Kae
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Dungeon Diver CH770
🕑 Added 2025-02-06 00:00:07 +0000 UTCSeraphel replies to my question about his Mysterious connection to this Demonic World.
“Kelfar? How do you know the name of my homeworld?”
My eyebrows raise as the Ellipsia Citadel completely disappears behind us, and we leave the ether surveillance system’s bubble, heading off deep into the seemingly endless, dense green clouds of divine threads.
“It seems to have been chosen as a training ground for my generals who will be ascending soon. I only mention it because there was a tablet left behind with your name on it… and well—I’m sorry if I’m the one to break the bad news, but no life remains on that world. It’s been taken over by the demons.”
Surprisingly, Seraphel’s jaded gaze doesn’t change as he responds.
“There are still remains left there to this day? I thought it would have been plundered by now… Do not believe this is the first time I’m hearing of the state of the last Wyvern’s spawn world. By the time I ascended to the Upper Realm, the majority of our Lower Realm’s worlds had already been taken. The strongest warriors were sent up here to continue the battle, while our remaining worlds would be inevitably taken. After all, new demons can be born, but as a race that lost our seat as an overseer, no new Wyvern Worlds will connect to the system again.”
His words begin to register in my mind, but a few things don’t exactly add up.
“So you already knew your homeworld fell? You were counting on it? And you say there are others of your race that ascended with you here?”
Seraphel looks forward and replies.
“Yes, of course. It must have been a Morvale Family High Noble, long before they ascended to the Cyan Zone. Kelfar was the final world to fall. One of our Elders, an earth-wielding Wyvern with a unique ability to allow wildlife to flourish, stayed behind. He would rather tend to his gardens than fight in a war… Though, out of everyone, he knew the significance of the final ascension I led. The demons are not like the other races; they’ve altered the system far too much… That old bird believed if they had the chance, they’d seal the gap between realms.”
There’s a pause of silence between us as I digest his words further, and I feel a nostalgic glint of emotion in the blue eyes that stare forward into the distance.
“I didn’t believe him then, but after what I’ve seen in the last five wars here in the green zone of the Upper Realm, it’s far more clear to me now… It all really sunk in after the systematic extermination of my brothers and sisters in the Vermillion family takeover of this Zone. After they sealed my physique and banished me to the Exile zones, I had a lot of time to think over the reality of our situation… We’ve truly lost.”
Seraphel pauses again, as he’s remembering even further back.
“The dragon you bonded with to get up here was the first to break the news of Kelfar’s fall. It's been at least 60,000 years, probably much longer. I heard he returned one time after that, but just missed the chance to stop the new Vermillion Head from taking the Grand Citadel. They must have timed the trade off to when they were certain he wasn’t among their ranks… Then again, Ember’s actions never made much sense to me. I don’t understand why he rejects his position time and time again, consistently betraying the demons. While he has helped preserve my kind far longer than we should have lived; I truly do not know what side he is on. His history before my time in the Upper Realm is unknown to me.”
I want to respond, but I have nothing to say.
What I thought would be a simple response—that he faced a demonic army similar to the force that tried to take over my homeworld—turns out not to be the case. It’s far more convoluted.
There is a whole new Great Demon Family involved, along with hundreds of thousands of years of history, and to top it off, Ember has a hand in all of this too.
Finally, I just ask:
“Well, I think knowing my enemy’s history and intentions will be important before we start my next phase of training. Don’t you think? The Vermillion Family Head—he’s a High Noble too, right? What does he have to gain in all of this?”
Seraphel slowly shakes his head while flapping his wings again to build up more speed.
“I will fill you in on what I know. Though, first, you are wrong about one thing. The Family Heads have a noble rank of their own. If he or the Morvale Family Heads were High Nobles, we wouldn’t be in the sorry state we are today. There’s a good reason they’re called the Royal Family Heads.”
–
Down on the Demonic World, Abby and three of the commanders take in the view of the aftermath of a war that even Seraphel cannot pinpoint to an exact time period.
It is not that this world was left behind, but a necessary sacrifice to hold off even greater evils in the realm above.
Though, as the four of them slowly float above the cold, war-ridden battlefield, it only gets more intense—like an epic scene in history has been frozen solid in time.
