Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

The finger repeatedly slammed into his opponent as if trying to drill him to the ground. Simon's attacks were continuous and vicious, he spared no efforts to humiliate his opponent.

BANG... BANG... BANG...

"Enough!!!"

Davis cried out loud, a powerful holy magic knocked the finger back. A few seconds later, a white ray of light flew out from that hole and stood in the sky. When the ray of light disappeared, the figure of Davis came into view.

He didn't look as mighty and powerful as before, his robes were dirty and his aura unstable. The smug and condescending look on his face was no longer there, replaced by an ugly face that was masked with anger.

Although very slightly, his body was also releasing a faint purple black miasma.

"So you withstood that huh"

Clap… Clap… Clap… Simon clapped before recalling the finger back towards him.

"As expected from an officer of the Adventurer's Association. Even though you are a mage, your body is much more resilient than even a warrior above level 600".

Puff… the demon's praise that sounded like a mockery to him, caused Davis to throw a mouthful of blood. When was the last time anybody dared to talk to him like that? He who was an authoritative figure of the adventurer's association not to mention a powerful ranker that garnered the praise and envy of countless people was looked down upon?

He who was a level 719 [Arcane BattlePriest] was being mocked by a demon of a viscount rank no less?

"You fucking demon... I'll kill you"

This fact completely triggered Davis and he erupted forth with all of his power. Controlling his strength? Toying with his enemy? These things no longer mattered, all he wanted to do now was to crush this demon in front of him for daring to look down on him.

BANG… the power released by an angry Ranker could be imagined. Just his aura alone was like a tidal wave in a high tide sweeping through everything and anything around its path. It was vast and enormous.

Davis did not waste any time, right after releasing his full force, he started casting magic without any stopgaps.

[Multi Chant], [Shadow Skill], [Ability Conferment], [Chant Revocation], even the multi-layered magic circle that covered the skies of the capital of Ellesmere, also showed its face on the 48th floor of the dungeon Laplace.

RUMBLE…

The space around the entire floor was distorted, and the mana was sent into a frenzy. The commotion was so big that it ended up attracting the attention of everyone present.

The level of battle occurring at the centre of the floor, was beyond their capabilities and they could only gaze around it from a distance and hope in their hearts that their side was the one winning.

"Marvel at my powers as you turn into dust demon!! [Multi Magic] [Ability Conferment- Anti-Dispel]… [Holy Magic Mastery- Hand of Divine]".

Even when his blood vessel popped and blood flowed out from his nose, Davis did not stop casting his magic. The multi layered magic circle in the ceiling started rotating and an enormous hand made entirely of light, manifested.

That was not all, to prevent the demon from dispelling his magic, he had also conferred the magic with [Anti-Dispel] and was further empowered by the multi-layered technique of his. Forget about a demon viscount, even a demon duke would find it troublesome to take on such an attack.

If the earlier magic was to toy with the demon this magic was conjured with the intention to annihilate him until not even his ashes remained behind.

Davis was truly and utterly angered, he watched on with glee as the magic locked onto the demon and descend down on him as if to squash a fly.

BOOOOMMM… the magic connected, flattening kilometres of land and sending shockwaves through the ground.

Seeing that the demon was buried underneath, a small smile appeared on Davis' lips. He tried to pull the hand or the magic [Prayer of the Divine] back and repeat the same action the demon did to him, when suddenly he realised he was unable to pull the hand.

Something was preventing him from retracting his magic back.

"What is going on?" the smile on his face disappeared as soon as it appeared. He looked carefully at the ground where the enormous hand made of light made contact with the floor. To his shock, he realised there was a small gap in between.

Standing in that gap, holding that enormous hand of light back, was a greying humanoid figure with no facial expressions. Complex runes that glowed intermittently marked its body. This greyish piece of flesh in the shape of a humanoid was none other than the finger of Ozymandias.

As Simon's mastery of the technique increased, he was able to tap more into the powers of the finger and learned more of its secret. Before he could only use the finger crudely by slamming it onto his enemies; however, now he can shapeshift it and use it much more refinedly.

Using his increased mastery in the [Domiantor's Control] technique, Simon transformed the finger into a state that was best suited for battle and in the form he had first found the finger in.

That monster that he faced at the end of the 4th trial, was so powerful had it not been for the quest items, he would have been killed immediately. If he could utilise the finger like that, even if his enemy was above level 700, he could win this.

Simon made many complex signs and immediately, the curse energy inside the finger of Ozymandias was stirred as if alive. It seeped out of its body and latched onto the hand of light and in front of the gobsmacked face of Davis, started corroding it.

The curse energy was a totally different system of energy that hardly any people in this world knew about. It spreads like an infection the more you come into contact with it and has a powerful corrosive power.

Given this fact, very few people in this world would be able to react appropriately against it. However, Davis was not among them.

The curse energy slowly started spreading though the enormous hand, eroding and changing its colour. In the span of a minute, the hand that was made of pure white light was tainted with a blackish purple colour slowly disintegrating into nothing.

"This is bad"

Davis hurriedly tried to recall the magic back but it was already too late, the peculiar miasma covering the hand, had already cut their connection. Even when using the multi layered magic circle to buff the [Prayer of the Divine] with more magic power, had no effect.

"GUGH…" Finally, when the magic was fully disintegrated, Davis suffered a fierce backlash and he spew out a mouthful of blood. His body shuddered, and he was forced to land on the ground no longer being able to maintain flight.

"W-What the hell is that thing?"

Davis cried out loud amidst his shock and disbelief as he looked at the demon, no more precisely a grey humanoid figure in front of him. No matter how much he tried to make sense of what happened earlier, he couldn't grasp a single thing.

It was like everything that had happened, was beyond his comprehension. No, saying that it was beyond his comprehension would be wrong since did he understand that his magic was destroyed by that greyish humanoid thing.

However, he was unwilling to accept it. A magic of holy attribute that was said to be the bane of all demons, was destroyed just like that? Not to mention the one to destroy it this time was not that absurdly powerful little girl but the demon he looked down upon.

Davis felt like all that happened was a lie but the reality told him otherwise. Vaguely, he was starting to feel a sense of foreboding that he had never felt until now. What's more, this feeling kept getting stronger the more time passed.

"What's wrong, are not going to attack anymore?"…

------

51st floor, after passing through the desert without alerting the Desert Mammoths, the black robed man named Edgar came to as stop in front of the entrance to the 52nd floor.

"To think that there are still a couple more floors to go, truly appearances can be often misleading. Who would have thought a low ranking demon noble would be able to grow his dungeon to such an extent" he muttered to himself.

The Floor Buster was able to breach two layers of floors, that is the 48th and the 49th. From there, all he had to do was jump down and make his way over here, yet even after reaching the 51st floor, he was yet to get to the last floor.

Edgar's task was to shatter the dungeon core and although he had never seen one before in his life, he had read about them from the ancient records and documents.

According to those texts, if he is near one, he would immediately be alerted by the phenomenon of the mystical energy that it generates. And most importantly, the dungeon core was always located on the last floor of the dungeon and cannot be shifted around.

Hence all he needed to do was reach the last floor and search for it there.

Thinking such, Edgar stepped forward. However, just as he took the first step towards the stairs, his senses gave him a strong warning and he quickly jumped back.

A fraction of a second later, a bone chilling cold that froze even the mana itself, came from the depths of the stairs and froze the area that he was in.