17 Balor
A.N. BIGGEST chapter yet!
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Steve stamped his foot upon the ground as he stepped down into the 49th floor, followed behind by the Loki Familia as he stared over the vast expanse of the floor before him. A barren wasteland where not a single blade of grass nor stalk of a tree grew.
The ground was rocky with sand and the air was dry here. The colour itself of the place lent more to the impression this floor was giving of, an inhospitable uninhabitable place where life was not meant to thrive and persevere but wither, dry out and extinguish.
The whole place was 'red'. A rustic sort of red that reminded him of the surface of Mars, or even of the Mesa Biomes. It was as non-cheery as could be and quite intimidating to lower level adventurers. Unwelcoming and forbearing, it was the perfect spawn place for the most feared Monster Rex by adventures as of the current date.
"Welcome to the 49th floor Steve." Finn said as he stuck his spear in the ground and searched the gamer's face for any sort of reaction. "A place where even some of the best and most skilled of adventurers have perished at the hands of its alpha."
"If the very air of this place is anything to go by, I would lean very heavily on the believing side of that claim." Steve said. "This place is just...ugly."
"It is meant to be harsh." Finn said as he looked down from the ledge they were on upon the many monsters awaiting them in hordes. "First you fight through this great mob that wears you down before the boss spawns and unleashes physical and magical power upon you magnitudes greater than what the previous bosses can do. Balor is in a league of its own."
"I'm beginning to see why the 'King' was nearly killed in this place." Steve remarked before looking down at the Pallum.
"Ottar attempted what he did down here more than seven years ago, before the War and before he was level 7. Since then, nobody has ever seen him use his full power, so I cannot say if he can finish right now what he tried to do back then." Finn glanced up at Steve. "Still sure about taking it on?"
"If you want to draw comparison between our efforts Finn, it's not on very fair grounds. I'm using magic to kill this bastard, whereas Ottar from what I hear fought it physically. Of course, I could do the same myself but Riveria among many others have requested over and over again that I perform my magical feats and this is the ultimate display."
"Indeed." Finn chewed on his tongue a little. "Then alternatively, if you were to battle Ottar himself, who do you reckon would be the victor?"
"Well you have to give Ottar the credit where he is due." Steve said as he scanned the floor, memorising every detail and locking on mainly on to the entrance he could see to the 50th floor at the far end of the path in this place. "If he managed to half kill it at level 6 when this monster is supposed to take a party of extremely powerful adventurers to defeat it, then it is a testament to his great power. Add on to the fact he has twenty years of experience on me at minimum within this place and has no doubt honed his abilities to a great degree. Simply judging by all information that is public about him, the man has to be an absolute unit."
"...So would he defeat you then, based on those arguments?" Finn asked.
...
"Nah." Steve chuckled. "I'd win."
(A.N. Foreshadowing...)
"Really?" Finn asked.
"Truly." Steve replied. "There are things I have Finn, powers that I own, that nothing Ottar has ever worked for nor has he ever done, will protect him from the kind of devastation I can unleash." The boy said eerily. "The only limitation is that I had no idea what the scale of my power would be when I was in the dungeon. But as we near the end of what the adventurers of today have reached so far in the dungeon, I now have an idea the extent of my power. And if Ottar still finds it troublesome to take this beast on..." Steve smiled at the Pallum. "...then he has no hope of defeating me."
"You know, I've really wondered where exactly you get this confidence from." Finn commented. "You who have never set foot in the dungeon before this week yet boasts an insurmountable might that far surpasses any of our own, and yes I recognise that now. And now to so nonchalantly say you could defeat the greatest of our generation so effortlessly...just who are you Steve? Were you really just a simple explorer?"
"I told you Finn." Steve said as he stuck his sword in the ground besides Fortia. "There are things I have seen which no-one else in this world has seen, and places I've been that no one else can tread. I am many things, and I have been given many names in my short life. My world is so much more complicated than the one you see for yourself Finn. There are some who might say that my power is not deserved and that I did not work for it...and then there are some who will say that I did indeed earn my blessings. I have been on a six year journey Finn, in which I have fought things you cannot conceive...and yet at the same time I didn't."
