Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Despite its intangible nature, the lion exuded a palpable aura of authority, commanding reverence from all who beheld it.

As it gazed out upon the battlefield with eyes that gleamed like molten gold, there was a sense of ancient wisdom that permeated the place. It gave others a feeling that those eyes had borne witness to eons of time.

With the appearance of the massive ethereal lion, the battlefield turned completely silent. A sense of reverence and awe welled up in the hearts of those who witnessed the being.

For the soldiers entrenched in the midst of battle with chaos and carnage surrounding them, the sight was nothing short of miraculous. Some could scarcely believe their eyes, their initial shock giving way to a profound sense of awe.

Others fell to their knees, their hearts swelling with a mixture of fear and wonder as they beheld the spectacle above. And some stared in stunned silence, their minds struggling to comprehend the spectacle in front of them.

The sheer scale of white light was so vast that it covered half of the sky of the battlefield dwarfing their concerns and reminding them how insignificant their own existence was.

"Cynthia concentrate and converge all that power into the beast image"

On Leo's advice, Cynthia used all of her attention and focus to stir the surging white light into the vacuum of light where the lion was.

ROARR… as all the white light surged inside, the lion gave another world shaking roar and in front of the stunned eyes of many, it extended its claw that could dwarf out the land and everything and slammed it towards the general.

The latter felt a surge of fear that he hadn't felt in a long while, well up in his heart. The intangible pressure from the attack had already locked onto him causing him unable to dodge.

His senses screamed and perspiration dripped down his body. The power of the attack that the princess threw at him was at a whole other level where even he could sense a whiff of death from it.

"How can this be? No, there is no way I can lose. I am the General of the second army of His Majesty. Now that I have even used the gift of that lord, there is no way I am going to lose"

Summoning every ounce of courage and determination within him, the general braced himself for the impending impact, his muscles tensed and his senses heightened to their fullest extent.

He gave a loud warcry as a final bit of defiance and roused the greyish black energy around him. The greyish tattoos on his body spasmed before actually flying out his skin and agglomerating into his attack.

In a final gambit to defy his fate, the general unleashed a torrent of energy that surged forth like a raging tempest, colliding with the lion's claw in a spectacular clash of titanic forces.

BOOOOOOOOOM…

For a brief moment, everything on the battlefield was consumed in blinding light. Then came the loud to the extreme, overpowering deafening noise, wild enough to drown out all the other noise in the surrounding.

In the epic clash, clouds for dozens of miles were blown back causing the entire sky to reflect the clear view of the night sky.

The ground beneath them trembled violently as the two opposing energies clashed with unimaginable force, sending shockwaves rippling through the air and shattering the surrounding landscape.

What's more, the clash between the two attacks was so powerful that it seemed to tear at the very fabric of space itself.

As the shockwaves rippled through the air, fissures appeared in the space around where the eyes of the two attacks met, as if the very fabric of existence was straining to contain their overwhelming power.

Yet, despite the immense strain, the fabric of space held firm, swiftly healing any damage inflicted upon it. From this display of raw power, it was clear to all who witnessed it that the general and the princess had reached a realm that they could not even begin to imagine.

Their attacks had reached a level of potency that defied comprehension, threatening to reshape the very world around them with their titanic clash.

In that moment, the entire attention of the battlefield was stolen by them, the clash of this unimaginable power would decide the fate of this nation.

.

.

While the capital of the kingdom of Ellesmere had been turned into a battlefield, back inside the Ghastly Winding Forest.

Easter Region, Tower Town, Dungeon Laplace.

Inside one of the floors…

"So this is the dungeon of that Demon of the East huh? It's not bad. If we can conquer such a territory, we can unite the entire Ghastly Winding Forest and make this place our base"

Muttered a figure feeling the dense mystical energy which was viscous enough to actually be felt in the air.

The figure was quite tall, standing well above six feet. He had long crimson hair that had been kept unkemptly, wore clothes made of high quality monster pelt and carried two large cleaver on his back.

He had a humanoid figure and one would even mistake him for one if not for the indigo horn that was protruding from the one side of his forehead.

"Quick go and tell Chief that I found the shortcut that leads to that dungeon. I don't know which floor this is, but I reckon that it definitely is quite deep given the level of monsters here"

He spoke. An aura of pure brutality and violence radiated from him. At this moment, there was a mountain of corpses underneath him, the number of which would easily reach the hundred.

The corpses were badly mangled and it was hard to even distinguish their forms. Neverhtless given their claws and tails one could tell that they were monsters. What's more, they weren't just any ordinary monsters, but infernal hounds, monsters that were C rank and above.

Among the mountain of corpses, one could even see some large size monsters there. Clearly, they were the pack leaders of the infernal hounds and were even more powerful.

Yet in front of that number and power which could even give a team of adventurers well above level 500 a tough time, lay defeated under him in a show of absolute strength and savagery.

"Understood lord Gish-Bor, we shall inform the chief immediately. He will definitely be extremely happy. The Dungeon of the East has been a growing concern for us for quite a while. If we can use this passageway, we can attack the dungeon without needing to go through all those floors"

"I'm sure it would come as quite a surprise for that demon. If we can take this concern out early and place him under our command. Our race of Black ogres will rule the Ghastly Winding Forest" Novel Fire - novelfire.net

Another figure spoke. Although unlike the first one, his form resembled more of an ogre than a human.

Two crimson horns protruded from his head, indicating his identity.

"Hmph" Hearing the crimson horn's words, the indigo horn or otherwise referred to as Gish-Bor, simply snorted.

"Your ambitions are too small Giz-Wogo. If we conquer this dungeon and place that demon as our subordinate, then using the resources that can only be grown inside the dungeon, we rule a region far greater than just the Ghastly Winding forest. At that moment, we will become one of the legendary races recognised by the entire world".

His words caused a heated expression to appear on Giz-Wogo and the other crimson horns.

"Wouldn't the other seven kings get on our way? I heard that the queen of the harpies had already betrayed us. Their entire territory is empty" the latter spoke.

They had brought their army to demand an explanation from the queen of the harpies as well as search for their missing comrade, the indigo horn Gish Bolg.

However, when they invaded the territory of the Harpies which were said to be extremely treacherous and filled with dangers and powerful aerial beasts, they found it completely empty.

When they came here other than a few aerial beasts, they found nothing. Forget about a single harpy they couldn't find their shadows here. It was as if they had mysteriously disappeared.

What they found instead was this cave which led to one of the floors of the dungeon of the east. A shortcut that no one knew existed.

"What about the Seven Kings? Can't you see how great of a treasure this dungeon is? Once we conquer this dungeon and use its resources to grow ourselves, they will have no choice but to bow their heads and submit to our race if they want to survive in the end"

"As for the Harpies, it's obvious that their queen has formed an alliance with the demon and has fled inside the dungeon with all her clansmen"

Contrary to the war mongering nature of the ogres and their short temperedness, Gish-Bor analysed the situation with a calm demeanour.

It was just as he said, ever since they entered the dungeon, they were surprised by everything that they saw inside.

From the dense amount of mystical energy that pervaded the air which was double no quadruple times greater than even their homeland, natural treasures that grew like grass here to powerful monsters that guarded the realm and peculiar objects that they had never seen before.

The place was full of it.

As a race with sharp senses and a keen eye for treasures, they instantly knew which was such when they saw one.