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1.31% Void Evolution System / Chapter 25: Rush [4]

Kapitel 25: Rush [4]

The scenery on the 50th floor was similar to that of the floors leading up to it, but for a different reason.

Patches of lush greenery could be seen here and there, but the most jarring part of the area was the random areas of destroyed trees and land. It seems that the 50th floor was originally something akin to a small forest, but whatever lived here had torn it down.

Wood bark was strewn around, with some pieces in a half charred state, grass and plants that used to stand tall were withered and dead, and a foul stench permeated the air. In the center of all of this was a creature unlike anything Damien had witnessed before.

It had 3 heads, each of a different animal, a lion, a snake, and a goat, and a huge body that took up a good portion of the space available in the cavern. Its body was panther-like, specialized for speed, its feet were talons like a bird, and its tail was that of a scorpion. It also had a pair of massive wings.

Its 3 heads swiveled as one when it sensed Damien's presence, and without any suspense, it charged.

The chimera drew near as each of its heads charged up a separate attack. The lion let out a massive roar that shook the earth, the goat channeled energy between its horn to shoot out like a beam, and its snake head shot out poisonous breath.

However, beam attacks weren't something that would work on Damien anymore. Especially from those that were in the same class as him.

During the 3 months he spent adjusting to his body, Damien wasn't idle in his other training. His control over vectors had improved to the point where he could divert these attacks without burning himself like last time and he had created a second step for his sword art.

However, as this would be his last fight within the dungeon, Damien decided to be a little reckless. Since Zara had already moved to attack the beast, he just had to distract it. Damien opened his mouth and sucked in a large breath.

His chest expanded, his cheeks puffed, his throat constricted, and when his movement reached its apex, Damien let out an even more ferocious roar than the chimera.

With this roar came an ethereal beam of rippling energy covered in arcs of black lightning that sundered even space itself as if only it could exist.

When the beam collided with the chimera's attacks, a muted explosion rocked the entire 50th floor.

The splintered remains of trees and withered grass that was already on the verge of death were all incinerated into nothingness, and even the ground had cracked into hundreds of pieces, eliciting reactions from even the beasts on the 49th and 51st floors who could only feel the aftershocks of the clash.

While the poisonous breath of the snake and the energy beam of the goat were both obliterated in the clash, Damien's breath attack had retained a bit of its energy. It continued forward and pierced the middle head, the snake, causing it to explode into countless pieces.

The chimera roared in pain. While its 3 heads were connected to the same body, they only shared a piece of their consciousness. For the most part, they could think independently. For this reason, rather than feeling like it had lost one of its heads, the lion and goat head had felt like they had lost a brother.

This infuriated them to no end the chimera lifted off from the ground and began flying, using its speed to try and catch Damien off guard. A rain of energy beams and fireballs rushed at Damien from every direction. Damien, however, simply abused his teleportation.

Whenever he was close to being hit, he'd vanish and reappear in the distance. Since he had decided to have fun during this fight, Damien didn't even counterattack, further enraging the chimera.

Was this bipedal beast looking down on it? When this thought crossed its mind, the chimera almost lost itself to rage. It intensified its attack further, destroying any remaining unbroken areas of the cavern.

At this time, Damien stopped dodging every attack that came at him. Every once in a while, he would stop and allow himself to stay within an attack's trajectory, gently flicking his finger to divert it. Now that he had two hands he had even more freedom to do this.

Although the hand motions weren't necessary to affect vectors in his vicinity, they were a sort of intermediary that Damien used to get more accustomed to his power. Once he had improved to a certain level, he would be able to block any attacks aimed at him without even moving.

Damien continued to wave his arms, looking like a conductor leading an orchestra, however, this was no symphony. Instead, it was a cacophony of destruction that would make anyone want to bring up a certain 'art is an explosion' reference.

With none of its attacks even slightly affecting Damien, the chimera decided to descend and use raw power, but before it could do so, it noticed its tail had been frozen stiff. In the next moment, the entire tail shattered and blood spurted out from the point where it used to connect with its body.

Next, tentacles made of shadows latched onto its wings and bound them, before another portion of shadows came together in the form of a beast. This was naturally Zara, who had used her own wings to fly beside the beast in concealment while waiting for the opportunity to strike.

Although she could have attacked much earlier, she could feel how much fun Damien was having and decided to let him play for a bit longer. However, he had already been wantonly teleporting and manipulating attack trajectories for the past 20 minutes, and she was getting bored.

Once Zara materialized, she quickly used her razor-sharp teeth to tear one of the chimera's wings off while using her claws to incapacitate the other one. As the chimera fell to the floor, Zara went for a fatal attack, before abruptly stopping and fading back into concealment.

