES!"
The people who had grown to trust him, who had felt powerful in his presence, raged with renewed energy. His mere existence was enough morale for everyone.
Damien grinned at the sight. Then he smiled.
"Well then... guess I can help kill this too."
He raised his hand.
"Arise."
A hundred shadows rose from the darkness at his feet. All of them. The adventurers. The wolves. The lizardmen. The troll. Diana. Adonis. Baal. And Igris, his greatsword gleaming with dark light. But that was not all. The dead corpses of Demi monsters that the Corrupted Spirit had raised also rose from the ground. Even the fallen expedition members—those who had lost their lives in the battle....arose as shadows, their forms dark but their purpose clear.
"Let us subjugate this monster," Damien said.
The army moved to attack. Each shadow took on multiple tentacles and beasts. And the more of the Corrupted Spirit's monsters died, the faster Damien's army grew. It was no longer a mere hundred shadows.
It was two hundred. Then three hundred. Then four hundred shadows roamed the battlefield, attacking from every angle, larger than the entire original expedition by eight times.
The reason for this was the Black Heart. It did not affect his powers directly, but it affected all his shadow skills, giving them a boost. His magic power gained a staggering increase.
Damien pointed his blade toward the Corrupted Spirit and smiled.
"You stole one of my daggers before. I do not blame you, though. I did stab you with it in the eye." He raised his hand into the air. "But now... I am taking it back."
Somewhere in the chaos, the dagger that had been thrown moved at staggering speed. It sliced through the Corrupted Spirit's neck as it flew toward Damien's waiting hand.
He caught it and grinned. "Missed you, buddy."
With both daggers gripped tightly, he dashed at the Corrupted Spirit. Hundreds of tentacles moved to block his path. He dodged them all. The ones he could not dodge, he froze in midair using his power.
Ruler's Authority.
"I tried to keep some of my powers on the low," Damien said, his voice carrying across the battlefield. "But each time, an event arose to expose me. So I am done with that now." He moved through the frozen tentacles like a ghost. "It is time to show them all what I can do."
He slashed the Corrupted Spirit's head clean off and landed next to Riveria and Ais.
He looked back. The head was already regenerating.
He smiled. "Guess it will not be so easy, eh?"
"Damien." Riveria grabbed his arm. "Protection magic. It covers its entire core, and it is constant. She pours sixty percent of the magic the Dungeon floor gives her into it." Her jade eyes were sharp, focused. "To break it, I am going to need time to cast a special spell. And even then, I will only reduce the effects for a bit. Not outright remove them."
Damien nodded. "Okay. Got it. You and the others try to get close and use your spell. I will distract it for now." He met her gaze. "Once ready, let me know."
He turned to Ais.
"No sacrificing yourself again."
Ais looked at him. Then, suddenly, she jumped forward and wrapped her arms around him. He warmed up and held her close.
"I am here, Ais. Do not worry." His voice was soft. "We will win."
She nodded against his chest.
Damien released her and turned toward the sky. He raised his hand, and from the shadows, Vritra emerged—his massive shadow dragon, wings spreading wide, ready for battle. Damien leaped onto its back.
Vritra rose into the air, carrying him higher and higher until he faced the Corrupted Spirit at her own level.
The battle was far from over. But now, the Shadow Monarch had arrived.
...
Ais, Leon, Ottar, Mia Grande, and Hedin joined Finn, Gareth, Tiona, and Tione as they all moved toward the core, providing protection from the tentacles to Riveria, who was casting a spell on the massive purple blob above. The elite fighters formed a ring around the high elf, their blades and bodies blocking every lashing tendril that tried to interrupt her magic.
Meanwhile, on the ground, chaos reigned. Monsters, adventurers, and shadows clashed in an all-out war. Death and rebirth happened simultaneously—each fallen creature rising again as a shadow, each shadow cutting down another monster, the battle lines shifting by the second. The expedition fought with desperation, but the shadows fought with something else. Purpose.
But up in the skies, Damien faced the Corrupted Spirit alone.
"MY ARIA! YOU TOOK AWAY MY FREEDOM! I WANT MY FREEDOM BACK!"
Damien landed on one of the massive tentacles, holding it in place with Ruler's Authority. He launched himself at her, his daggers slicing through laser beams as they erupted from the tentacles, cutting them down one after another.
"I do not know what happened for you to become so monstrous," he said, his voice steady despite the chaos around him. "And I am sorry for it. I cannot truly blame a corrupted spirit for her actions. However, I cannot allow them to happen either." His eyes hardened. "So it is time to face death."
He moved with blinding speed, all his senses intact. He dodged every danger, used Ruler's Authority to break away from ambushes, and sliced through as many tentacles as he could. But even still, another tentacle moved to stab him in the back.
Just as it got close, it was obliterated by a laser beam.
The source was Baal. His strongest shadow.
Not only that—Igris, Adonis, and Diana all moved into position around him, their dark forms cutting through the corrupted flesh with practiced ease.
"What are your orders, my Liege?" Adonis asked.
"Let us hunt them all, Master!" Diana's voice was eager, hungry.
Igris said nothing. He simply slashed through a tentacle and looked at Damien, waiting.
Damien grinned. "Last time that worked because I was alone. But now..." He raised his daggers. "I brought my army with me."
He moved, instantly trying to cut her head off.
The Corrupted Spirit screamed, summoning more tentacles to block and blast him away. But Diana and Adonis paved the path for their master, cutting through every obstacle before it could reach him.
She tried to use the terrain to her advantage, destroying the ceiling floor to smash his head. Baal, from far away, destroyed the rubble before it could fall.
She tried to unleash a power beam from her third eye. Igris was already on her, stabbing her eye with his greatsword before the beam could form.
She pushed him away, but before she could even regenerate, Damien smashed her neck, cutting her head off once more.
He landed on a tentacle, waiting for her to regenerate, ready to strike again—
"DAMIEN! IT IS READY!"
Riveria's voice cut through the chaos.
Damien nodded. He turned and moved, faster than before, racing toward the core. The purple meat blob pulsed before him, exposed, vulnerable.
The Corrupted Spirit regenerated. Her eyes opened. She saw him.
He was moving at a speed she could not catch. His daggers raised. About to cut her life force away.
She screamed.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Her voice echoed across Floor Sixty, raw with desperation.
"REGINAS! REVIS! NOW!"
As Damien's blade moved to slash her core alongside the others, another entity moved to intercept him. One that he was sure he had already killed.
Revis.
She appeared between Damien and the core, her hands raised. A force field erupted from her palms, blocking the combined attack from everyone. The impact sent them all flying backward, scattering across the battlefield.
Damien landed hard, skidding across the corrupted ground.
He looked up.
Revis stood before the core, her body crackling with power, her empty eyes fixed on him.
She was back.
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