It’s unclear how this monstrous battle ended, other than the fact that the demons clearly claimed victory within the tower, turning this world into what it has succumbed to today.
Monk eyes the fully intact soul weapons and powerful artifacts scattered among the battlefield. Many of them are old and dead, with the glyphs and runic symbols on them nothing but carvings now that they have lost their spark of life. However, they are still all priceless finds, with new data and symbols in two new languages to learn by the thousands at his fingertips.
Fisher and Lydia are still on guard, as even one monster in this graveyard that has a hint of life left in it could be more than either of them can handle.
Abby’s eyes are fixated on the tower, as it is still the only thing in the entire world she cannot see through.
The decaying noble vibrations do not get stronger the closer to the tower she gets, proving her theory that it is only coming from the corpses around it.
She’s so intrigued that she places an open-palmed hand directly on the base of the tower and uses an altered perception glyph similar to the one she used to scan the world, but this time to scan only the tower before her.
The staff lights up green, then her body does too, and lastly, the entire tower becomes engulfed by her aura, showing a green and yellow glow even from space as it rotates past the moon bases in orbit.
She shakes her head, disappointed.
“I can’t see through it…”
All she’s received back was a blinding view of the outer layer of this strange artifact.
The visuals of shimmering silver strands fill her mind as a squeaking and ringing noise overpowers her thoughts and perception, getting louder and louder the deeper she tries to look.
Although, tethered in between these silver strands of light, dense cyan-colored divine threads make up the tower.
They seem stagnant, as though they haven't been stimulated in a very long time.
Though, as soon as Abby’s senses touch them, the presence of a gaze from unfathomably far away looks down on her.
She lets go of the tower, and her aura of perception dissipates.
The visual of bright cyan eyes looking down is imprinted in her mind, but they feel as though they were looking down on the entire world instead of just her. The gaze feels unfocused, like a reflexive reaction to her probing.
Abby does not know who or what it is, but knows the power making up the walls of this tower is tethered with a material far beyond her comprehension.
“That is enough… there is no need to explore the tower further,” she states with a straight face, but underneath, the healer feels her body and mind aching with fatigue far worse than what she felt when claiming the Wyvern’s inheritance.
She has seen Wyvern’s eyes in her visions before, and they look nothing like the demonic gaze that peered down on this world through the ancient and forgotten tower at its north pole.
–
The commanders look quite confused, as it appears Abby just touched the tower and turned around with a result after a single second passed.
Above in the moon base, Alveron and Bri don’t sense a thing either. All of this has just occurred within the healer’s mind.
The two of them just trade information back and forth.
Alveron teaches Bri how the large-scale crafts of these moon bases were made, and a few other races’ progression in the crafting field, like a small colony of remaining Beholders and a few strong High Orc and Ogre worlds that have managed to progress at a similar rate.
Bri picks out a new passage to expand on in exchange.
“There is a special type of Soul Weapon outlined here in the High Orc’s notes. He says that complex machines that act with a single purpose are Artifact Class Soul Weapons. They are similar to sentinels, as they do not need to be bonded with a wielder, yet closer in essence to Basic Class Soul Weapons as they do not carry a will of their own or need a soul to exist. They merely need a large amount of power to be activated and can be altered to do various large-scale tasks. These notes say that demons use these to create ascension trials for their kin to claim worlds, and they are also commonly used in the Upper Realm to power civilizations called Citadels that make use of old, dead worlds.”
The silver knight of armor is very interested in this information, as it does not often get any communication from the Upper Realm like this. Over the last 3 months while watching the generals and commanders train, while also making full use of the World Wide Connectivity System it has received more data and resources than the last few thousand years of its space exploration.
Bri continues, making a hand motion for the knight to pay up if it wants more on this topic.
“There is even a section here on the High Orc’s attempt to break open and reverse engineer a throne… it was only a 2nd Class world, but the detailed notes here show that it did succeed.”
Comments
Dr. Otaku
Tyftc <3 I love this story so much
Alexander Perez
Oh, bout to hijack the throne
Tim Scripter
TFTC
Erik McPherson
TYFTC
Eoghan Higgins
Tyftc