"That does not make any sense." Finn said confused. "Did you or did you not fight these beings?"
"Both at the same time."
"...I don't understand." Finn put a hand on his head, perplexed. "How could it be both in this situation?"
"I don't expect you to understand. And you never will understand Finn. You want to know why?" Finn nodded. "Because its the limitation on your brain that won't allow it." Steve stuck a finger into his temple. "There are things I know, which if you knew even a fraction of it, your tiny little head would explode. You understand very little about the life you live Finn, and you fail to understand what you truly are."
"And I suppose you would?" Finn questioned. "I am nearly 30 years older than you."
"And what if I were to tell you that I am both 18 and 432 years old?" Steve smiled.
"...W-w-wha...how!...huh?" Finn stuttered.
"It doesn't make sense does it?" Steve laughed. "But I if I were to stand before any god and tell them that I am 18 or that I am 432 years old, they would find no lie. Any other number and they would call me out on my lie...for this year. Once my birthday comes around, it will be one number up for both figures."
"Okay, now you sound crazy." Finn said.
"Ah but that's the thing." Steve leaned forwards to be eye level with the Pallum. "You immediately go straight to calling me crazy. You are so limited in your thinking capacity that you did not stop to ponder the possible explanations for why this could be the truth. Where as I would not only have called myself crazy, but at the same time my mind will have conjured up several different ways this could be possible if the extremely unlikely circumstances or scenarios were existent and capable of being produced. You did only the first, but you didn't stop to do the second."
"...So are you saying intellectually I am inferior to you?" Finn cocked an eyebrow, not in an offended way but in genuine bewilderment. The seriousness with which Steve was speaking left no room for any indication of bluffs, yarns or mad lies.
"On the contrary, you are so much wiser than I am in many ways. But it is simply wisdom you possess Finn. Whereas I possess more knowledge, and more understanding of things that you would brand as the ravings of a lunatic or witchcraft." Steve straightened up again. "My point is, don't try to understand me because you never will. Even if you feel you must take everything I say at face value, so be it. Because it is not worth your time or mine you trying to unravel the abyss of secrets and confusion that I am."
...
"You know, when you speak about yourself like that, it gives me half a mind to stop you from beginning any relationships with any of the girls from our Familia." Finn smiled jokingly.
"Any girl who gives themselves to me will find themselves showered with their hearts' desires." Steve said. "Of course there's a lot more to a relationship than that, I understand. But nothing about myself will complicate anything I have with them."
"So you're taking both of them huh?" Finn said in a mock challenge. "You know those girls are like our kids. If you're so keen on taking their hearts for yourself, you may just have to get past us."
"I don't know about Ais." Steve said as he looked behind them at the gathering towards where the girl in question was standing aimlessly. The golden haired girl caught sight of him looking at her, smiled and waved a little. "She's a nice girl beyond a doubt but she doesn't seem all that...'on board' if you know what I mean and no offense. Does she even understand the concepts of love and relationships?"
"No offense taken." Finn said. "And I assure you she does know those concepts. She's only been asked out and outright proposed to about a thousand times now for her to know those things by now. But I do agree, she is a bit of a simpleton with singular focus. Not that she isn't mature enough for a relationship but it would take a little more patience being with her I'd imagine as you tried to sort yourselves out."
"Hmm, well I don't know about taking on that responsibility though, much less fighting you three to prove my worthiness. Tiona however, I'll fight you right now even."
"I will agree on that point. You and Tiona get along quite well with one another. Although I will warn you...Amazons are quite forward with themselves, and find no hesitation nor subtlety in making their intentions known. You'll find her demanding much of you soon enough."
"Speaking from experience are we?" Steve smirked and Finn gained an awkward expression on his face.
"Hehe, you could say that. As for the fight, maybe we should leave it for the 50th floor, after you have taken down Balor. There wouldn't be much good in having a spar now."
"Agreed."
