"..."
Dionysus could not help but take several steps backward.
Under the intimidation of Riezel’s almost tangible murderous aura and terrifying combat power, even in his frenzied state, he still found himself unable to withstand Riezel’s gaze and instinctively retreated.
He even swallowed involuntarily, yet even in the face of such overwhelming pressure, Dionysus suddenly began to laugh once more.
"Hahaha... as expected of the most monstrous rookie in the Lower World’s history, the one acknowledged by countless gods as someone who constantly breaks his limits. I knew that Ein alone wouldn’t be enough to defeat you."
What he said was an undeniable fact.
Even before the monster rookie before him had advanced to Level 7, he already possessed the ability to challenge Level 7 opponents across levels and defeat them, and he had even achieved the terrifying feat of single-handedly subjugating a Demi Spirit.
None of that was something Dionysus could ignore.
Now that Riezel had reached Level 7, he was undoubtedly far stronger than before, to the point that no Creature merely comparable to Level 7 could stand against him.
If not for the absolute taboo against god-slaying in the Lower World, Dionysus was certain that he himself would already have been cut down by this monster rookie.
Therefore...
"Don’t blame me for resorting to extraordinary measures, Liberator! Hahahaha!"
Dionysus’s laughter gradually turned sinister—it was the laughter of something that had completely lost its humanity.
"Hmm?"
At that moment, Riezel suddenly raised his head and looked toward the black dragon with the Demi Spirit embedded within its body.
*Gu-lu—*
On the black dragon’s massive body, the Demi Spirit—whose form looked as though she were being burned alive like a sacrificial offering bound to a cross, with most of her body buried deep within the dragon’s flesh—slowly opened the one remaining eye exposed outside.
Compared to the eyes of the other Demi Spirits, that eye was completely different.
It lacked their innocence and instead resembled the eyes of a Jewel Fetus in its most primitive state—swollen, twisted, and filled with malevolence.
As that eye writhed grotesquely, the previously motionless black dragon also began to move.
*Pfff—*
It was the sound of a tentacle made of green flesh piercing into a human body.
Under Riezel’s surprised gaze, the tentacle suddenly shot out from the black dragon at a speed far exceeding that of a bullet and instantly pierced into Ein’s mutilated body lying within the pool of blood.
It then pulsed violently like a blood vessel, as though injecting something into Ein’s body while continuously pumping something into her, creating a scene so grotesque that it sent chills down one’s spine.
"Maximize Magic - Reality Slash!"
As soon as he saw that, Riezel almost instinctively activated his magic, releasing a slash capable of cutting through space itself.
*Splurt—!*
Riezel’s invisible spatial slash instantly severed the tentacle cleanly in half, causing a blood-like fluid to spray wildly from the severed end.
However, even after being cut apart, the remaining portion of the tentacle still wriggled violently before slipping completely into Ein’s body.
*Gu-lu—Gu-lu—Gu-lu—*
Ein’s body, which had previously been cut cleanly in two, suddenly began to swell.
Countless masses of green flesh surged wildly from the wound, forcibly reconnecting the separated upper and lower halves of her body.
"Eh... AAAAAAAAAHHH—!!!"
Ein, who had already been on the verge of death, suddenly let out an incomparably painful scream before desperately struggling and rolling across the ground, as though some horrifying existence was about to be born within her body, causing her entire figure to swell grotesquely.
"Maximize Magic - Vermilion Nova!"
A sharp glint flashed through Riezel’s eyes as he immediately activated the strongest single-target fire magic currently at his disposal.
*Whoosh!*
Violent flames erupted from the suddenly unfolding magic circle, engulfing Ein’s entire body.
Yet what shocked him was that the speed at which the flames burned could not keep up with the rate at which her body was expanding, and in the blink of an eye, the fire was completely overwhelmed.
"AAAAHHH—GRAAAAA—!!!"
At last, Ein’s scream transformed into the roar of an inhuman monster.
When a Jewel Fetus parasitized an individual and evolved them into a Demi Spirit, it would emit exactly this kind of sound.
"Another case of Jewel Fetus parasitism, huh....?"
Riezel lowered his raised hand and murmured quietly, his eyes flickering slightly.
In response, Dionysus burst into laughter.
"Haha... no—you’re mistaken this time, Liberator..." Dionysus said with a vile grin plastered across his face. "What’s parasitizing her this time isn’t a split fragment like a Jewel Fetus, but the main body itself!"
