462 The Phoenix's Defeat And... Rebirth?
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Within the depths of the Dungeon that Maria had discovered, the Dungeon Core rested within a completely black and empty room, protected from everything it could ever touch it… except the darkness itself that had been slowly taking over the dungeon itself, which had, as a result, infected it as well.
“Useless…”
With a faint and annoyed voice, the Dungeon Core discarded the monster it had thought could have some sort of advantage in defeating these sudden invaders. However, at the end, it was defeated by a child.
The Dungeon Core looked into the second floor of the dungeon, narrowing her eyes. A smile surged in her body, as she was no longer merely a sphere of course.
“Hmph… This is the first time a path towards the outside world has finally been opened… I won’t let these invaders do as they please and come conquer me. I shall exterminate them and conquer the outside world… With this new power I’ve cultivated over eons since my creation, I will become the strongest Dungeon.”
Her mentality was simplistic, and her ambitions endless. Yet… with such a power as the one that Dungeon Cores possessed, even her simplistic mind and her over ambitious goals seemed possible, as long as she mercilessly defeated her invaders first.
“I can feel it… The presence of my other half, is calling me! Memories of something else… a Fragment of the Past…” She muttered words which held little meaning together, but which were all related to a single power dwelling within her.
And as she said that the sound of countless insectoid creatures marching forward and gathering resources could be heard, preparing themselves for something…
“After so long, I’ve finally been given the chance to go to the surface, take what I desire, and reunite with my other half! There is no way I will let these invaders remain here… You may have defeated this useless bird, but it won’t be the same in the next floor… I will make sure you all become my food. With such delicious amount of Mana, I can do even more things!”
She looked with her crimson eyes at the projection of a certain ghost, Maria. Even after having been almost destroyed, she held an impressive amount of Mana and power… Dungeon Cores were simple minded entities that desired to absorb everything into Mana and expand, and Maria herself was like the most delicious buffet a Dungeon Core could imagine.
The Dungeon Core’s Avatar licked her red lips, as she couldn’t help but feel like she could even lick Maria by how delicious she looked… her monstrous intent quickly was revealed. Dungeon Cores were not people after all, even with all their intelligence, they were nothing more than monsters with intelligence. And perhaps, they were even more brutal than monsters themselves.
Especially when a piece of darkness itself dwelled within them…
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(Back to Maria’s POV)
BOOOOMMM!!!
Takeshi’s amazing attack completely blasted the Phoenix into pieces, turning off his flames and crushing him into the ground. His entire body was left almost indistinguishable from his original shape, and his HP bar was obviously at zero, we won!
“Phew… Oh man… I used everything I had…”
I couldn’t help but sigh as my little fragments all with the shape of a tiny version of myself sighed in unison, I had reduced my size even more now that I had spent all the energy I had left in that amazing Spell I designed.
If it wasn’t thanks to the teachings of Emeraldine and the books I read about True Magic incantation, I would had never been able to fully comprehend and visualize such an amazing magic myself! Even [Supreme Magic] requires Mana and visualization to activate properly, and the thing I had been learning all of that time back in my village was visualization.
With that finally done, I believe I can call myself a great sorcerer!
No, a witch!
“Groar!”
Suddenly, the little Wyvern from earlier appeared before my eyes.
“Oh, but if it isn’t you! I saw you help as well, you seem to have some sort of Draconic Eye Skill, huh? I can’t really see your Status at all for some reason, do you have a status hiding skill? You’re not really a normal wyvern, aren’t you?”
I looked at the wyvern’s gray and old-looking eyes, as he began to panic a bit and stepped back fearful of my questions.
“Well! Whatever’s the case, I am tired! Can you carry me back?”
“Groar!”
The wyvern quickly gathered each of my fragments and then helped me get myself back up together. I barely looked like my own former self, but I looked very, very translucent. I needed not to just use Undead Healing on myself, I required food, and tons of it!
As I was finally back with the rest of my party, I found everyone looking at the corpse of the Phoenix lying over the ground, it was shining with a strange and holy flame… which began to encompass its entire body, suddenly turning it all into a pile of ashes! Agh! No, the chicken!
“My chicken!” I cried, flying back with everybody else as the wyvern joined us.
“Maria, something weird is happening!” Emeraldine said.
p-a- n-d-a-n-0-v-e-l、(c)om “I don’t know what’s going on…” Partner said.
“It is turning into ashes? Why?” Lucifer wondered.
“Oh this is… If I remember correctly, this bastard had a Skill named [Rebirth from the Ashes]!” I said with surprise. “Is he trying to revive?!”
FLASH!
And as the ashes began to dissipate, what remained of him was… a big egg, a red egg at that.
“Wait a second this is not even the full fledged Phoenix!” Said Partner crossing her arms. “I feel like I got scammed.”
“Yeah, I was also terrified we would need to fight that thing again…” Said Emeraldine.
“Interesting, so Phoenixes are really real like the legends say… They can revive by going back into an egg infant form after dying. So it turned into ashes as a part of its own Skill?” Wondered Lucifer.
“Well, we could make a tasty omelet out of that big egg.” I pointed out.
“No eating!” Suddenly, everyone stopped me from doing something that would had pleased my Phantasmal Stomach.
“Eh?! But we earned it!” I sighed.
However, Takeshi and Laura rant towards the egg, and wrapped it around some cloths, carrying it with themselves.
“Can we keep it?” Asked Takeshi.
“Please!” Laura asked.
“Ugh… Fineeeee…” I sighed.
I really couldn’t fight against their cuteness, and they earned it, I suppose.
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