"I will request of you that you don't hold back though." Finn asked as he twirled his spear. "We may be a singular level above them but we have experience...something they don't. They only fight monsters...but we have fought plenty of stronger people too."
"The stronger my opponents, the harsher their punishment will be." Steve said with a full toothed smile. "Don't worry, my gloves are coming off when it comes around to our turn Finn. Unlike what happened with Ais, you will not find me so patient."
"I can hardly wait. Now." Finn said as the two were finally joined by the full expedition. "Isn't it about time you got to it?"
"It is indeed." Steve said as he unequipped his armour and pulled up his modpack. 'I've been dying to test this mod out in real time!'
---
"So, you didn't exactly tell us what kind of magic you're going to use." Riveria said. "Why must we all wait here at this vantage point? Are you using some sort of long range spell?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact." Steve said. "And the reason why is because what I'm about to do is extremely destructive. If anything bad happens, I don't want you to be at nor near nor beyond the crash-point."
"I don't see what good it is staying here though." Gareth said. "We still have to tempt the monster rex out. Not to mention there is that huge monster horde down there that will have to be dealt with."
"You can relax Gareth. Just tell me where it is he spawns." Steve said.
"Right about over there." Finn pointed to a specific location. "All you do is pretty much step into that area and it will appear. We run our people past that point usually before we engage Balor."
"You mean we're going to be stuck here until he's summoned it?" Bete groaned. "This whole floor is bigger than Orario. It's going to take ages."
"We are fortunate that the floor is as big as it is." Steve said as he looked back to the werewolf. "This attack is going to flatten much of this place soon enough."
"THAT destructive?" Tiona asked. "That's incredible! You really are amazing!"
"Don't credit me for it." Steve laughed. "After all, the person I learned this power from was way cooler with it than I am."
"I would like to meet this teacher of yours then someday, if this spell is so spectacular." Riveria said.
"I highly doubt that day will ever come." Steve said. 'How would it anyway? The guy is in a whole different franchise. Unless of course, I open a portal to that world if my theories do prove to be correct. But no, the evils of that world far outweigh anything here.'
"You still have to kill all those monsters." Ais said as she looked down at the monster horde waiting for them. She put a hand on her enchanted Desperate. "Shall I help you?"
"No need Ais." Steve waved her down. "I'll clear these monsters out first before I bring Balor out."
"With the same spell?" Tione asked.
"No." Steve said before he looked at Ais. "You in particular might like this one."
"Well, don't keep us in suspense." Riveria said. "Show us."
Steve raised an eyebrow at her before raising his hands.
CLAP!
'Disaster mods, go!'
Winds began picking up furiously as it pulled on the clothes of the Loki Familia as in front of them, a great tornado that stretched as high as the ceiling and as wide a building, pulling in rocks and monsters into it as it span at furious speeds while ravaging the ground it ran upon as it travelled across the floor, picking up the monsters where it went by Steve's guidance.
All the Loki Familia gaped at the spectacle as what was once a relatively calm floor now became a natural disaster as this twister tore through all the cliff and rock formations, desecrating the usual terrain they were used to. The tornado left no room for survival as its violent winds ripped monsters apart or those monsters collided with the many boulders caught in the storm and smashed their skulls in.
"HOW IS THIS EVEN MAGIC?!!!" Lefiya yelled as she kept her dress down while here eyes were wide in fear at what she was seeing. Riveria was no better. The tornado was near enough that they could feel the vastness of its power and the ferocity of its pull, but far enough that they too would not get consumed by it.
"Such power." Finn said as he speared the ground and held on firm. "Is this why you haven't used magic before?"
"Yep." Steve said.
Ais was the most enraptured by this phenomenon. Wind was something of her domain, one of the last gifts of her mother to her and so far to her knowledge besides one other in Orario, there weren't many who could use wind as magic. But what Steve was using was on a whole other level.
