One With The Abyss

For the next 5 years I fought through each of the floors, defeating the champions on every 10th until finally I reached floor 100. Though, according to Abby my 8 years of effort in the dungeon only amounted to 2 months in the real world.

That bit of information gave me a strange feeling.

I was now 24 years old, at least according to the system, but all of my classmates would still be 16; though I suppose a couple of them would be 17 now depending on their birthdays. Felt weird, but I could handle it.

Even with my growth increasing exponentially with every talent I got a hold of, the floors increased severely in difficulty such that even I couldn't just blast right through them most of the time; between that and me occasionally slowing down to practise my abilities I managed to descend in only 5 years after floor 60.

One of the main issues I faced after floor 60 was that the floors were so much larger. Before I fought in more enclosed environments with clear progression goals, but more and more frequently I began running into arena's that could be considered their own worlds, put that together with all the enemies I had to face, it took more time than it should have to to finish some floors.

Take floor 72 as an example. It was a floor full of wyrms with a true dragon as its boss, which upgraded my [Lesser Dragon Slayer] title to just [Dragon Slayer]; but the dragons were not the hardest part of the floor: It was the goddamn size of the place.

It literally had different biomes full of wyrms, it took me 3 months to find the damn boss!

There were other floors of note, mainly the champions, as I had taken to calling them.

The 60th floor boss was an [Ashura King]. I fought it within a rundown temple full of skulls. It had 6 arms and deep grey skin much like my own; the monster was a master of martial arts and fought extremely well with just the 6 of its fists. 

This made sense, as its talent was [Martial King] granting extremely precise control over my body so that it could accurately be used as a weapon. I fused the talent with [Ninja], having the lesser talent be absorbed into [Martial King], the improved talent now also holding my stealth abilities.

On floor 70 I fought a creature called [Infernal Wanderer]. It reminded me of the myths of baphomet, having the head and legs of a goat; the only differences were that it had 3 goat heads and 10 arms. The description of the race was quite interesting as well, being a 'creature from the realm of hell that has wandered from its native realm in order to devour the souls of lesser creatures'

It fought by attacking me with a weird, purple fire, my instincts screamed at me to avoid it and so I did. Though thanks to the talent I understood what the fire was:

[Infernal Blade]

[Bring infernal energy from the realm of hell to create an infernal blade]

The sword was made of that same purple fire and from what I could tell it; every attack I made with it would have caused that fire to build up on my enemies body, slowly destroying their soul.

The 80th floor boss had a similar feeling, despite being diametrically opposed. 

On floor 80 I faced a [Heaven's Executioner]. It was a large angel that served the heavenly will in hunting and killing infernal creatures; it wore shining armour that covered its entire body except her long golden hair and 6 pure white wings. Abby had speculated that the monsters on floor 80 and floor 70 were enemies who had been captured by whoever made this place.

The angel also gave a similar talent:

[Hallowed Blade]

[Bring heavenly energy from the realm of heaven to create a hallowed blade]

The sword was made entirely of shining golden energy and purified the things it cut through.

Both bosses were among the hardest I had ever fought, taking multiple hours before I could defeat them. I even discovered, after beating the angel, that I could fuse their talent with [Avarice], something I hadn't really expected, though I suppose it made sense.

The most peculiar part of the talents was the message I got after fusing both of them into [Avarice]:

[Detecting Abnormality within talent: <Avarice>]

[Abnormality identified: Conflicting energies <Infernal> and <Heaven> are undergoing harmonisation]

[Please Wait]

[...]

I did wait, for another week before any more messages came up; spending the time practising with my magic.

What it came back with was somewhat... Underwhelming.

[Alert: Harmonisation successful]

[Talent: <Avarice> can now produce: <Celestial Blade>]

[You have gained celestial energy: <+Celestial Title>]

[Celestial]

[Proof you have celestial energy within you. Increases ability to control all energy types]

I didn't even need to open my mouth before Abby told me that celestial energy was just another type of energy present within the universe, and that it was not as powerful as abyssal energy so I should not pay it any mind.

I shrugged and accepted.

My next course of action was to look at this [Celestial Blade] thing. There was no new talent, instead I felt a change within my soul weapon. When I acted upon it, the 2 swords I had gotten from the angel and devil appeared in my hands - I could no longer summon them separately - and as I brought them together, they transformed into 2 single-handed swords, into 1 giant greatsword.

It had black and white patterns all over it and held the powers that both of the previous swords had, if a little stronger. Though that was it. It really wasn't anything to write home about, proving Abby right once again.