This was naturally Damien's doing. Now that playtime was over, he decided that this beast was the best practice dummy for the second step of his sword art.

With the beast falling, Damien rushed into the air to meet it as he left after images in his wake. Then, his figure became ethereal as he danced around the beasts.

Even with its elegance, this was a dance of blood.

If the first step of his sword art was a single strike to cause critical damage, the second step was a sword dance to accumulate injuries on his opponent and bleed them out.

As his figure flashed in and out of the space surrounding the beast, chunks of its body began to disappear. They weren't mangled or sliced like a normal sword would do, rather they had been banished from existence, floating somewhere in the infinite void.

When Damien was finished, only about one-third of the beast's body remained. Damien landed on the ground, his steps not even raising dust, as behind him, the figure of the beast fell with a resounding thud.

'Void Sword Art Second Step: Dance of the Void'

His entire sword dance that had cut a 75-meter long beast into a 25 meters long flesh bag had only lasted the amount of time it took for the beast to fall to the floor after its wings were clipped.

In the first place, the entire fight was pointless. Damien could've ended it in the first 5 minutes if he wanted to, but he had grown quite attached to the dungeon that had been his home for the past 2 years. For this reason, he decided that the best way to bid it farewell was with a grand battle.

As the experience poured in, Damien went to devour the corpse of the chimera, but before he could, it turned into particles of light before sinking into the floor.

In the space it had previously occupied stood a grand formation, which looked like a giant circle filled with mysterious patterns.

Damien could feel the spatial fluctuations emanating from the formation and wanted to study it, but he knew it wasn't the time. This dungeon had 100 floors and he had only cleared 50. He had naturally planned to come back once his business was settled and finish what he started. He could study the formation then.

Looking at the formation, Damien felt his anticipation rise along with slight anxiety. He then quickly checked his inventory to make sure he had brought everything he needed.

Within it was all the books he thought would be relevant later that he took from Kurt's subspace, his cracked sword that had accompanied him from the beginning of his journey, and the carcasses of hundreds of beasts that Zara had slain on the previous 9 floors.

Although he wanted to go further up and grab more carcasses, he only had so much space in his inventory, so he made do with what he could.

Damien then resolved himself and started walking towards his lifeline to exit the dungeon. "Zara, this is our ticket to leave. The surface I told you about on our first meeting is just past this formation."

Sensing Damien's turbulent emotions, Zara emerged from his shadow and nuzzled up to him, showing her support. Damien smiled at her little gesture. 'That's right. Everything is already planned out and we're already strong. What am I even worrying about?'

After he assured Zara that he was fine, she returned to his shadow. And without further ado, he stepped into the formation.

What greeted Damien was a blindingly bright light and the beautiful smell of nature.

After two grueling years, he had finally reached the surface.


AUTORENGEDANKEN
Crocs_is_Dead Crocs_is_Dead

To The Surface!

Kapitel 26: Surface [1]

Lush greenery in every direction. Tall trees with beautiful foliage, flowers of all colors, bushes, healthy grass lining the entirety of the ground, and most importantly, a bright blue sky. Clouds drifted calmly along the beautiful blue sky as a huge sun stood tall in the distance.

The warmth it gave off, the freshness of the mana in the air, the subtle wind brushing against his cheeks, these were the sensations Damien was taking in with bated breaths.

Even if he wanted to doubt whether or not he was still in the dungeon, the sights around him refused to let him do so. Without his knowledge, tears were running down his cheeks. Reality had finally set in. Damien had escaped from that hellish cycle of killing, devouring, evolving, and descending.

Standing beside him, Zara was also feeling intense emotions. The only thing she'd ever known was the walls of the giant caverns that made up the floors of the dungeon. When she was little, her parents would tell her stories of a word beyond those walls, but she always took them as fairytales.

Only when she met Damien did she realize that the place her parents had spoken about was real. As she gazed at the scenery around her in wonder, Zara felt like everything she had been through to get to this point was worth it. And when her gaze landed on the one who made it all possible, she felt unknown emotions overwhelming her.

The duo stood like that for many minutes, silently admiring the fresh air of Apeiron, before Damien decided to move. There were a few things he wanted to do when he got out of the dungeon, and this was one of them.

Spreading his mana sense, Damien found what he was looking for. He then began to run to that location. Though he could've reached it immediately by teleporting, Damien was too lost in the feeling of freedom that he didn't care for such trivial things.

Zara followed him happily, similarly basking in the sensation of fresh air as they reached the destination. A large flowing river. The water was clear enough to act as a mirror, and the mana within it allowed plenty of life to thrive.