Instantly, with no chant nor magical focus, like he simply willed this thing to appear, he had brought forth a force of nature, a destroyer of cities, an unstoppable calamity upon the dungeon. A construct of wind so much more powerful than hers, and yet she felt this inner calling within herself to embrace a vision, and a dream that her own wind power would one day be equally as great as this. As her golden hair whipped around her face and her headset threatened to rip off, she made note and promise that she would get him to strengthen her this way too. Because no doubt, before her was the ultimate form of wind 'magic'.
Everyone's ears popped and cracked as the gales crated sounds of thunder, boulders smashing and crashing against each other, sometimes generating such friction that little arcs of lightning could be seen flashing in the thick twisted curtain of air and debris.
Eventually Steve, when he was confident every horde had been obliterated, pulled his hands apart and the tornado disappeared as quick as it came, dissipating into the normal thin air. The contents of it belly swung around a little bit before gravity reclaimed them and they fell back to earth, creating collective tremors as they collided with equally hard rockfaces on the ground, and the air was a shower of dust, dirt, pebbles and monster cores that slowly settled down not before long.
No one said anything as they all continued to stare at where the twister had been, trying to process what they had witnessed.
"What. Was. That?" Tione asked.
"You wanted me to show you supernatural power, I just did." Steve said. "That is one of my magical powers. I can summon disasters such as that to eviscerate the drive of men, for what chance does the will of mortals have before a force of nature? Nothing, that's what."
"...This sort of magic is beyond powerful." Riveria breathed. "You summoned a natural calamity itself. How did you accomplish this?"
"A magician never reveals his secrets." Steve said. "Remember, the condition of me showing you this was so that you do not question it. Correct Riveria?"
"Can you blame me for wanting to know?" Riveria asked. "Perhaps I would be capable of this level of destruction if I were level 7...maybe level 8. How is it you came to possess such a thing and yet your magical prowess is unknown?"
"I have a tendency to fly under people's radars." Steve said cheekily.
"Didn't help you avoid us though did it?" Tiona asked playfully.
Steve frowned as she caught him there before he chuckled. "No, I guess it didn't."
"This destructiveness...I'm still having my doubts though if this level of power will harm Balor." Finn said.
"Then it's a good thing I'm not giving up." Steve said. "Because if you think that was destructive...you've got another thing coming."
"...I'm not sure if we want another thing to come lad." Gareth huffed heavily. "If this is the lowest of your standards, then we may as well head back to safety from you or whatever crazy plan you have in mind."
"Then you'll just miss the show." Steve said. "You wait here, I'll be right back shortly."
He teleported out of there right into the area of the Floor Finn had said Balor tended to appear in. There he stood in place patiently as shortly afterwards, the ground began to rumble and out burst a fantastic and giant monster, one that looked very exotic even for the Danmachi verse. A great black monster with an exoskeleton over his chest and openings all over its body that glowed red with magical energy.
Great bone protrusions stuck out of its limbs like spikes and it had spikes running along it's serpent neck all the way down its back. Its head was flat and diamond shaped like a snake with several horns jutting out on all sides of its head. In the middle of its forehead was a singular diamond shaped eye that predatorily stared at him with malice. The creature that was at least 40 feet tall and had an overbearing aura to it, a menace among monsters and the most feared of all the monster rexes.
"Enter Balor, The Piercing Eye. King of the 49th floor." Steve said.
The creature opened it's mouth wide and charged up a ball of magic from its face. Swiftly and with speed surprising of a creature that size, it whipped its head down and fired a huge beam of pulsating, powerful magical energy point blank on Steve as the light of it consumed all sight around. The gamer was engulfed in the stream of magic for a few seconds before Balor disengaged it.
The smoking ground revealed Steve standing with his arms above his head as he stared intently at his GUI. For a singular moment, for a split second, he saw his health bar flicker on the screen. Not any of the hearts disappeared, but it had flickered meaning he had taken damage that was easily reversible but damage still.
"You damaged me. You actually damaged me!" Steve said as he looked up at the monster which looked perplexed itself at how he survived from being fired at point blank by its beam attack. The monster opened it's mouth a little as a menacing growl rumble the floor before it lifted one of its arms and clenched its clawed hand into a heavy fist. Like Udaeus, it punched downwards intending to squish him beneath the weight of its fist.
