Even as Marcellus stares down at us now, there is no fear in his eyes.
Fire crackles on his stump for a leg, and his arm and face are covered in an ice-like mirror that slowly chips more of his body away.
The demonic essence pouring out of his chest is the only substance that can heal this physical body of his.
It may be saturated by the chaotic advanced primordial aura being summoned, but at its core, it is still made of this purple crystalline structure.
It is the only thing on him that I can accurately track with my system, because it is the only part of him still connected to the physical realm. Now as he heals himself, it's like miniature strings are being plucked one by one.
The larger ones correspond with First Bloods being slaughtered in the Outer Settlements, the smaller ones are the last remaining outer guards in this zone, and the edges of deep space in the Lower Realm.
More and more soul ties disappear, and it severs this demon's sense of connection with reality.
I can see it driving his eyes to become even more mad.
The darker his demonic essence becomes, devoid of anchors, the more space in the central domain his chaotic advanced primordial aura starts to take up.
Fiery blades and icy thin cleavers slice through the air, but we do not get as lucky as the two shots from earlier every time.
With dagger in hand, Marcellus is able to block one of my incoming waves of fire, only receiving burns on one side of his body. Without having to move daggers around the dome with his mind, he is nimble enough to give into his instincts and dodge Maria's strikes completely.
When we try to get in close enough to do some serious damage, the waves of chaotic aura start to hit us.
Layers of pure white crystals crack and fall off Maria's Angelic body, and she has to retreat for it to grow back every time she gets in range to strike.
I'm hit by dense waves of aura too, and it disintegrates hundreds of thousands of the smaller primordial swords making up my crimson shadow.
Some of the stronger waves even break through this, and touch my Origin Body.
It is an extremely strange sensation.
This Primordial Aura is like an entity of its own, not connected to the Demonic Essence making up its physical body. It has a single directive of its own—to destroy anything that is solidified in order, that is connected to the system.
It spreads out through my black and red metallic primordial aura with orange chaotic veins, and starts to disintegrate my aura from the inside, causing it to bubble and disappear into a void outside of my perception.
I'm fast enough to fly backward, and there is nowhere near enough aura that has invaded my real body to truly harm me. The Primordial Flames and Corruption incinerate and devour its raw energy before it can seep in anywhere near my cores.
Marcellus continues to laugh like nothing has happened, and his arm and leg start to slowly grow back.
The strangeness of his energy does make attacking him at close range more of a risk, but after getting hit with his aura, I know roughly how much I can take. A few mental pings back and forth with Maria, and I comprehend her limits too.
We both fly back in and start swinging full-powered attacks his way.
Fire and ice slice and burn through the oscillating ball of chaotic aura in the sky, and even start cornering him enough to land more hits.
A deep red gash in his stomach, a blue line in his back, then two consecutive waves of fire to his head, breaking off his untouched horn. It only worked because Maria sent enough decoy slashes to force his instincts into dodging into my attacks.
We don't come out of it unscathed either.
My whole right side gets melted through a dozen times, and I have to recover by flying to the opposite side of the dome before the chaos seeps too deep.
The Primordial Fire burning through my body is much faster at healing than the Demon, and Maria's new technique allows her to get rid of damaged ice into the atmosphere, and pull from her bottomless cores to summon more and more, growing outward with infinite layers, pushing the old ice that was deep inside before up to the surface.
Both of us use my foresight skill to watch the outcome of every possible scenario over and over; Marcellus always finds a way out.
No matter how close we get, the most we can land are non-fatal hits.
Over and over, red and blue slashes show up all over his body.
He even manages to grow his hand back enough to grab his second dagger, and play a total defensive role.
Even though every time we land a hit he loses a massive amount of demonic essence forever, and it's digested by my corruption; a consistent supply continues to pour out of his demon's core.
He does not seem to care one bit.
If anything, his mood only grows happier the longer the battle goes on.
"You two are quite strong opponents! I would respect you, and consider you True Anomalies of your era if you did not carry the stolen glyphs of the Creator. How can you call yourselves the victors of this system, if you use power that was honed outside of it!" he finally yells.
His eyes stare into us, then upward at the hot blinking white dome.
This moment is enough to break his defensive rhythm, and I land a devastating attack right in the center of his chest.
Maria lands one at the same time right between his eyes, breaking his head in two.
An explosion of fire and ice seems to completely overwhelm the bubble of chaos in the sky.
However, his eyes were so full of confidence as he watched these attacks hit, the only instinct I feel is one to run.
Maria feels it too, even though we just landed killing blows.
The two of us retreat to the back edge of the dome while watching my waves of fire break through both his demon core and divine core, shattering them both in half.
At the same time, the last flickers of Imperial Demons in every zone of the Upper Realm, and solar system in the Lower Realm are snuffed out.
There are only three soul ties remaining coming from that shattering Demon's core.
One leads to his daggers, another leads to the black artifact in his chest, and a third leads upward... somewhere I cannot perceive no matter how deep I look.
Yet, instead of system notifications blaring in my inner ear, I watch the Demon's core erupt outward and release every last drop of Demonic Essence into the air. It's all tied together with the tight purple strands of his fully saturated purple core.
Every wound littering his body becomes super-saturated in this deep purple liquid, and the orange chaotic aura sticks to the outer layers of this liquid demon like strange glowing veins.
It is a gruesome sight, and the waves of High Royal Vibrations within his chaotic aura that still give me readings of his emotions finally go haywire.
Nothing about this Demon makes sense anymore. Even my system scans don't fully know what to make of his dark purple body. It glitches and gives off readings of a living system user from some angles, and a dead artifact that I can pick up as loot from others.
He lets out a screech that makes the entire dome shake, and even the silver threads holding it together quiver. "Now it is all over! I cannot turn back! You will perish with me, but I will never be constrained by death! As long as the great cycle is stopped, I will be eternal with it!"
____________________________
Author's Note:
If you're enjoying Dungeon Diver and want to follow Jay on his journey 20+ chapters ahead of schedule, check out the Patreon link in my profile bio.
There's custom chapter art for every new daily upload too!
Thanks for reading:)
____________________________