"Yes."

Holding both swords in my hands, I calmly stood in my place as I waited for the enemy to materialize…

​​

'Oh?'

However, I quickly lost my calm as something surprising took place.

As observed by my 'Sensory Area', there seemed to be pitch-black wisps that seemed to be exuded from my heart, clearly carrying malevolent and malicious intent!

Surprisingly enough, the target of these pitch-black wisps seemed to be none other than the spot that the tower's 'meal' materialized at, allowing me to quickly come to a conclusion…

'As expected!'

No matter how one looked at it, this phenomenon was simply a manifestation of the tower's preliminary function, the 'Separation' of 'Corruption' to make it ready for 'Refinement'. This was something that I sensed before on every floor, it was just that it felt much fainter than this time. It was like comparing a firefly to the sun.

Obviously, now that this was the last floor that seemed to be the part where the tower's power became much stronger, the 'Separation' of the considerably big amount of Corruption was clearly visible unlike before.

Furthermore, that didn't seem to be the end of the changes.

Unlike the faint and shadowy outlines of the usual 'meals', this 'big meal' was not only much clearer, but it also was 1.5 times bigger in size.

'This doesn't seem to be as simple as it looks…'

Lastly, I didn't even manage to sense much of the mental link with the tower, it almost felt non-existent. As a result, I was unable to control the shape or species of the 'enemy' like I did before.

'Let's end it as soon as possible.'

Feeling a bit of a threat from the upcoming battle, I disregarded my original thoughts of prolonging it in hope of pushing 'Darkness Unity' into the advanced grade. I planned to end this battle as soon as possible!

- Hmmm? -

'Eh?'

Almost getting a jump as I seemed to hear a voice emitting from the shadowy figure that could no longer be called shadowy, I put my complete focus into this battle.

- Strange… someone actually managed to separate my will this cleanly? -

As the eyes of the 'figure' started materializing as well, he seemed to mutter some alarming words.

'Will… in Corruption?'

- Oh, it's also a human. This could be troublesome. -

Not knowing what such an interaction could result in, I had already used 'Illusion' to change my face and body. After all, I was already thrown into this trap by a demon who seemed to recognize what I did in the Nature Domain, more attention could potentially spell my doom.

- It's a shame that the connection isn't strong enough for me to make good use of you… but I guess it doesn't really matter since you will be dying soon. -

Unlike how tense I was, the figure that seemed to have gained sentience seemed to be very relaxed as he slowly walked towards me.

'Great.'

The greatest gift I could wish for in a fight would be for my opponent to let his guard down, so I naturally didn't plan to waste this opportunity.

Already reaching the figure's front, I slashed my swords at his neck. I didn't slash his arms first like I usually did since this one was obviously abnormal.

However…

'Ugh.'

Just as both swords sank into his 'flesh' and cut into his neck, my mind fell into disarray as a terrifying sense of oppression spread through it. Feeling the numbing effect of it, I quickly retreated so that I wouldn't get paralyzed and become a lamb waiting for slaughter.

- That was… commendable. It's really regrettable that such a developed body wouldn't join the army. -

'This is…'

Slight fear that I was usually numb to surfaced in my mind as I analyzed the situation. Despite how terrifying that invisible attack was, I was still able to understand its nature.

'Could that even count as mental energy?'

Though it clearly had the properties of mental energy, the power and emotions that it transmitted were on a different level. This was the first time that I have been beaten with my number one advantage after I left the tutorial stage!

Furthermore, the mental attack was definitely similar to the mental corrosion that I had experienced after I entered this space, this 'voice' was likely a terrifying existence if this was just his ability with little 'Connection'.

'There is a chance this could even be the will of the 'Demon Sovereign'...'

Considering this situation from a logical point of view only gave me this answer, but it didn't help much as it just made me feel that the situation was more grave…

The 'Demon Sovereign' was obviously the last boss of the demon side, meeting him now would be more of a game over than a planned event…

'No!'

Just as I was slowly starting to fall into despair, I quickly caught hold of myself, I was obviously under the after-effects of that mental attack, there was still a chance!

Meeting a weakened boss wasn't strange at all in games! It was even more of a regular event!

'Just like he has mental energy, I have that as well!'

If it wasn't enough, I just have to increase it!

My confidence quickly came back as I started to analyze the situation with a clear mentality, quickly deducing the complete reason behind my weakness just now…

Not only wasn't I even prepared for a mental attack, but I had already suffered greatly under the effect of 'Corruption', both factors caused me to fall into that earlier trance.

At the same time, the reason I was able to wake up that quickly was the same, having already gone through it once, my immunity to its effect was elevated!

- Giving up yet? Or do you want to struggle more? -

Seeing that the malicious figure that had a hideous grin on his face was already halfway to the spot I retreated to, I smiled back at him as I called out to the system before dashing towards him once again!