[CH598+ Continued] Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power

I walk forward into the dark black tower, and the massive doors shut behind me with an echoing thud.

I can still see millions of ether, divine energy, and mana pathways flowing through the inside of the structure. I have the ability to manipulate them at will, just like the rest of the citadel, but when the doors close, I feel the presence of outside forces completely cut off.

Now that I think of it, before the doors opened, I didn't sense the hot vibrations coming off Seraphel from inside this tower.

Even from the center of the Citadel, linked to the surveillance system, nothing could phase through these strange black walls.

I feel the same sensation of losing direct access to telepathy with my links in the lower realm, but I know this is necessary.

Whatever training this Noble Wyvern, who has lived almost a quarter million years, has in store for me shouldn't be broadcast to the outside.

Seraphel speaks again.

"Deactivate all of your mana- and demonic-energy-based skills and buffs. To achieve stability and raise your vibrations; we'll need to start with the basics."

Without question, I let the dark black energy seep back into my demon core and slowly decrease the amount of stats I'm borrowing from the trillions of links of loyalty available to me.

I brace myself, ready for my body to begin tearing to shreds again while I put up my purple barrier.

However, this does not happen.

As my borrowed stats fall below 50%, I don't even feel a change at all...

Even when it drops below 40%, my mind is ready to cover my entire being in the hard crystal-like purple barrier again, but nothing happens.

The same sensation and mental battle with myself happens at 30%, then 20%, and even 10%.

I'm standing in the pressure of the Upper Realm with nothing but my Noble Human form activated as my borrowed stats fall into the single-digit percentages.

I only begin to feel the dense pressure of the air once it falls below 3%.

Even then, it feels like a heavy weighted blanket wrapping around me.

At below 2%, my skin just feels hot.

Once my borrowed stats fall below 1%, my ethereal Noble Form feels as though it's being stretched and tested like steel cables on a bridge. Waves of raw dense green threads flow into me, but a steady stream of vibrations continuously ripple through me from no traceable energy source. It's as if my will itself is holding the fibers of my being together.

They do not deteriorate my flesh like they did before, my body is much tougher now.

I take a deep breath in and out, dropping below 0.5%, then 0.25%, and eventually to 0%.

The tone of the vibrations becomes deeper, and they slow down to become more focused and not completely automatic. On instinct alone, the insurmountable pressure and deadly divine threads pushing down on me from every side are being held back with no external help.

I can't move my body at all, as it feels like I've been plunged to the bottom of an ocean.

My ears take in no sound as if I'm in a vacuum, and not even my eyes can move.

My breath stops, and even my blood stops pumping.

I'm certain I could summon my purple barrier right now and survive, just like I did when I fell beneath the clouds surrounding this citadel. However, out of pride, something deep within from the source of these Noble Vibrations keeping my being together tells me that backing down from this challenge now would do more harm than good.