The final champion I faced was on floor 90, the [Azure Phoenix].

Abby's tidbits of knowledge came up the moment I laid eyes on the beautiful creature. Supposedly there were 2 types of 'true phoenix': The [Azure Phoenix], who's fire was primarily used for healing; and the [Vermillion Phoenix] who's fire was much more destructive.

I came to understand what Abby meant as I fought the phoenix. The fight on floor 90 lasted for 8 months, because any attack I landed on the monster healed within seconds.

There was a point, 2 months in where I thought it was over with; but no. Abby said that the phoenix probably activated a skill exclusive to only [Azure Phoenix]: [From The Ashes] allowing it to revive upon death a single time in its entire life, but not only did it revive it was also stronger somehow.

I slept for 3 weeks following the fight, but in the end it was worth it to gain its talent:

[Life Ember]

[Any wound or injury will be purified by the power of life-fire]

After this fight, any injury I took disappeared almost as fast as the phoenix's did with a burst of blue fire covering it. Even limbs regrew with extreme speed. I could still be killed of course, the phoenix proved that, but it was incredibly difficult now.

On another note, I managed to open all of the gates with the exception of [Eternal] which Abby refused to even talk about, stating 'I'm not ready'.

Overall it was rather easy. First came [Weightless], occuring on floor 68 thanks to the boss monster [Redcap]. 

It was a special kind of goblin, or more specifically a trickster fairy with the talent [Blink]. It was a teleportation talent that would allow me to instantly appear anywhere within my line of sight, with blinking as an activation command of sorts.

On its own it was extremely powerful, but [Space Manipulation] was even more so:

[Space Manipulation]

[The confines of any universe are yours to play with. All realms and dimensions are within your grasp, and your power over them is unmatched]

[Spatial Manipulation]

[Gravitational Manipulation]

The [Weightless] section of [Abyss] was similar, but also granted me [Spatial Knowledge].

[Spatial Manipulation] allowed me to bend, fold and warp space itself; allowing for not just teleportation, but also attacks and barriers. To teleport I would twist 2 points in space, bringing them closer until I could step from one point to the next. I could similarly leave a permanent fold by cutting open the spatial walls, creating what Earth scientists would call a wormhole.

For attacks I could twist space where matter already existed, it was not energy efficient, but was extremely lethal. Barriers were a much more interesting concept. All around me I would fold space, essentially creating an infinite wall of space between myself and anything else. It was almost impenetrable, but there were 2 ways to bypass it as I learned on floor 70 when I had gotten too confident.

The first and most obvious way was to create an attack that could bypass an infinite amount of space without fizzling out, this was hard, but Abby assured me it was possible.

The second way was much easier, and happened to me against the [Infernal Wanderer]. Even if it is folded space, it’s still just a barrier; landing an attack it can't handle would shatter it like any other barrier, allowing the attack through - with weakened momentum obviously. 

Still, it was an exceptional ability. The final application of [Spatial Manipulation] was related to 'realms' and 'dimensions'. Those being alternate universes that I could now create and traverse at will, useful, but very costly - Over time I gradually learned to create a pocket dimension with little access cost to store all of my items, no longer needing my cute little bag.

[Gravitational Manipulation] was so much simpler. I could control gravity, that was it.

It had a few functions. Firstly, I could use it like telekinesis, secondly I could alter the weights of things to improve or weaken attacks and finally I could concentrate gravity upon a single point to create pseudo black holes as an attack. This was how I managed to beat the phoenix, as if I didn't destroy it fast enough it would simply recover itself.

[Spatial Knowledge] acted the same as [Temporal Knowledge], except with space.

The next big change came on floor 81. I gained [Void Body] after infusing my aura directly into my body instead of just coating myself in it, simple, but it still took me a while to figure it out. It hurt like hell, but the results were worth it.

[Void Body]

[Your body is a void, appearing, but not existing. Unable to comprehend your existence, the world around you quivers in fear of your strength]

[Abyss Spark]

[Body of Void, Soul of Abyss]

The [Void] gate, like all others, had 3 abilities. The same 2 in the actual talent and a unique one: [Abyss Fissure].

The abilities of [Void] and [Void Body] were not as complex as the other abilities at all, except of course [Abyssal Fissure]

The first ability [Abyssal Spark] was my aura, now much more powerful.

The second, [Body of Void, Soul of Abyss] just carried over my strengthening abilities that were present in the talent before, just stronger.

