Thanatos's pale face finally lost all its composure in the presence of Ais's awakened wind magic.
This was no longer a simple manifestation of Spirit blood. He could feel something deeper, something more primal, awakening within the young girl.
"Interesting... truly interesting."
The evil god's whisper echoed through the cavern, but his body had already begun to retreat, melting into the shadows cast by the rocky walls.
"But the game has only just begun. Children of the Lower World, until we meet again—"
Before he could finish, a sudden mutation occurred.
It was as if the Dungeon itself had been provoked.
It wasn't targeting Ais, nor was it targeting Suren. It was targeting Thanatos—the existence that had tried to interfere with the depths of the labyrinth as a god, only to be repelled by the protection of the wind.
The rock walls vibrated violently, sending a rain of gravel downward. A bone-chilling tearing sound echoed from the depths of the fifteenth-floor cavern, as if something massive was being forcibly "dragged" out from the depths of the ley lines.
"This is..."
Riveria's face paled instantly. "The Dungeon's malice! It's generating a corresponding monster in response to Thanatos's lingering divine presence!"
Thanatos's figure had already faded significantly into the shadows, but the final ripple of divine aura he left behind acted like cold water dropped into boiling oil, triggering the Dungeon's most violent reaction.
RUMBLE—!!!
The ground in the center of the cavern exploded. A giant hand was the first to emerge—its skin was a bottomless pitch-black, its surface covered in twisted, dark-red veins. Each finger was thicker than an adult's waist.
Then came the head, the shoulders, and the torso...
When the colossus finally stood at its full height, everyone felt the air leave their lungs.
It was a giant over fifteen meters tall, with muscles bulging to the point of deformity. It was black from head to toe, save for a dark-red core in its chest that looked like a jagged, open wound, pulsing with a blasphemous heartbeat. Its face had no features—only three deep, vertical cracks extending from its forehead to its chin.
"...A Black Goliath," Riveria's voice was low and heavy. "A black monster produced by the Dungeon in response to a god. Its potential abilities are at least Level 5, but it has only just been born and hasn't fully stabilized—"
Before she could finish, the Goliath let out a non-human roar.
The sound made everyone's chest tighten, feeling as though they had been struck by an invisible hammer. The giant raised its right arm, clenched its fist, and smashed it down toward the shadowed area where Thanatos had last been seen!
"Scatter!" Riveria barked.
The group dove in different directions.
The giant fist hit the ground, and the entire cavern shook. Stones flew everywhere as a crater dozens of meters in diameter was punched into the floor. The terrifying shockwave sent the nearby Ais flying. She managed to adjust her posture in mid-air, her wind-power easing her landing, but her face grew a shade paler.
Suren rose from a roll, his right hand instinctively tightening around the hilt of his sword.
The grip felt warm and familiar—a sensation like an extension of his own limb immediately washed over him. Pale Justice, the longsword that had only recently been born, was currently transmitting a stable sense of power, keeping his heart from racing as he faced the behemoth.
The reinforcement attribute was indeed effective. He could feel his strength and reactions receiving a solid boost.
"Miss Riveria!" Suren shouted quickly. "Its core is in its chest!"
"I know!" Riveria had already regained her footing. "But its resistance is incredibly high. We need a concentrated attack strong enough to pierce through!"
Her chant began immediately, sharp and urgent:
"—O omen of the end, O white snow. Facing the twilight hour, whip up a gale. O light that is shut, O frozen earth. A blizzard of snow, a triple winter—My name is Alf."
The First-Tier magic, Rejoice: Fimbulwinter, was unleashed!
In an instant, extreme cold descended. Frost crawled up the Goliath's body, slowing its movements. However, the dark-red core pulsed violently, resisting the sub-zero temperatures.
"It's not enough!" Riveria gritted her teeth. "Its resistance is too high!"
Concentrated attack... penetration...
Suren's mind raced at high speed. The Goliath was a manifestation of the Dungeon's malice; conventional magical bombardment would have limited effect.
Fireball? No, the area is sufficient but the piercing power is lacking.
His mind instinctively scanned the Abyssal Grimoire in his subconscious. A unique spell model emerged: a Third-Circle spell, Melf's Minute Meteors. Create incandescent globes of fire that orbit the caster; where the mind directs, the meteors strike.
By using Pale Justice as a focus, he could shape these minute meteors, which were essentially fire and mana compressed to the extreme. Furthermore, he could now use Metamagic to "Upcast" the Third-Circle spell!
More importantly, the number of meteors maintained would increase with the spell's circle, and the timing of their detonation was entirely under his control. If he stacked Metamagic techniques to enhance the explosion's power...
Suren gripped Pale Justice with both hands, holding the blade horizontally before him, and began to construct the complex spell model in his mind.