Even then to Steve's senses it was slow and easy to read as well as avoid. The gamer lifted his own fist and lazily backhanded the offending limb, this time putting no restraint on himself as both fists collided. The differences were instantaneous as Balor's arm was flung aside so violently, it curled around its body and then snapped at the elbow, the forearm bending backwards and impaling itself on the very spikes that sat above it.
A shockwave exploded outwards from the impact that travelled throughout the whole floor that itself was far bigger than Orario. Miles upon miles this shockwave travelled, shattering the ground and the ceiling as a gust of wind slammed into the faces and the guts of the Loki Familia who could barely see what was happening so far away, making some of them stagger backwards as if they were socked by a real person, while some of the wagons were blown over.
Carried by the velocity of its broken arm, Balor swung around a whole 360 degrees in the hole that it's bottom half was stuck in as it roared out with a howl that shook the dungeon all the way up to the 37th floor.
And in the middle of this destruction was Steve looking at his steaming, wrapped fist (part of his game character apparently was having wraps around his forearm and his hand, probably to assist punches).
"I'll finish you off in just a bit. But there's something that I just have to try out first." Steve said as he briefly entered Creative Mode so he didn't hurt himself with what he was about to do. Rising into the air, he very quickly he pulled up his mod pack and rifled through with his accelerated thinking, eventually landing upon his Superman mod.
Yes, Superman.
But why?
Well as Balor glared at Steve with the nastiest promise of death that any monster had given him so far, it charged up another beam with even more charge. If the amount of time given for charge was proportionate to the power output, Steve would have estimated this blast to be about 5 times greater than the previous one, especially considering that from the openings in its body that was glowing red, crimson lightning began to spew out and engulf the surroundings.
Balor breathed in as Steve actually saw the air around it move into its face because of the sheer volume of air it was breathing in, before it fired this new blast attack which shone with such light that it made everything around it dark and the mere presence of this great rush of magical energy made the atmosphere itself in the Floor shake.
Steve was ready however as his eyes glowed red and out of both of them came two streams of pure red energy burst out of his sockets and punched through Balor's beam like a nail gun through jelly and hit Balor's singular eye on its head, roasting the organ and a part of its skull as it disengaged its blast attack and over the roar of the beam came a shriek of pain that nearly burst the eardrums of everyone present in the room. Balor's beam attacks was instantly dispersed by Steve's heat vision as Steve cancelled it out soon after and rubbed his eyes.
"Damn, even when I'm supposed to be invincible it feels weird to do that. But what do you know, a singular Kryptonian is too much for Balor." He said sarcastically.
Do not think for a moment that Steve was one of those weebs who clowned on Superman just because he wanted to stick with the anime side of the war. Let's be honest, you all were fans of superman at some point when you were kids. It's only because you were enticed by dirty talk and revealing skin of girls as a teen in anime that you just discarded the very embodiment of the term 'superhero'.
All but the very weakest versions of Superman would be overkill for the entire Danmachi verse, and perhaps every animeverse save for a few specific anime characters, since the Kryptonian was capable of tanking attacks from characters such as Zeus and Darkseid who were infinitely above any 'god' in this world. The day Steve discovered a way to go to other fictional universes would be the day he would go to DC to meet true legends.
He only did what he did just now for one reason alone.
...
To be petty.
Because that was his purpose in this world. To be the pettiest he could be with his cheats and he had no qualms about it.
That is the point of this whole story. He had no cause, nor any grand goal. He did as he pleased because he could. It was as simple as that.
"Alright. Time for the finale." Steve said as he shut off the mod and put another 'specific' one on. He teleported away back to the Loki Familia as Balor writhed in pain unbridled as it lost its key sense and its comprehension was befuddled by the burning sensation right above its brain.
...
"You all ready?" He asked them as they stared at him intently, not daring to even blink as they waited for what was in store.
"Yes we are." Finn said.