The real kicker was [Abyssal Fissure]. This was the major cause of suffering as the gate opened, within me a line cracked open releasing pure abyss into my body. The ability opened a pseudo-gate inside my body! My energy recovered much faster and it was a lot purer than taking it from the air around me, Abby explained that the stuff in the air seeped through the walls of the world like it water through a strainer, but now I had direct access to the energy. The change in my abilities was massive as I became so much stronger.

The final gate, [Dominion] came only 4 floors later on floor 85. I managed to get a hold of [Weapon Shaper] like Abby had recommended, but just as I was going to fuse it with [Thread Dominion] I decided against it.

I had come to understand just how powerful dominion-type talents were after managing to obtain 2 more: [Blood Dominion] on floor 69 while fighting the [Blood Lord] and [Mind Dominion] after fighting an [Elder Mindflayer].

(A/N: [Mind Dominion] is subject to the same weaknesses of other abilities that it is hard to brainwash others with strong souls - and it's not worth brainwashing those with a weak soul - but other than that it also has the abilities of [Psychic Web] as well as a memory reading ability)

They were so exceptionally useful and I decided not to part with [Thread Dominion], even if it would still work as [Matter Manipulation]. 

Abby didn't really agree with my decision, but I stuck by it.

So, it took me a year and a half to turn [Weapon Shaper] into [Matter Manipulation]. Opening the 6th abyssal gate and boosting my abyssal energy massively again.

[Matter Manipulation]

[The building blocks of reality are nothing but templates to you. Change and alter the very foundations of existence to your liking]

[Subatomic Manipulation]

[Matter Shifting]

This again had a unique ability in [Dominion], being [Subatomic Knowledge], granting me a shit-ton of information about atoms and the elements of the periodic table. Stuff like that, the information overload hurt for a while, but I got used to it.

[Subatomic Manipulation] was the talent's primary ability, being able to alter things at a subatomic level. By using my knowledge I was able to change water into wood, then the wood into metal, then the metal into air. It was an exceptional ability, and with a few weeks of practice I was able to create more complex structures, even organic matter - though when I tried to create a creature it came out as just a body, no soul.

[Subatomic Knowledge] helped me know the make up of atoms, but I couldn't make something unless I had seen it before. I couldn't, for example, make wood from the Amazon since I had never seen a tree from Brazil, but I could make an exact copy of the tree in the backyard of my house on Earth. It took a lot of digging and placing atoms in the right places, but eventually I could create anything I had seen at least once. Making it the first time took more effort, but with practice I could make them fluidly.

(A/N: Like Atom-Eve from Invincible)

I even got to try pizza for the first time. It was good, I had really been missing out on Earth, not that I would have been able to get any if I wanted to.

[Matter Shifting] was less complicated than the other 2 abilities. Essentially allowing me to shift matter from one plane to another; it would lose all of its mass, making even the heaviest objects easy to life, but could literally not ever be touched. It stopped existing essentially, even if one could still see it. I couldn't touch the shifted objects either, not even with mana and aura; instead I would have to make part of it unshifted so that I could actually hold it.

(A/N: Like Mirio from MHA)

After gaining these abilities I decided to streamline my system page, fusing all my 'abyssal talents' into [Abyss]. Doing so slightly strengthened each of my abilities, but there were no other major changes, as a result my talent page as I stood before the entrance to floor 100 was as such:

[Land of Nightmares] was a powerful illusion ability that I sparsely made use of, but was still great for dealing with lesser enemies. It came by combining [Nightmare Generation] with [Hexagonal Domain].

[Hexagonal Domain] was the evolved form of [Wax Walls] after I had fused many force-field and barrier type talents together, creating holographic-looking hexagonal barriers to protect me.

[Nightmare Generation] I got from a boss monster on the 94th floor. The entire floor was full of these creepy monsters called [Nightmarekin], their only ability was to transform into something I feared, almost all taking the image of people who had tormented me.

Thankfully, I had come to terms with my past, but it was still a struggle to get past them all. The final boss of the floor was a rather, I suppose classic monster: [The Boogeyman]. According to the description I had gotten, he was the embodiment of all fear in existence. I was forced to fight every one of my tormentors inside a replica of LEE, doubling the trauma factor.

Even with all the introspection I had done, I was forced to take a break and calm down after fighting him.

[Clairvoyance] had been upgraded from [All-Sight], working mostly the same, but also allowing me to get rid of my ring since it had a natural appraisal ability. Not just that, the appraisal was better as I could now see what talents my enemies had.

