We land on our feet, back to back again.
Both of us are standing on a single step of this massive staircase while over half a dozen demon and dragon pairs come both running and flying our way.
Though, with royal Vibrations tethering to the outsides of our bodies; enhancing our footsteps and strengthening our blades, these demons are nothing to be wary of.
Even their raw Celestial energy is not enough to make us second-guess our movements. After siphoning and refining the Dragon’s Celestial Energy for almost 2 hours straight, and this second burst from the Noble Demon’s Celestial energy pools, these demons look like weak bugs.
There are commoners, standing from 3 to 4 meters tall amongst us; while a few that hold soul weapons and stand up to 6 or 7 meters tall, I believe them to be 2nd Class Demons at least…
In battle, they’re all the same.
Maria and I jump and spin, slashing through Demon cores and Dragon’s heads as they come diving in at us from every side.
The Vibrations aiding our attacks make us basically invincible. We do not even need to be at the peak of our cycle to attack; even our weakened state is more than strong enough to handle the threats around us.
While the icy and fiery remains of the Noble Dragon and Demons still rain from the sky above, even more corpses begin littering the ground.
In less than 15 seconds, every single enemy that tried to attack us where we fell has been killed.
The Celestial energy I absorb from these fallen all together doesn’t even add up to what I received from the Demon in the air, so cycling in new raw energy doesn’t make me flinch.
However, after killing these Demons and watching the dark black and purple essence flow into my Demon’s core after each kill, I do begin to see a pattern.
The larger and stronger the Demons are, the more of this strange demonic substance I’m able to gather from them. It automatically flows into my Demon’s core, and without breaking the seal around it, releasing Miriel’s corruption, I can’t get a perfect reading on what it is.
The base substance is certainly Demonic Energy, but it reacts and strengthens the Celestial energy inside these Demons’ cores when refined through. Combined, the group killed here also didn’t give nearly as much as the Noble’s single core did.
However, there is an even more interesting phenomenon that catches my attention.
It is the fact that not every Demon in our surroundings tried to attack us.
When I look around, other than the white horns and broken soul weapons floating in the dissolving sea of decaying avatars, there are Demon and dragon pairs that only look up the stairs, ignoring us.
They look like they’re struggling to stand, yet still pulling themselves up the tall steps.
Even the dragons that flap their wings with all their strength look like they’re having trouble moving or getting off the ground.
Those that I see are exceptionally weak commoners, and now that I take a moment to think about the slaughter we just carried out, some of the attackers had more sluggish movements than normal.
Maria and I slowly take in the scene while I pick up all of the largest and strongest Demons’ horns; starting with the three that fell from the Noble that fell from the sky.
They’re large and strong enough for me to mold them into two lightweight chestplates, and using the piles of commoner, 3rd, and 2nd Class horns, I complete our arms and legs’ smaller armor.
The shattered remains of this Noble’s spear have been leaking out essence since the first battle field in front of the cave. The most potent portion of it, its tip, broke off before we were carried away. The remains of the staff are broken into too many pieces for my craftsmanship technique to make any use for it.
The pools of dark avatars’ remains dry as we equip them, even protecting our non-combat arms where we still hold hands to cycle energy. Yet, as almost a full minute passes, no more demons try to attack us.
I even sense two pairs of demons and dragons off to my left side pass us, climbing up the steps without even turning their heads our way.
They too look like they’re straining themselves, and in the same moment, a bright white light enters my ether sense from above.
Maria and I jump out of the way to dodge and get ready to counterattack, but it is just a dragon with a 3rd class demon on its back tumbling down the steps, passed out from exhaustion.
It’s impossible to estimate how high up we really are. I don’t know if where we were before is even ground level, or what distance that dragon truly brought us. Even if it were hundreds or even thousands of kilometers in the sky, cyan cores would not get this tired from merely walking… they could just rest for a few minutes, and be able to move again for days under normal circumstances.
So, the only logical conclusion is there is something suppressing or weakening them.
We stare back up the stairs, as the Noble Vibrations of whatever is up there can still be sensed.