"Melf's Minute Meteors—Metamagic: Upcast, Empower, Maximize!"
The mana was not simply released as an external attack. Instead, it surged through Pale Justice, violently vibrating, compressing, and igniting in the space around Suren!
One, two, three... a total of eight spheres the size of a fist, with brilliant white cores and outer layers of unstable, pale flame, rapidly solidified in the air with faint crackling sounds and the visual distortion of high heat.
They did not shoot toward the enemy. Instead, like eight miniature suns, they began to orbit Suren along mystical trajectories, trailing faint white wisps of fire. The radiant heat made the surrounding air dry and scorching.
The eight pale flame stars formed a moving, destructive solar array.
Riveria felt the aura of highly condensed, controlled explosive fire that differed from ordinary fire magic, and her heart stirred. The Elven royal did not hesitate. The light at the tip of her staff shifted from emerald to a blinding white, and her high-pitched chant echoed through the cavern once more:
"—Before long, the fire shall release the war fires that quietly retreat, the inevitable destruction..."
The Second-Tier magic, Via Shilter: Victory Sword, began its chant!
The energetic environment inside the cavern became extremely bizarre. On one side, extreme cold was freezing everything; on the other, destructive energy was converging. And where Suren stood was a slowly rotating vortex of pale flame, radiating intense heat.
The Goliath sensed the double lethal threat. Its featureless face seemed to "look" at Riveria, who was chanting a grand spell, and then glanced warily at Suren, surrounded by the pale flame stars.
Ultimately, its instinctive dread of Riveria's massive magical chant won out. Its massive body turned toward Riveria, its chest core pulsing frantically. It raised both arms, gathering a strike intended to shatter the earth.
Now!
A cold light flashed in Suren's eyes. He didn't move his body; all his mental energy was focused on guiding the eight orbiting pale flame stars.
Just as the Goliath's attention was fully diverted by Riveria, the eight stars orbiting Suren suddenly stopped!
In the next second, as if ignited by a final propellant, they trailed pale tails of flame and transformed into eight streaks of searing light, shooting toward the Goliath a hundred meters away with incredible speed!
Empower and Maximize pushed the temperature and explosive power of each meteor to their theoretical limits. The Upcast to the Fourth Circle provided a magnitude of power and a quantity of meteors sufficient to threaten a Level 5 monster. All of this power was channeled through Pale Justice, serving as the focus for mana shaping and focusing, ensuring that the stars did not just possess destructive potential, but could be fired with pinpoint precision at will.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
Eight rapid-fire, increasingly violent explosions erupted against the Goliath's chest! The eight stars struck the core and its surrounding area at tiny intervals from different angles. Each explosion sent up a plume of pale fire. The intense heat and shockwaves didn't just burn the surface; they sought to penetrate and destroy the internal structure!
Crack... Boom! Crackle...
Under the continuous bombardment, charred burn marks appeared on the surface of the dark-red core. The highly condensed explosive energy vibrated the magic stone from multiple directions!
The Goliath's raised arms trembled violently. On its featureless face, the three cracks twisted into a shape resembling "agony," and a terrifying, heat-filled shriek erupted from within.
This moment of paralysis was exactly the window Riveria had been waiting for!
"—Unmerciful hellfire, thou art the incarnation of karma, sweeping away ten thousand horses, bringing the end to the great war. Burn everything, Sword of Surtr—My name is Alf."
Superior: Victory Sword, complete!
A terrifying, searing torrent of fire roared forth, swallowing everything in its path. It poured over the Goliath's chest core like a tsunami.
Under the combined assault from within and without, the magic stone shattered completely and was annihilated!
Then, the light and the remaining pale flames swallowed the pitch-black giant, vaporizing it entirely and leaving behind an awful, lingering heat.
But the battle was not over.
The death of the Goliath acted like a signal. A more violent "Monster Feast" was triggered, and countless monsters began to spawn from the Dungeon walls in all directions.
Riveria continued her chant without pause:
"—Dance, spirits of the air, master of light. I forge a contract with the guardian god of the forest; I hope to play the song of the earth to envelop us, to protect us—Please transform into a great wall of forest light to guard us—My name is Alf."
Riveria used the defensive magic, Dimensional Block, to shield everyone.
Alise looked at the nearly endless tide of monsters with a grim expression.
Suren fell to one knee, breathing heavily as cold sweat soaked his forehead. Maintaining and guiding eight upcasted meteors for a precision strike had taken a massive toll on his mental strength.
He looked at the terrifying number of monsters and knew he had to create another area-of-effect strike.
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Danmachi: My Magic Style is Different from Yours (90 Chapters – Ongoing)
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