"Then stand tall and firm, and hold onto your butts. Because if you don't you'll get blown away." Steve said as he swivelled around and stared at the thrashing figure of Balor in the distance as the stupid monster still thought he was nearby somewhere.
'In the game, my total power output was determined by the amounts of points I racked up in the game when I had this mod on. But in theory, my energy output should correlate with the amount of magic stat points I have now.'
Steve closed his eyes took a very deep and audible breath which did not go unnoticed by the Loki Familia as they saw his own nervousness...which did nothing to ease their own discomfort. He then appeared to steel himself, and in his GUI, he commanded the mod to switch on.
"Here we go!" Steve announced as the atmosphere around him instantly changed. The air began to distort, similar to how would see air wobble above a hot fire but there was no heat in the air. Instead there was a very creepy and uncomfortable sensation, something that felt cold not in the physical sense but on an emotional level as an aura covered Steve like a flickering candle.
A see-through yet clearly turquoise field of energy that was coloured black on the edges surrounded Steve like a candle flame, treating him as the wick. Winds began to pick up and blow out from him omnidirectionally as he opened his eyes.
What was was once deep purple-blue irises were now a shining sky blue that seemed to glow with stars in them as purple lightning coated his form and and then start to spew out upwards in a storm of arcs of cursed energy as Steve called upon the iconic move of one of his all-time favourite characters.
.
.
.
And this time when Steve spoke, it sounded to the Loki Familia that instead of coming from him, his voice was coming at them from every where.
"Jutsushiki Junten, Ao"
Amidst the storm of purple lightning, before certain members of the Loki Familia formed a giant blue orb of...something...but whatever it was, deep in their bones they could feel it was something terrifyingly powerful. As for those who could not physically 'see' it, their senses could still tell that something was there as the air around Steve churned and bent out of shape.
"Jutsushiki Hanten, Aka"
Next to the blue orb formed another one, the only difference this time was that it was red in colour. Steve then stretched out his arms and waved them slowly in a full circle as if he were guiding both orbs with a hand each. It wasn't that hard to confirm the case since both orbs, which had formed behind him now travelled in front of him while orbiting around one another, eventually combining.
From the union of both spheres was a born a purple of orb of power that did not feel like it was the sum of the other two but somehow significantly magnified as it shook the area around them under the weight of its power. Steve held out his his right hand in front of him in a flicking motion as he zeroed in on Balor who had now realized something was up and turned its head in their direction despite being miles away.
Ais focused on Steve's new eyes and wondered at the fixed intent to kill inside them same as she trembled at the sight of whatever this attack was, which she KNEW held more power in it than all the magical power she'd ever projected in her life and the power in her body now put together. What drove it really home for her was how unlike all other chanted spells she had heard in her life, was how calm Steve's voice was in the whole thing, confident of his victory and not one single bit scared, against a monster that drove some adventurers mad with fear and trepidation at its mere sight, a monster she couldn't even dream of fighting on her own at her current level of power.
A true symbol of unparalleled, unrivaled, and unfair strength. Power which she so desperately sought.
"Kyoshiki, Murasaki"
Steve flicked his middle finger forward and the orb shot off literally like a cannonball, leaving behind an explosion of pressure that nearly collapsed the ledge they were standing on as it flew across the 49th floor.
And there began what Finn understood as the devastation Steve had said he was capable of. The orb which had only been about as tall as Steve was when he fired it, instantly swelled to the size of a meteor as it tore through through the wasteland, leaving behind a giant canyon in its wake as it eviscerated all matter before it.
---
Earthquakes shook the entire dungeon and up above on the surface, people began panicking as Orario started to shake violently and some houses with weak foundations collapsed. Every single adventurer in the city was instantly placed on high alert.
In his grotto, Ptah's snot bubble popped as he was jolted awake but then fell off his stool face first into the bucket of debris and dust he swept up from making another sculpture.