With so many of the gates open, all of my amazing talents and all of the elements I had at my disposal, I was entirely ready to enter the 100th floor.

I had expected there to be no fight, just a big door I opened with the 9 keys I had gathered, but I was severely wrong.

I made my way down the stairs for what I expected to be the last time and looked into a large arena. From the 50th champion all of the champion arena's had been customised to fit the boss I fought.

50 had the forest. 60 had the old temple. 70 was in a giant dark cave. 80 was atop a white, floating platform, surrounded by golden bells. And 90 was in a forest where all the leaves on the trees were made of fire.

Floor 100 was no different to all the others that had come before it. Fitting perfectly with the boss it matched with.

What I saw was an extremely large throne room, made almost entirely from gold. Right at the opposite end, sat on a golden throne, in front of a large door was a rather handsome man.

I didn't immediately enter, choosing instead to appraise him first:

[Divine Dragon]

[One of the first races to have ever been created, prideful and arrogant with the strength to back it all up]

[Talent: <Origin Dragon Tongue>]

I had honestly been expecting a confrontation like this, Abby had told me multiple times that Dragons were, on average, the strongest race alive; and so having what looked to be the strongest type of dragon as the final boss made sense.

Though I did note how this was the first humanoid dragon I had faced. True dragons, supposedly, could take on human forms, but none of the true dragons I had fought ever did; this guy would be the first.

Even from behind the threshold of the door, I could see the disdainful look that he was giving me as he sat on his dumb throne.

I walked into the arena and the boss did not move from his seat, he did not even try to attack me like every other monster had.

I rushed forward, aura coating my fist, and slammed it straight into his gut. However, as I heard the dragon mumble my attack stopped abruptly, a couple centimetres away from the boss; his disdainful glare, twisting into a mocking grin.

I looked up, the boss's mouth moving to speak again and my instincts warned me to get out of there. Time around me slowed to the point of stopping, but it was too late as the weight of a building crashed down upon my stomach, sending me flying back into the wall and having the time manipulation slow.

I spat out blood and felt the familiar warmth of life fire burning within my stomach. From the duration of the flame, the attack had done a lot of damage.

Luckily my body had several copies of every organ, for safety's sake. I would have forgotten having organs entirely, but they help keep my body together better.

I got up, seeing the dragon had not even moved. It was still sat leisurely on his throne, smirking. 

Fuck it, something new. Black flames exploded around me and I shot forward, by combining fire and dark I had created hellfire that was impossible to extinguish without my desire.

I saw the dragon raise his hand and begin speaking again and changed my manner of attack. Space began twisting and I stepped from my place in front of him, to standing at his side, ready to cut him down.

I saw his expression crack, shocked at my sudden appearance. He tried to fling his hand to the side as sparks of golden flame lit up in his palm. I could tell this attack was dangerous and fled; teleporting far away.

From the dragon's hand, a titanic cone of golden fire burst out where I had just been.

From what I had seen, in order to activate his attacks, the dragon had to say some kind of activation key - most likely in the origin dragon tongue.

That gave me an idea.

The cone of fire died down and I once again approached. Using [Avarice] to bring out my celestial sword, but combining it with the defence ignoring abilities of the ghost sword; something I had learned when fighting death knights on floor 83. 

As I had expected, the dragon saw me approaching and his lips moved to activate whatever magic he was going to use, but I wasn't going to let him. I used my sound magic to create a domain of absolute silence around us, preventing him from speaking. I grinned, preparing to attack, but I was unnerved as the dragon shared my grin. I understood as 3 large cuts dug into my skin, cutting my body into pieces.

I suppose he didn't need sound to speak or something. Life fire burst into action, pulling my pieces together and healing me.

The dragon didn't even bother trying to finish me off, clearly much too superior to bother.

It took a few moments but I was back in 1 piece. I was especially glad for [Life Ember] for this fight, without it I would likely have died, or at least taken months to heal from an injury like that. It sucked I didn't have the skills of the phoenix though, the monster was definitely much faster at regenerating.

I got back up and prepared to fight.

Silencing did little, so sound magic was off the table here. Space began folding around me, arousing the interest of the dragon as it seemed to notice what was happening; a barrier of infinite space formed around my entire body at great speeds thanks to how much practice I had with space manipulation after I acquired it.

I reduced my own weight with gravity manipulation, allowing me to move faster and sped up my reactions with time manipulation.

I dashed forward, much faster than before thanks to my reduced weight and the mixture of wind magic to push me forward and lightning magic to enhance my reflexes again. Power built up around Avarice's fist and I pushed it forward as fast as I could.

