Chapter 228 - [Forsaken Labyrinth Conquest] 21/69; The Desire To Devour
Epic Of Caterpillar
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As we went through the stairs connecting floor 54 with floor 55, we found several small rooms around which were filled with more monsters and spawn points. However, because we were in a hurry, we decided to rush through it at max speed. Thankfully all of my family has a nice speed stat, and the ones who don't can just fly around like Mady and Amiphossia.
Suddenly, plentiful of thunderous sounds filled the area we were in as the rooms exploded and from their insides appeared several Giant variants of the monsters we have seen. Giant Desert Tunas, Sharks, Octopus, and Lobsters. Their massive bodies clashed against us and tried to chomp us in one go, however, Nesiphae and Brontes jumped to the front and slashed and smashed the Giants who dared to come our way, as I manipulated my Aura and infused it with Fire Attributes and the remaining of the Wyvern Essence from my armor, generating a myriad of phantom wyvern heads, who bite and ripped to shreds the monsters that approached us.
At the same time, I expanded my two hands shapeshifting into slime and touched the stairs while using [Dungeon Assimilation], suddenly I felt as if the stairs were a part of my body as I manipulated them and made a direct road towards floor 55, skipping the small rooms on our way, which were filled with more of these annoying beasts.
After running for seven minutes we finally reached floor 55 and we instantly encountered a big group of monsters patiently waiting for us, while the other ones at the stairs were quickly descending as well, they didn't even care if we were at a different floor now, like the monsters used to be.
Because we were being surrounded by all sides, I commanded my children, Fire Onis, and part of my wives to annihilate the insolent monsters coming from the stairs as mercilessly as they wanted, while I and the rest of my wives would confront the monsters in the floor 55.
The new species encountered here was a massive group of over one hundred Fishmen, fishmen were different than merfolk as they had the more monster-like appearance, resembling ugly fishes with humanoid bodies. Each Fishman was massive as the littlest one was of around four meters tall. They were adapted to arid areas and their bodies were very dry, resembling reptiles if seen from afar.
They held golden tridents, spears, and swords as weapons, their bodies were covered on muscles and their skin was clear blue filled with small scales, they had long fishtails on their butts and ugly fish heads of different types of species of fish, but most had massive jaws filled with razor-sharp fangs.
There was a Fishmen leader on the back, it seemed to be white Shark Fishmen, he was of over eight meters tall, had a massive shark head, and six red-shot eyes. Its mouth was slowly drooling with saliva, it was quite hungry.
With a loud scream, the Shark Fishmen commanded his troops as the fish-like humanoids rushed at us while raising their golden weapons, there was a lot of Fishmen mages as well, and they kept themselves in the back, conjuring Water, Ice, and Earth Magic and Healing spells.
I was already getting bored of these ambushes that the dungeon was preparing for us in each floor as I called my [Fallen Winged Demon Armor] and fused it with my [Tyrannical Wyvern of Fire and Lava Armor], resembling a similar appearance than before, however this time I decided to add on Thunder Attribute. The moment the elemental Attribute was released from my Orbs on my forehead and chest, a powerful flow of magic fused itself with my armor.
The scarlet armor suddenly turned golden and several thunder-like sharp decorations filled it, its appearance became even slimmer and "sharp", my six arms became blades instead of claws, and my four wings were elongated to over seven meters each. The Wyvern-like helmet and shoulders decorations resembled a furious Thunderstorm Phoenix this time.
Feeling the sudden burst of electricity through all my body, soul, and Aura, I feel as my thoughts rushed incredibly fast. Suddenly I charged my wings with this powerful electric Aura as I was shooting through the air like a ray of lightning.
Flash!
In less than one second, I reached the head of the Shark Fishmen Leader as I began to savagely stab and slash its head with my strong six blade-like arms and my Aura enhancing my strength. As I played around with my Aura, I suddenly managed to transform it into a myriad of swords made of lighting as the hundreds of attacks rained over the massive Fishmen who yelled in horrible pain. He was about to punch me outside of its face but the strong electricity wasn't the only thing I had, suddenly the electricity generated a golden flame that busted on the monster's wounds, exploding and causing even more damage.
With my sharp blade arms, I sliced the Fishmen arms as and a big chunk of its back, suddenly my Aura transformed into a furious monster as it devoured the big chunk of bloody meat recently extracted from the monster. As my Aura kept voraciously eating alive the monster, I felt a sudden surge of power once again on my body, my armor mutated just as before as it gained strength and mass. The thunder surging through my body accelerated my thoughts and movements, the giant Shark Fishmen was already dead on the floor, with half of its body already eaten. The fishmen saw the death of their leader with horror but still braced themselves to fight me.
"Good! It wouldn't be fun if you cowered in fear! Fight! Struggle for your survival! Make it fun!"
Once again enhancing my body with the strong lighting, I rushed through the air towards my next preys, five giant Fishmen of over six meters tall, each one had a different type of shark head and were extremely ugly, however, their muscular bodies and strong auras made me somehow even hungrier. The sudden desire of eating them right away filled my thoughts for a moment as I let my body act on its own, jumping over their heads and voraciously eating them like a crazed beast.
The fishmen had weapons and magic, but my movements were way too fast for them to do anything, I just jumped over their heads in less than one second each, voraciously eating them in one bite with my Aura, which as it devoured more and more, it slowly mutated into a monstrosity.
