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

Chapter 655

Everything that's occurred in the last few minutes rushes through my mind as I watch the stone statue disappear and the massive cluster of housing and residents fall toward me.

The words of the artifact, and the memories it shared, are eye-opening, but after leaving its tomb, I'm even more confused about its origins and cryptic texts than when I entered. Even after viewing the millions of millennia of fuzzy memories it showed me, they all lacked detail, and none were from before the artifact's death.

For all I know, this object was never alive... or it could be falsely calling itself an originator after seeing my memories and telling me exactly what I want to hear.

While I sense no malice, as I fall toward the sea and watch the black cube rotate around me in a lifeless state after putting me in this mess, I can't help but wonder what exactly this odd, sentient artifact really is.

Despite these questions, there is a real voice that echoes in my head, full of fear and worry.

"S-Sir Flame Emperor—what has happened? We've been waiting for you—Is this all part of your plan? Is the island of Palmyra destined to sink into the sea... Have you asked everyone to stare into the sky only to show them their deaths are near... Is—"

I roll my eyes and allow my true core's aura to leak out while forming a plan and replying.

"No, Marcus. I just ran into some unforeseen trouble... Hold onto something, I'll fix this."

I stare up at the enormous size of the falling city housing 70 thousand residents and believe it might be possible to use mana manipulation tethered with my divine energy to carry them all and fly somewhere to safety. But I'm sure being at such close range with such immense power would kill many and destroy most, if not all, of their personal possessions on the island.

First impressions are everything, and I'm unsure how well destroying everything they own and killing most of them will work in my favor when asking them to swear loyalty to me.

So, instead of airstepping up to catch the island, I plunge downward, activating my plunderer skill to begin draining the atmosphere of any and all ambient mana while flying headfirst back toward the massive hole in the ocean where the black statue used to stand.

Enormous waves crash in, and city-sized whirlpools form as the empty space is filled by the vast endless sea.

While violent waves crash against each other, kilometers high, as the water displacement equalizes, I plunge headfirst into the sea and head down to take advantage of the enormous hole in the ocean floor.

If there was once an island here, I can make it again.

Once I'm deep enough underwater, I let the true power of my divine core loose and activate ice magic with it, while expanding my greater form to become larger than it ever has before.

A shockwave of light blue ice, mixed with yellow divine threads, pulses through the ocean, and everywhere within a 50-kilometer radius below the sea freezes in a matter of seconds.

All of the water that filled the space deep below the planet's crust freezes solid, tethered with divine threads so strong, even the overwhelming heat that boiled seawater before can't melt this ice.

I propel myself upward while the ocean above the floor freezes, and as I leave the surface, all that's left behind is light blue waves and whirlpools frozen in place as I set my sights on the island that still falls my way.

I activate telekinesis from a long distance away and create dozens of sports-field-sized mana barriers below the bottoms of the largest chunks of floating islands and large buildings.