Hearing that, Riezel’s expression immediately stiffened.
"Main body?"
He seemed to realize something at once.
"Yes! The main body!"
Dionysus laughed loudly as he spread his arms wide.
"All Jewel Fetuses are merely avatars of the Corrupted Spirit’s main body—embryos split off from it!"
"In other words, every being parasitized by a Jewel Fetus—including those who have successfully metamorphosed into Demi Spirits—is nothing more than an extension of the Corrupted Spirit’s main body!"
"The power they possess is only a tiny fraction of the original!"
"But what’s parasitizing Ein right now isn’t some avatar embryo—it’s an actual piece of flesh cut directly from the Corrupted Spirit’s true body!"
Clearly, the magnitude of this difference required no further explanation from Dionysus.
Because Riezel had already felt it—a terrifying surge of magical energy erupting from Ein’s body. It was so immense that it even surpassed the Demi Spirit that had transformed after absorbing Riezel’s magic jewel on the Dungeon’s 59th Floor.
Dionysus laughed wildly like a madman.
"By using a fragment of its true flesh, the Corrupted Spirit’s main body—located far below the 59th Floor of the Dungeon at an unknown depth—is about to be summoned into my servant’s body!"
"Watch carefully!"
"The being that will appear next is the one that will bring an end to all of Orario, return the Lower World to the ancient age, and once again unleash chaos upon the world!"
Originally, Dionysus had placed all of his hopes for the destruction of Orario upon the seventh Demi Spirit he had named Nidhogg.
He knew that once the Gate of Heaven was activated, the various familias within the city would inevitably unite to stop it and desperately attempt to subjugate the six Demi Spirits.
Because of that, before initiating the Gate of Heaven, he had already made a second preparation—specifically cultivating a seventh Demi Spirit and secretly integrating her into the magic circle when the Gate of Heaven was activated.
In this way, even if the Gate of Heaven were ultimately stopped, the seventh Demi Spirit would still be able to absorb the enormous amount of magical energy stored during the weaving of the grand ceremony.
After absorbing such a vast quantity of magical energy, the seventh Demi Spirit herself would become a gigantic bomb that would annihilate all adventurers invading Knossos and send Orario’s strongest adventurers to their deaths.
In that case, even if Orario somehow managed to survive, the loss of so many high-ranking adventurers would still cause the city to decline completely, just like the former Zeus Familia and Hera Familia, gradually fading from the stage of history.
Back when Zeus Familia and Hera Familia had fallen, it had plunged Orario into years of darkness. If the many powerful familias led by Loki Familia were to fall as well, then the next Dark Age would not only arrive immediately, but would spread across the entire Lower World.
If that happened, could Orario still continue serving as the ’cover’ and keep sealing the Dungeon like it always had?
No—it would be impossible.
In other words, Dionysus’s true target had always been the adventurers protecting Orario, not merely the city itself.
If Orario were destroyed while its defenders survived, then they would surely possess the ability to rebuild another Labyrinth City and once again drive the monsters back underground.
In his eyes, the mortals of the Lower World were precisely that resilient.
Having always observed the Lower World and its chaotic people from above, he firmly believed that fact, which was exactly why he had prepared this second plan.
However, while cultivating the seventh Demi Spirit, the Corrupted Spirit’s main body had unexpectedly delivered a portion of her true flesh into his hands.
At that moment, Dionysus immediately altered his plan, choosing instead to summon the Corrupted Spirit’s main body to the surface and completely destroy everything.
"I didn’t expect her to suddenly take such action either. It was probably because the anomaly that appeared within the Demi Spirit on the Dungeon’s 59th Floor caught her attention, wouldn’t you say?"
"You know, the Demi Spirit on the 59th Floor underwent an inexplicable mutation that even I couldn’t fully comprehend. She suddenly gained astonishing power and absorbed a tremendous amount of magical energy."
"For her, a being that seeks to devour everything, that kind of change must have been enough to drive her into ecstasy."
In order to obtain even more power, the Corrupted Spirit had even set her sights on Ais, intending to devour her—a human who possessed spirit blood.
Back then, on the Dungeon’s 59th Floor, to promote the complete evolution of Finn and the others, Riezel had handed over a magic gem containing 11,000 years of accumulated magical energy from the Akasha Continent to the Demi Spirit.