"Devour! Devour! Devour!"
The sudden voice that I felt inside of my mind was from the will of my armor which was slowly fusing itself with my Aura. For a moment I wanted to talk with such beings, but they didn't respond and kept telling me to eat everything. However, their words had no power over me, as I negated their presence with my skills and Split Mins, but used the surging power from their intents to rush through my enemies.
I flew through the air and raised my six blade-like arms as I sliced to pieces a massive fishmen that wasn't even able to defend itself on time. Then my aura once again devoured its pieces that were still falling through the air with incredible speed. Another surge of power made my heart intensively beat, my senses once again increased and my aura expanded wildly.
Flash!
Ten Fishmen tried to take me on from the front and with one swipe of my six golden arms a strong thunder-like blade was released and sliced the monsters mercilessly, their bodies now in pieces were grilled instantly. My Aura without wanting to waste a food extended itself like a coiling dragon made of lighting as it devoured the grilled Fishmen in one bite. Seeing the versatility of my Aura, I tried to do what it did once again as I manipulated it into coiling dragons of lighting, these phantoms resembled eastern dragons' heads with long whiskers that furiously ravaged the Fishmen at my vicinity.
Suddenly the spawn points inside of a room in the distance shined in bright light as it summoned a new Fishmen Leader, but it was now enhanced in strength, towering over fifty meters the goliath broke through the entire room and with a powerful force it jumped towards my direction. The new Fishmen Leader had now a more monstrous Shark head with several jaws filled with deadly fangs, it also had four muscular and burly arms, each one carrying a colossal golden weapon, its aura was strong and oppressing, but my own Aura was able to fight it back without any troubles.
Seeing that his intent was clearly to rip me to shreds with his four shiny weapons I flew like lightning through the air and impacted the monster's chest with incredible force. Although I felt as various of its internal organs and bones busted into pieces the monster kept its composure and grabbed my body with one of its arms, as it tried to stab me with the other three weapons he held.
However, before his weapons could even hit me, I disappeared out of his sight as strong lighting in the shape of countless blades passed through his arms, slicing them out of his body in less than a second. Before the fishmen could cry in pain I once again flew at an incredible speed, seeming as if I could teleport, I appeared behind his neck and with a furious strength I started to ravage the monster neck, then slices from my six-blade arms were enough to reach its sturdy spine, and three more slices were enough to cut off its head, a sudden river of blood-covered my body but my Armor seemed to overjoy this as it sipped the blood voraciously.
My Aura expanded itself into ten coiling thunder dragons and devoured the entire fishmen body in exactly ten bites. A powerful surge of power once again filled my body, the thrill of battle was making me go slightly berserk, I decided for a moment to stop and glance at the battlefield, there I saw my children and wives fighting the previous floor monsters without much trouble, while my wives who accompanied me were fighting small groups of fishmen on their own without any hardships.
Without wanting to waste more time, I used my lightning speed to rush through the spawn points in the different rooms of the floor 55, although I came across more Giant variants of monsters, I ruthlessly sliced them to shreds. The moment I destroyed the last Spawn Artifact, my armor had once again gone through a "transformation".
I was now standing over ten meters tall, my body had turned into a strange being, a combination between an eastern dragon and a thunderstorm phoenix. My tail had elongated greatly and it showed hundreds of metallic golden scales. My six arms fused together into massive arms with three claws. On my back, two massive phoenix wings shined brightly as they released small sparks of lighting. My helmet had shapeshifted into a menacing phoenix head, and on my chest, there was a dragon head as well, its jaws opened wide while showing a beautiful purple-colored spherical gemstone inside.
Although the armor looked very different than the ones it was made of, the two original Sacred Beasts spirits were still inside of it, the Fallen Winged Demon and the Tyrannical Wyvern of Fire and Lava. Their ethereal presences were coiling against each other with the help of the Thunder Attribute to hold them together.
Although I couldn't directly see this, I could feel it in the deeps of my soul. Somehow, by seeing these two beings, I could feel a strange peace in my mind, even in their almost uncontrollable desire to devour. For a moment, my mind went back to normal but my armor didn't, my gained strength remained and my heartbeats were also calm. I decided to keep on using this terrifying armor until we reach the boss floor, as it was very convenient for its speed and usage.
When all the monsters were defeated by my family, we quickly gathered the corpses and proceeded through the floor 55 while snacking on some of the monsters. My children were amazed by my appearance and their eyes shined brightly in admiration and amazement, my wives were also kind of like that, although I could see some fear in Altani and Nanako. I ended up carrying Rimuru, Lilith, Charlotte, Ismene, Acelina, and Alice on my back as they asked me dearly. They enjoyed my carrying and felt very secure over my lap. My massive metallic body could hold even Nesiphae, but she didn't want to mount my back.
We didn't encounter many monsters on the way to the stairs of the floor 55 to floor 56. It seems that the Dungeon had finally calmed down, or perhaps, it was brewing another surprise for us on the next floor.
[Calculating EXP gained…]
[Kireina] gained 123.634.990 EXP] [Demonic Concubines], [Chaos Bringer Children], [Fire Red Oni] Parties gained lots of EXP]
[LEVEL 039/250 EXP 483.618.180/580.000.0000 EXP]
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