Without thinking twice, Damien jumped in. Submerged in the cool water, Damien smiled. Maybe it hadn't mattered back when his only thoughts were on survival and escape, but now that he was free, he desperately felt the need for a bath.

It had been 2 years since he had taken one, and frankly, he stunk. Not just him, but Zara as well. There weren't many water sources in the dungeon, and most beasts satiated themselves with the blood of the fallen. This was why there weren't many proper ecosystems within the dungeon.

Although, Damien mused that there was most likely water on the lower floors, considering how plant life increased as he descended. Running his hands along his skin, Damien watched 2 years' worth of dirt and grime rub off, leaving smooth skin that looked like the work of an artist.

After washing himself completely, Damien left the water and looked at his reflection. There, he saw a man that bore barely any resemblance to Damien before his fall. He was just shy of 2 meters tall with hardened muscles that looked sculpted out of the finest minerals.

Although he wasn't abnormally muscled, every fiber of his being was optimized and loaded with power that one could sense with even the simplest glance. His body was basically perfection incarnate.

His face was just as chiseled. He had a sharp jawline and sword-like eyebrows. His nose and mouth were also proportioned just right. His hair was like a cascading midnight waterfall with streaks of silver akin to shooting stars.

However, his most jarring feature was his eyes. His irises were still a mix of his original deep amethyst and blood red, swirling in a yin-yang pattern, but now held tinges of gold that flowed like particles.

His pupils were not normal anymore either. They were shaped like a black cross that ran down the middle and towards the edges of his irises, almost like he was an anime character. These pupils were the effect of his All-Seeing Eyes.

He honestly looked like some sort of immortal cultivator.

The only stain on his appearance was his clothing, which consisted of what, at this point, was just a rag that covered his manhood.

With two years spent in that insane environment and the constant evolution of his body, how could Damien have retained his clothes? Even he hadn't put much importance on this fact until he looked at his reflection and realized it.

While Damien was admiring his appearance, Zara had also finished cleaning up. Although she also spent a moment admiring her appearance, she wasn't a narcissist like Damien so she was satisfied with a glance.

Sensing her thoughts, Damien frowned a bit. "How can you even call me a narcissist? I'm just objectively the most handsome man I've ever seen. Objectively, of course."

Zara rolled her eyes. With how serious he always was in the dungeon, she didn't expect him to become like this once they left, but perhaps it was only natural.

Most of Damien's personality traits after his fall had been based on anime characters and cultivation novel MCs in the first place. Otherwise, how could he be so 'calm and indifferent' by only using the will forged with the words of his father?

With his burning will for survival alone, he would've become feral long ago. So, he mimicked their temperaments and actions as a sort of guide. This was why sometimes he'd end up saying and thinking some relatively corny phrases and shouting at the heavens.

And weren't most of those characters narcissists too? Perhaps in front of crowds, Damien would continue being indifferent, as his social skills had become nonexistent in the past few years, but when he was alone with Zara, he'd naturally joke around.

Zara rolled her eyes at his thoughts and stared at him with a deadpan gaze. Damien attempted to justify himself for a few more minutes, but his resistance dwindled under her dead fish state that didn't change.

"Fine fine, you're no fun. Let's go find a town or something so we can relax a bit before we continue our journey."

With this, Zara hopped back into Damien's shadow, which had become her safe space, and Damien began teleporting in a straight line forward. He had no idea where he was and only had a rough outline of Apeiron, so he figured this was his best move.

Within an hour, Damien had exited the forest. He had seen a couple of small tribal settlements on his way out, but these weren't enough to provide him with the comfort he wanted, so he kept going.

Damien's mana capacity was insane for someone who just received their 2nd class, and his teleportation barely even took any mana at this point when it was within his awareness range. This was his starting skill and the key to his success, so it had grown alongside him to become a conventional skill for him to use.

When Damien exited the forest, he saw a vast plain filled with various hills and mountains. This area was straight out of a fantasy novel. This kind of natural beauty was rare back on Earth, especially after the mana awakening when humanity gained the ability to survive in harsher conditions.

Damien admired his surroundings as he continued teleporting, but he was getting a little bored. "Zara, come out. Let's race to the first city we see. Winner gets to make the loser do whatever they want for a week."

Zara hopped out of his shadow but didn't move, watching him with judging eyes.

"What? Okay fine no teleportation. But you're not allowed to fly either. Your wings give you an insane speed boost."

Zara begrudgingly nodded her head and took her stance. She couldn't help but wonder what she'd make Damien do for a week once she won, but she knew she couldn't let him win. He'd probably make her act as his mount or something.

"Alright, we start on go. 1, 2, 3, Go!"


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