In the market, a twin-tailed black haired goddess dropped cream cheese down the front of her apron as her stand shook, dropping cutlery here and there and spilling hot oil from her pot and sizzling on the ground below missing her flip-flopped feet by mere inches. At the same time, the raw croquettes she'd been preparing to fry rolled off the her counter and splattered on the floor.
In a red mansion at the end of Orario, a red haired goddess was grabbing her chair to prevent herself from falling, but then realised the urn of Soma Wine she'd smuggled in absence of Riveria's presence was about to fall off, so she let go of the chair and allowed herself to fall so she could grab it as she fell. Only to find that she was so tipsy, she wasn't able to catch it properly and it smashed into pieces on her face, spilling shattered pottery on the floor and red wine into her mouth and nostrils.
High up at the very top of Babel, a silver haired goddess grabbed the arm of her chair with one hand to steady herself while the other hand holding a chalice spilled red wine onto her provocative outfit but at the same time staining her flawless pale skin as she pouted at the sticky mess she now had to clean up, not one bit concerned for the calamity causing chaos in the city. A giant of a man with boar ears and biceps like cannonballs rushed to her, and enclosed her and her chair in a protective hug as he braced himself for a fall should the tower collapse.
Throughout the city, fear gripped the people's hearts for a moment as they wondered what it was that was happening beneath their feet and how dreadful it had to be if it was affecting them like this up here.
In the sacred chamber, seated upon the great altar, Ouranos opened his eyes in trepidation as the Dungeon suddenly and violently rejected his prayers as it cried out in pain, agony and fury at something deep within her belly. Quickly he felt the insidious conscience of the Dungeon fix upon something in the Deep Floors with vengeful desire and it did the one thing Ouranos desperately hoped it would not do.
It made a Call.
---
What was left of Balor...
...could only be described as half of Balor.
The bottom half to be specific while the top half couldn't really be seen anywhere. It had been so quick and efficient, even the giant core had been blown in half, a prominently circular cut shown where the rest of it should have been. The air was was thick with dust clouds, the only part being free of them was the space inside the newly formed miles long canyon that had been carved out by the 'Hollow Purple'.
And behind Balor was a sight even more daunting and testimonial of the severity of the situation. A perfectly circular tunnel, hauntingly large in diameter, punched through into the already cracked walls of the 49th floor. Into the earth the tunnel ran, so far that even with how big the tunnel was, the end of it was pitch black and unseen.
Steve lowered his arms and let out a long breath as the bright blue eyes faded away into his normal ones and he gave an innocent smile to the Loki Familia who could only stare at him gobsmacked, awed, amazed and...fearful. For they had just witnessed a force of power that they were confident beyond a doubt could wipe out their entire Familia and definitely all of Orario in one fell sweep should Steve will it so.
Seeing the kind of cataclysmic aftermath it left behind, it boggled them that moments ago they had just been less than a few feet away from it, some of them. It was even worse for those unable to see cursed techniques as all they had seen was crazy distortions in the air and suddenly all light levels in the Floor dropped to almost zero as something unseen sucked even light in and then blew out Balor's body.
"Well?" Steve asked. "How was it?"
None, not even the three elders could find any words to say as all they could do was go over and over in their minds what had just transpired and they were constantly checking themselves to make sure that this was reality and not a dream. Because it hit them most as they had been in the Dungeon longer than anyone else in this gathering and as such they had the most accurate idea of the peak of power in this world.
But what Steve had just done was beyond powerful...it was something that shouldn't even exist to their minds and their hearts. How could such a power exist in their world and yet they had no idea it was there, that such a person had flown under their radar for so long? It had been one thing defeating Udaeus with little effort and overwhelming physical might. But magic was something they had not expected to be one of his strong points given his appearance and yet what he had just done outclassed Riveria's strongest spell in sheer power output alone. Not to even take in to account the environmental damage and how little effort it seemed to take to pull off for Steve.
He was about to say something again when he was suddenly cut off by a truly haunting and terrifying disturbance.
Loud shrill screams began to blare through the dungeon like a siren. Bloodcurdling screams of seemingly women on death's door but a thousand times louder and in thousands of numbers as it echoed all the way throughout the dungeon and made the blood of every single adventurer who was adventuring in it run cold.