However, to us, it is not a domineering aura at all.
To these lower-class Demons, I understand how their minds and bodies could slow down or even cease moving in its presence.
We jump upward and begin climbing the stairs full of curiosity.
Moving in a slow and steady zigzag pattern, we begin passing many Demons on the way up.
A few that we pass lunge in and try to stab or bite us, but we kill them in a single slash each. The others that ignore us or choose not to stray from their paths, we do not bother killing.
I’m more interested in what it is they’re all risking their lives for.
We make it up 100 steps, which is easily 2 or 3 kilometers forward into the abyss, and maybe 500 or so meters up.
The higher we move, the fewer commoners there are, and in turn, the strength of that Noble’s Vibrations increases in intensity.
They feel much stronger than the Demon we faced before, and give off the presence of an extremely old, wise, and powerful soul at the top of these stairs.
Interwoven in its intent, I feel hints of greed, but also the presence of a challenge, giving off the aura of an opportunity for more power. Almost crying out into the void, “Climb these steps, and you will become free.”
Yet, that is only what is felt on its surface.
These Vibrations are strong, nearing that of a High Noble even.
Yet, my senses are too deep and precise to be fooled by what is on the surface.
There is a devious and conniving mind beneath these waves, one that a fellow Noble Demon trusted to fly us across the abyss to save him.
Every step we take further up these stairs, the more ominous the fluctuations become.
There are piles of dried avatars’ flesh on steps, with dimly glowing demon horns where others have died trying to make their way up.
We even run into a handful of 1st Class Demons, all 8 to 9 meters tall, holding themselves up with their soul weapons, slowly climbing the steps and reaching into the darkness, but falling to their knees under the pressure.
For these, any that send us even a glare, we gladly step out of our way to kill.
The horns of 1st Class Demons are quite strong, and make for useful additions to our lower bodies’ armor, even swapping our lesser artifacts made from commoners’ horns for these sturdier crafts.
I try to repurpose their soul weapons into new crafts too, but they are more difficult. It seems they’re bonded directly with these demons, even after death they cannot be crafted or melted down into unique gear.
However, as we stop at the base of one of the steps after killing 3 1st Class Demons and repurposing their horns, my red glowing soul sword begins to tremble at the sight of a long glowing sword, spear, and hammer in pristine condition on the ground before us.
I get a wave of emotion triggered from the blade, one that surprises both myself and Maria to look its way, it is hunger.
I point my blade down at the ground to touch its tip to each of them, and mentally replicate the energy flows the system would normally trigger automatically.
Before our ether senses, the weapons on the ground slowly melt into a liquid white substance and are consumed into my sword. A large amount of the raw celestial energy still flows through me, like a normal cycle, but the material itself is consumed into my blade, and I feel it grow slightly stronger.
–
We continue higher up these steps, another 100 flights, and find that even the 1st Class Demons stop climbing after a while.
We come across many dried avatar remains, and the occasional exceptionally strong 1st Class catches our eye, but they are in no state to put up a fight.
We can easily walk over and stab them in the back without any problem.
In fact, we do, a few times, to improve our armor and give my sword a half dozen more meals until the stairs become completely empty.
There are no more Demons that have climbed this high, and only the presence of the Noble Vibrations from above.
We climb only 30 more flights before finding the final step.
There is no Celestial Energy readings from this mysterious aura, that I assumed would greet us.
Instead, my ether sense has increased to a range of about 70 meters outward, but I see nothing but flat ground ahead.
We walk forward with our swords drawn, ready for battle and filled with suspicion.
My eyes widen again once the ground begins to show uniform patterns all over it.
I do not know what they say, but I recognize the style.
More and more start to show up in my senses, and after we make our way forward 50 more meters, the ground becomes almost completely covered in it.
Recognizable drawings and legible originator text begin to appear once we walk far enough that the stairs behind us disappear, and all that can be seen around us is endless text. I begin to decipher it, yet, most of my mind is still focused on the Noble Vibrations that keep getting stronger the further in we walk.
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