Upon sensing that power, the Corrupted Spirit had indeed become ecstatic.
Because of that, she took two actions.
One was preparing to create more extensions of herself to search for that power, which was why Valletta had obtained the multicolored magic stone from Revis.
The other was that, since she could no longer afford to remain passive, the Corrupted Spirit sought every possible way to deliver a portion of her own flesh to Dionysus, allowing him to complete her summoning.
Needless to say, the Corrupted Spirit intended to act personally.
Dionysus gladly accepted that request and altered his plan on the spot, even sacrificing his most cherished servant. By using the magical energy accumulated through the Gate of Heaven, he intended to complete the summoning of the Corrupted Spirit’s main body.
"Rejoice!"
"Feel honored!"
"A new King of Monsters—one capable of rivaling Nidhogg and the One-Eyed Black Dragon—is about to manifest upon the surface!"
Dionysus shouted loudly.
"Come!"
"Come!"
"Come!"
"You who once entered the Dungeon in ancient times, only to be devoured by monsters and thus fall into corruption!"
"Your name is—Alaya!"
As Dionysus’s voice fell, the existence that had once been Ein, now surging with endless magical energy, disappeared completely.
At this moment, Ein had already been entirely devoured by the green flesh, transforming into a gigantic cocoon of meat.
*Gu-lu—*
In the very next moment, the cocoon pulsed violently before countless tentacles suddenly extended from it, piercing directly into the dragon Demi Spirit known as Nidhogg, breaking her down into particles before rapidly absorbing her.
At the same time, the enormous magical energy accumulated through nearly two months of chanting the Gate of Heaven by the six Demi Spirits was also absorbed into the cocoon, as streams of magical energy circuits emerged one after another across its surface.
"!!!"
At this moment, within the six altars on the 10th Floor of Knossos, the six Demi Spirits simultaneously ceased their chanting and no longer continued maintaining the Gate of Heaven. Instead, as though they had lost control entirely, they collectively released monstrous cries belonging to their female forms before metamorphosis.
"What?"
Finn abruptly stopped swinging his spear.
"They stopped?"
Riveria also halted her chanting.
"...A bad feeling."
Ais muttered tensely as the spirit blood within her body stirred more violently than ever before, causing her expression to change abruptly.
"W-What’s happening now?"
"...Something’s wrong. I’m starting to get a bad feeling."
Tiona and Tione both faltered.
"What the hell are they trying to pull now?!"
Bete kicked apart a caterpillar monster and shouted loudly.
"Hey, hey... this doesn’t look good, does it?"
Even Gareth sensed that something was wrong, tightening his grip around his battle axe.
Anyone with sharp instincts—especially First-Class Adventurers—could feel an indescribable sense of terror emanating from each of the Demi Spirits.
"Mr. Riezel..."
Standing upon the battlefield, Lefiya looked toward the roaring Demi Spirit ahead and called out softly, as though seeking reassurance.
At this very moment, only Riezel clearly understood that the worst possible situation was about to unfold.
Considering that this was something that had never even occurred within the original story, this was clearly the butterfly effect brought about by his own actions.
"...Looks like things are seriously troublesome this time around."
As Riezel murmured those words, the massive cocoon before him suddenly split open.
Like a silkworm emerging after becoming a butterfly, a hand first extended out from within the cocoon, followed soon after by another. Immediately afterward, both hands pushed outward, forcibly tearing apart the cocoon and allowing the lifeform hidden within to break free and step into the world.
It was a woman with long emerald-green hair who possessed a seductive and captivating figure, along with an incomparably graceful and voluptuous form. Her skin was as white as snow, while her features were as exquisite as those of a goddess—so beautiful that she seemed as though she did not belong to this world.
If the most perfect work of art had never existed before, then at this moment, she was undoubtedly the most perfect masterpiece in existence, one without equal.
"Aah..."
A voice resembling a sigh of wonder escaped from her lips, replacing the cry that a newborn would normally make.
Needless to say, she was none other than the Corrupted Spirit whom Dionysus had called Alaya.
"Heehee..."
A gentle laugh, as clear and pleasant as flowing spring water, echoed throughout the dark underground.
Even though that laughter itself was not terrifying, countless screams and wails were destined to arise throughout this world because of that overly beautiful sound.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
[Support me and read next Chapters early at: /VALRRR]