Then the 49th floor began to shake as far off into the distance, from the ceiling above where Balor had been killed, a rocky mound was pushed through from above. Just the way the dungeon did whenever it spawned something. Whatever was pushing constantly pounding on the other side of the mound, making it bigger and bigger it was clearly trying to come out.
"Oh no." Steve said as he realized what was happening. 'I completely forgot about this!'
He whirled around and grabbed Finn the shoulders.
"TAKE YOUR FRIENDS AND GET OUT!"
"What? Why?"
"No time for questions!" Steve hurried as he began shoving people back to the entrance. "Get out or you'll all die."
"What's going on Steve?" Tiona begged as she sensed the urgency in his voice. "What's happening?"
"A monster is coming, one that's a hundred times the bad news that Balor is." Steve said as picked up a few adventurers that had tripped and flung them towards the stairs, just as the louds crashes from the mound in the ceiling became louder and louder.
"And how do you know this?" Riveria asked.
"There's no time to argue about this!" Steve said, sensing her challenging mood. "Go, if you want your weaker members to not become food!"
"We're not going anywhere Steve." Finn said as he pushed back and turned around. The executives copied him and stood behind their captain. "If there's truly a monster like that coming, then we would like to stay and fight it as is our duty. I'd also like to know how you know about this monster and we don't."
"Because I just saw it." Steve said with a hard tone to his voice. "It's coming for me because of what I did to this floor. And I'm the only one that can fight it without being slaughtered like a lamb. The rest of you will get in my way." Steve pointed at the stairs as he unconsciously activated {Leader} and {Tongue of the Laws}.
"GO!"
The images of the Loki Familia suddenly glitched for a moment before they, the wagons and Bathsheba disappeared, like they were just mass teleported away. Up in Orario, Ptah jerked as he felt an Authority connected to him but not his own suddenly just alter something in reality. It didn't take two guesses for him to figure out who it was.
Steve blinked confused for a moment, confused as he didn't know what had just happened. But he was given little time to think about it as the ceiling burst open and a bundle of spindly arms and legs with a tail and a long neck and spikes suddenly fell from the ceiling and crashed onto what was left of Balor's corpse.
...
"Juggernaut." Steve breathed as he looked at the horrible and merciless monster.
The Juggernaut was much, much, MUCH larger than the one Bell had fought in the anime. It looked the exact same but perhaps a few times bigger and far more menacing and bloodthirsty. Steve took noted how its claws effortlessly punctured the core of Balor's corpse as the monster rex finally disappeared in a puff of smoke.
It was long and spindly with slim legs and no clear protective armour. Paired with the deep black colour of its skin, and its pointy snout, it was visually obvious that the creature was built for speed. The Juggernaut began searching up and down for the reason it was summoned. Seeing its confused behaviour, Steve smiled as he decided to help along.
"Oi!" He yelled, grinning ear to ear. "Slim Shady!"
The creature jerked its head around as it fixed its menacing red eyes upon the only other living thing in the 49th floor.
The two beings sized each other up, both of them monsters in their own right as they assessed one another. The Juggernaut then seemed to make up its mind as it tensed its feet, lowered it's body in a pouncing motion. Steve equipped his armour and crouched down in a similar motion as they engaged in another staring contest even miles apart as they were, daring each other to make the first move.
Both noticed the sight of a boulder on the edge of the canyon Steve had created, teetering about on the edge. Clearly both had settled on this canyon being the corridor they'd fight in. The boulder tumbled over the edge and both waited as it fell. The moment it hit the ground, both beings blurred out of sight and reappeared in the middle of the floor, the Juggernaut with it's foremost claw outstretched in an impaling motion and Steve with a fist outstretched.
Time slowed down as they collided, pressure seeming to build up before it all exploded outwards into another shockwave that absolutely destroyed anything around that was still whole. Finally, after so long of not facing any true challenges, Steve had met a worthy adversary.
Their battle would be legendary!
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