Probability control showed me the shifting possibilities of the future, but I only acted the moment they began to become fixed - a trick I had learned on floor 91 to improve the likelihood of a successful attack.

Space twisted, placing me behind the dragon as it mumbled again. Its attack hit air, but my own sent the dragon sprawling through the throne room.

That single attack was the culmination of almost all of my most powerful abilities and I grinned wide as I saw the enraged expression of the dragon as it stared right at me.

"ROOOOOAAAAAARRR!" It bellowed, before mumbling and flying off of the ground.

I eliminated my own gravity, flying to match it. A sword appeared in my hand, cutting down with immense force, it mumbled and I assume its barrier appeared, but this did not stop the sword from cutting into his flesh and slamming him into the ground. Upon contact the sword, imbued with the abilities of the ghost sword began to stop - showing this move was some kind of organic barrier - so I quickly activated matter shifting, allowing my blade to pass straight through the barrier.

Literally nothing could stop matter if it was on another plane of existence, so it cut straight into the dragon. I exerted my will over the golden blood to form 3 orbs of blood that floated around me; from those orbs, arrows of blood were launched to try and pin the dragon to the floor and maintain my advantage.

From within the dust cloud I had created in my assault I saw a golden spark. My eyes went wide as a blast of golden fire washed over me, my space barrier beginning to tremble under its power, cracks forming within it.

"Shit!" Right as the barrier broke I managed to step out of danger, but somehow the process was much more difficult leaving me within the cone of golden  fire for half a second. It was only half a second, but even that was enough for my left arm to literally melt.

Life fire began healing me, but the dragon came bursting out of the cloud, dispersing it entirely.

But now he was much more draconic. Rigid golden horns extended from his head and a pair of wings and tail came from his back. His body now had golden scales spotted around its body in order to inflict as much damage as possible upon its enemies.

The dragon's fist crashed right into me, caving my entire skull in as I had not managed to rebuild my barrier. 

I flew backwards, but before I could hit a wall, another fist snapped my spine. Back and forth, I was barraged by hit after hit from the dragon until my body was completely covered in life fire as it desperately attempted to recover me.

My mind was slipping, only maintained as I forced it to be coherent with [Mind Dominion].

The barrage of attacks came to an end as it brought both hands together and slammed them straight into my stomach, knocking me to the floor and ripping it up in a wave of rubble and dust. 

Growing an eye I was able to see a spark of gold from the top of the dust cloud that covered me.

Get up dumbass! I could vaguely hear Abby's voice, but I was honestly just struggling to stay awake. It seemed I was overconfident.

Bullshit! You're not gonna die here! Abby's voice became louder and I began feeling the purple sparks of space magic come to life.

It was not enough to move, but I grasped onto that feeling as much as possible, allowing my instincts to guide me. 

My eyes healed and I could see a giant cone of golden fire assaulting the ground below it. My body was slowly recovering as life fire began to go out, leaving my body as it was in its natural state.

"Looks like I pissed it off" I laughed quietly as my tongue and jaw returned to how they should have been.

Seems so. Abby said, no longer needing to grow a mouth on my body after I had learned I could add her to the psychic web, it was very useful.

The golden fire died down just as my body was entirely restored.

The dragon seemed content that I was dead, seemingly lacking any decent sensory abilities to notice I was here.

Just as it began descending I rushed out from where I was, planting my fist directly into its face, once again sending it flying. But this time I didn't just let it sit as I attacked from afar, I followed it. Raining fist after fist upon its body, with [Martial King] each of my attacks were as strong as they possibly could be. 

I grabbed it with avarice, spikes extending from my palm in order to maintain a permanent connection, before spinning rapidly. Avarice began to stretch with the dragon smashing into pillar after pillar, building up damage as all the rubble and dust upon his body was forced under my control; stabbing into his body, gradually building up small damage against him as it built up inside his body.

All that time I desperately copied its talent, seeing it as the only way it could have such powerful moves.

When the copying was complete I used the centrifugal force to throw the dragon into his own throne. Even still I didn't let up, I had the talent, but not enough time to properly process everything it could do - meaning I had to do what I could without it.

Before I could reach him, he burst out of the rubble. Beyond enraged and covered in his own blood, a solid gold fist about to collide with my face again.

Unfortunately for him however, his attack went straight through my body as I activated matter shift. I lost my sight, smell and hearing - and breathing if I actually needed it - but made up for it with [Clairvoyance], my aura empowered fist smashing into the dragon's face. The surprise was replaced with pain as he had no time to activate his shield.

