Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

As I ask if my generals are ready to ascend, a visual of Alveron's consciousness comes back online, viewing us from Brymia, as all transmission points of the prison are now frozen and cut off from the rest of space.

However, there is far more than one satellite orbiting around the Great Belt of Brymia and its star.

They have their own transmission routers and surveillance arrays that can capture the scene taking place from an outsider's perspective. This is shared through the link to everyone watching.

Bri adds the four commanders that are currently on the human world to the call as well, but they do not speak.

Alveron does not say a word about these added displays, and I don't make another mention of it either, as given the monster's history, it clearly wants to record as much data as possible from the event that is about to take place.

The generals reply in unison to break the silence.

"We're ready."

Four stable points in the center of the Central Tower are selected on my end, and a request for a mana transfer on each of them is transmitted through our system link.

Arie, Abby, Maria, and Raven all use the mana transferred to them from Bri to pay for the request.

The instant they do, the [Fast Travel] panel lights up, ready for both ends to initiate a mutual agreement to complete the system command.

All four mental agreements are accepted at once, and a powerful sensation surges through me.

I feel eight distinct points in space flash in my mind.

Four of them are all around me, in the corners of each of the bottom floors of this tower.

The other four are down in the Lower Realm.

While I have access to over 400 thousand worlds and can sense their presence quite well, this sensation feels very different.

Even the human world, in which I have the most in-depth connection through the throne, I can really only sense what is on the world.

Its exact position in space is a total mystery to me.

Even with some of the planets I own being within the same star systems, the only reason I know this is because of the forums and discussions within the World Wide Connectivity system.

My perception of each world is limited to the system users on it; my spatial awareness is lacking, to say the very least.

Up until right now, the only thing I really understood about the Upper Realm is that it is certainly above the Lower Realm... but I never fully comprehended what this meant. There is no true up or down in the vastness of space, but seeing where I stand now as above always instinctually made sense to me.

–

Now, as an instant connection from exactly where I stand down to this Lower Realm is formed, a physical pathway within my mind appears that opens my eyes to what the split between realms really is...

From the generals' perspective, only dense light pink pure mana surrounds them in small orbs.

It looks very similar to my mana crystallization skill, though it stays in a liquid form and is packed so densely that any interference with space around them is negated.

Red Divine threads tether the mana together at first, but as it gets denser and denser, the threads compress as well, turning orange, then yellow; and finally, once the four orbs consolidate, they all shimmer green.

Nothing from the outside can push through, and even as the generals touch the inside of their orbs, no reaction or radiation comes back on them.

It is very similar to the ether orbs used in fast travel between points here in the Citadel, however, there is an added barrier of pure mana and dense divine threads that act similar to the purple ring that protected me in my first days here in the Upper Realm.

To the observers on the outside watching this scene, the four orbs of light disappear in a blip, only leaving behind trace amounts of mana and divine threads.

These threads quickly unravel the second the orbs are gone, spreading out to turn yellow, then orange, and back to red before their density becomes negligible and disappears from discerning eyes into the vacuum of space.

It truly appears as though they disappeared into thin air, like each of them used a teleport crystal.

However, I may be the only one capable of perceiving what is really happening.

All four of the orbs just shift through a direction in space that isn't normally used.

Coincidentally, two of the generals that are being shifted upward through this space have already been using similar techniques for a while now, just on a smaller scale.

Raven's use of a stealth dimension is the simplest example.

When she slips into a pocket dimension of her own that cannot interact with the rest of space around her, she is not actually ceasing to exist.

Raven's True Core ability has allowed her to shift in a different direction than reality around her.

The same can be said for Abby's Immortal Form.

While there is far more happening within her body and mind that cannot be explained using a simple shift in direction, there are parts of her body that apply to these same rules. She is able to hide her vitals and physical form in a space that is unaffected by attacks that would usually be lethal in a base reality setting.

Though, this can only be pushed so far.

For example, when Maria was compressing her True Core and bonding with Kelfar's soul, the shockwave of ice soul energy was so powerful that it managed to tether to the remaining particles of her existence and tear through the shift in space that hid her true form, making Abby feel cold even though she should be theoretically protected.

With this being said, the upward movement of the generals is not exactly a true explanation, but it is extremely close to the truth.