Following his barrage of attacks I had refused to drop future sight and probability control, knowing that a single lapse in prediction could allow him to regain the upper hand.

He was smashed back into the door behind his throne as I began activating my magic.

Various gems appeared around me: Sapphires, rubies, emeralds, topaz, quartz and onyx all began launching themselves into the dragon, holding it down with their magic properties.

(A/N: These are the gemstone magics. First make crystal magic with magma and ice. Then combine crystal with the basic elements to create gemstones. Combining each type of gemstone magic creates diamond magic; List of elements Nox can use will be at the end of the chapter)

The dragon maintained his barrier in order to protect himself, hoping to wait me out like he had when I used his blood. Only attacking when the blood was all used up.

But he would be in for a surprise as gravity began converging around a single point, a miniature blackhole forming right above me. I lowered the attack and saw as my future sight displayed his smirking face as another fist crashed into my skull.

But this future would never come.

As he rose with speed I had never seen from him before, the blackhole crashed into him; purple energy crackling off the attack as the dragon desperately tried to maintain a barrier around himself. The barrier maintained as it began to shatter under the weight of the blackhole, but this couldn't last forever; it didn't even need to.

Space twisted and I was once again behind the dragon, my hand gripping his neck as it phased right through the barrier that was protecting him. I was trying to pull off a kill move, finishing the fight instantly.

Powerful claws grew on the tips of my fingers, breaking and being regrown rapidly as I attempted to push them through the golden scales the dragon desperately used to protect himself.

The dragon's eyes went wide as he struggled to push the blackhole away and turn to face me, but it was too late as my claws dug in and the final part of my plan went into action. I began to use [Blood Dominion], grabbing and pulling directly at the blood. 

By making direct contact with the blood I wanted to control, I could more easily push back against the resistance of the soul that stopped me from pulling it out of its body and killing it instantly.

I began to feel the blood coming, but noticed my blackhole was becoming unstable; it could not last much longer. I slowed time for everything but my mind, creating multiple with [Mind Dominion] to come up with a way to get the best out of this situation.

What felt like 5 minutes, but was really less than a second I came to a decision.

I activated soul magic, pushing back at the dragon's soul for just long enough to pull at his blood with [Blood Dominion]. This was not what soul magic did normally and cost me much of my energy, but the results were worth it.

(A/N: Soul magic usually does 2 things: Keeps souls of dead creatures inside body for necromancy and enhances magic by imbuing it with soul attributes)

Buckets of blood erupted from the back of the dragon.

I ducked immediately as I saw a vision of being cut into pieces by the dragon. He stumbled around, blood loss thankfully affecting it; on the other hand I had used much of my mana.

Our next attacks would likely be our last.

I brought everything I could as the dragon's lips once again moved and mana swirled around it, using both skills and its talent.

Avarice granted me the strongest weapon it could, tentacles extended from my back - each of their tips covered in a powerful blast of my aura - and all kinds of magic prepared to fall. Attacks of all elements appeared around me, the primary elements, my deviations and composites all concentrated in order to rain hell upon my enemy.

From around the dragon, multiple sparks of golden fire erupted into an inferno of divine hell.

And soon all of these attacks met, my body melting under the heat, but the fire receding under the pressure of my various attacks. My mind was once again barely holding on as I acted purely on instinct.

Light blinded me before a loud explosion that seemed to rock the entire dungeon launched me straight into the wall I had entered through, forcing my body 10 metres deep where I then passed out.

If I woke up, I won.

And if I didn't...

====

My eyes shot open, my body not even feeling sore. 

God was I thankful for [Life Ember].

I found myself embedded deep inside a wall and tried using earth magic to pull myself out. It worked, but it seemed my abyssal energy reserves had not fully recovered from my final attack so I instead chose to just get out manually and not interfere with the regeneration.

What I saw as I was released was rubble.

The once glorious throne room now looked like a derelict chamber full of rocks. The pillars of gold had crumbled to the floor in pile and the floor was so uneven from the attacks that had landed upon it that some places had gorges as wide as cars.

The only place that had any semblence of 'neatness' was right in the middle. Where the dragon and I had clashed. But neat did not mean unscathed. The force of our attacks had flattened the ground deeply into the ground, melting it into a perfectly spherical pit.

And as I looked down into the pit, I smiled wildly, my sharp, white teeth displaying themselves.

Among other items: A golden key and a large treasure chest.

"Looks like I won."