I'm the only one who watches all four orbs of light phase through what looks like a glossy white film around the top of the Lower Realm.

Below it, hundreds of billions of star systems all exist in the vast galaxy; and above, in the Upper Realm, I exist now in what feels like compressed space. It is like a massive pocket dimension that is wrapped on top of the entire galaxy...

With my new breakthroughs in Noble Vibrations and complex understandings of large-scale crafts, I'm having epiphany after epiphany watching this all play out. It's as though I'm unraveling the truths of the most complex craft I've ever seen.

It is both enlightening to see that this is what I've been existing in all along, but equally horrifying to understand that there may be far more layers than just this above me.

I feel as though if I had enough power at my fingertips, I could tear open space in front of me and step down into the Lower Realm right now...

Vice versa as well, if I were in the Lower Realm and compressed enough energy in the right place, a tear could occur that connects both spaces.

It makes the function of thrones so much more clear to me, as they are merely doing what I am seeing happen here in real-time.

My mind begins to work out even more oddities, like how this ranked-up buff, the Rising Emperor's Domain, has the ability to transfer data and even materials through the trading system without having to create such a complex breach.

The fact that it has a built-in feature that acts just like a throne, and also the power ranking system of knights, commanders, and generals just like the 5 Great Families, eats away at the back of my mind as I try to figure this out further.

I can chalk things up to just being another mutation to suit my environment, but I get the feeling there is more that Ember has kept hidden from me. His crimson eyes and toothy grin he flashed me before I left lead me to believe there are far more things connected here than just coincidences.

–

While everything seems a bit too perfect, there is one thing that certainly isn't.

This [Fast Travel] feature allows my generals to be transported from wherever they were to where I am in the fastest path of least resistance.

That doesn't mean they're teleported straight toward me.

When they shifted upward through the film separating realms, they burst into the dense green clouds into a landing point just like I did the day I arrived here.

While the Brymia system is a similar distance away from the source as the human world, it is enough Sectors in space away to make the contact point up here in the Upper Realm different.

The four generals all surface near one of the Mensa Citadel's transfer points.

Normally, they would ride the ether transfer route for a normal check-in, but the four orbs of light leave the normal fast travel trails and burst through the sky toward Ellipsia.

The data of this strange event is registered and sent to the Mensa Citadel, as it just forcefully lost four unidentifiable Lord cargos.

However, my current senses that are strictly held between the generals cannot sense this transfer of data.

I can't even see or sense the Mensa Citadel at all.

The only thing I do know is that these orbs are coming straight my way... and extremely fast...

While their current ETA is still a few minutes, as they need to travel millions of kilometers through the Upper Realm, I realize a large problem I may be facing.

The monitored vitals of my generals within the orbs are steady, as if they still haven't moved a muscle from the Lower Realm. Their heartbeats are consistent, and they're focused on staying still as I instructed.

The fact that the air density inside these orbs hasn't changed, and they're plowing through dense clouds of divine threads means these orbs are truly made of solid matter, strong enough to destroy anything in their path... I'm not sure if they're going to stop or dodge the enormous rows of towers in this citadel.

I can't move, as the range of their travel points is locked in place around me until the exchange is complete.

However, I do have the ability to manipulate the Citadel around me with endless ether commands at my fingertips still.

While I do not have extreme control over every aspect of Ellipsia, in total domination like in my Noble and Astral Form, I still have almost 110 million Low Quality Ether in my mental pool and the intricate patterns of Citadel-Wide manipulation thanks to Andras Vermillion's memories.

So, I don't waste any time and borrow a single-digit percent of stats from all my links, then place a hand on the ground in the center of the citadel.

"This should be enough..."

Closing my eyes, I send a pulse of ether commands in a straight line directly pointed at where the orbs of mana and divine threads are coming toward me.

Simultaneously editing a massive portion of the Citadel-wide surveillance systems, I carve out a path.

It looks like a massive laser beam just pierced through dozens of enormous towers.

In reality, thousands of kilometers worth of infrastructure splits itself in half and rigidly shift apart in an instant. The Citadel ground moves below like tectonic plates, as the only way to avoid a potential collision is to make sure there is nothing in the way.

A new temporary street is formed, leading straight to the Central Tower.