Kae
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Dungeon Diver CH941
🕑 Added 2025-07-26 23:00:10 +0000 UTCMy interest is piqued again.
There’s no way this artifact Ulgar is speaking of will work as intended if he believes it will only work on legacies younger than the elves.
However, maybe it will give me some more insight on what Glyph imprints really are in the first place.
“Fine, let’s do it,” I reply.
Maria and I follow him even further down the winding path, passing more torn-up tree roots and destroyed old structures.
Less and less housing turns up, and far more massive holes and slash marks appear.
My eyes open wide when I see an enormous ravine where a horrific battle must have taken place. It has to be almost 300 trillion kilometers wide, pretty much the full length of this domain that we’ve already traveled. As we float over it, massive chunks of an entire tree stick out of it. Branches longer than the entire blue zone each, all stack up, and the sky above it is even clear. A light purple hue comes down and sets an eerie mood.
While looking up, I see the vague edge of this domain barrier, blocking me from sensing any of the energy above, but I can still see the sky with my eyes.
We get to the other edge of the ravine, and what looks like two massive footprints are at its edge.
The imagery of Ulgar standing in that very spot, holding off enemies, and their energy shockwaves taking down trees and creating such a massive crater makes my mind spin with potential battle scenarios.
Once we pass over this edge, more structures appear, and the Black Ogre floats down again. They’re built in a much different style than the housing from before. These buildings look extremely old and made of black stone.
They’re also much smaller than the mega structures created to house the Astral Forms of these enormous Ogres spanning hundreds of millions of kilometers.
Some of the structures we approach are hardly even ten thousand kilometers tall. They’re close to the size of the towers in the green zone of the upper realm.
Many look abandoned, but untouched.
Even the winding tree roots don’t go near this ancient village out of respect.
The towers and even old roads and streets are built around the largest structure at the back of this grouping. It’s about ten times larger than most of the other buildings, but it does not have a roof at all. It’s an enormous stadium. Now that I take a closer look, many of the fighting facilities in the populated portion of this domain mimic its style.
In our compact Royal Forms, a few hundred kilometers tall, all of these buildings are still quite large. However, the scaling feels similar to a time when we were back on the human world in large cities full of our own races. The only reason it feels small is because hovering behind us, the Black Ogre’s foot is larger than this entire civilization.
“This was passed down, inherited to us by an elder of a Light Elves Clan. I had the honor of knowing them when I was young, but I’m afraid they’ve all gone through the ascension ritual to keep their minds when their lifespan ran out; or the Imperial’s Outer Guard managed to kill them off… Us Black Ogres are able to stay in one place, the elves were a traveling race.”
I feel the density and flow of divine threads in the air shift, and even the trembling mana particles from the innermost part of this Ogre’s Greater Form stop producing energy.
A wave of black energy disperses into the air as Ulgar deactivates all of his energy forms and floats down to hit the ground with his soul armor-covered feet behind us.
He uses a very similar Royal Ogre form and stands over five thousand kilometers high still. However, he does not threaten to crush this entire civilization with a single step, maybe just a few doorways if he moves without care.
When he walks past us, I can’t help but stare.
His skin is smooth and jet black, matching his shiny armor. There are white tusks that come out of his mouth on both sides, and the same gray eyes I watched before now stare back at me.
“What? Have you never seen a Black Ogre before or something?”
I shake my head, “No… I haven't. The closest I’ve seen is a Blue Ogre. We managed to ally with one in the Green Zone of the Upper Realm. You look very similar.”
Ulgar smiles, then grunts and shrugs before walking forward toward the stadium entrance.
He only looks more like Torvak in this moment, but I decide to stop making more comments on it for now. Inwardly, I start sifting through the data from over 70 billion worlds in my World Wide Connectivity system to try and find any clues to what their common link might be.
Ulgar walks through a massive archway above ten times his own height, and we follow to take in the full view of this abandoned stadium. There are hundreds of rows of seating, and many tunnels around the outer edges that have collapsed after eras of neglect. They look like they lead down under the mega structure; most likely used as holding cells for the entertainers that would perform in the stadium itself.
“There used to be all kinds of events put on here. Battles of the strongest warriors, visiting dark elves, and even wild beasts when the garden was more full of real life.”
I raise an eyebrow, but Maria responds.
“Are there no wild monsters anymore? Does everyone just live in these isolated domains?”
Ulgar stops in the center of the stadium's middle stage. It’s made of the same dark ground as the Forest’s floor.
“I believe not. You’re the first outsiders I’ve seen in far too long to even keep track of the time. It was quite a peaceful paradise until the first Blood Imperials started claiming domains and even infecting some of the Dryads' gifts to us after her passing.”
Ulgar looks up at the trees, and many dots in my mind begin connecting about why these trees have such a unique Overwhelming Primordial Aura and complex high-quality ether commands. They were left by a past overseer… but one thing doesn’t make sense.
“What do you mean by first blood Imperials?”
Ulgar sighs, “The High Royals. A small amount of Demons from the first generation that were present during their Overseer’s Ascension. They’re no normal Royal Demons… their outer guard may be full of Royals, but even I can take them on with enough preparation. If a first blood attacked this domain, I’d be dead before I realized they arrived.”
I look back over my shoulder, remembering the destruction of the trees and the landscape, making a mental note that this was truly only caused by some of the Imperial Family Head’s lackeys…
When I look back toward the Black Ogre, he's moving his hands in strange patterns, and the air around him is sparkling with lines and dots I know as unreadable high-quality ether commands even if I can’t see them.
“You mentioned both of you came up here after accepting your legacy, right? You're certain it was a dual legacy, and not two solos?”
Maria and I look at each other, then back at Ulgar to nod in unison.
“Alright, good. I see no point in wasting more time here. The elves used to use this arena for one other event too. It was to stimulate their Glyph imprints. Every new generation would make a big fuss over it, and I even got to witness one mass activation ceremony myself. When they left, we began using this artifact to stimulate our younger generations too.”
He grins. “Don’t worry, just stand still. You won’t feel a thing.”
Ulgar finishes a few more hand signals, then jumps out of the way, floating up and over to the seating area at the side of the stadium. When he sits, he covers over 30 rows of normal seats. His eyes are wide and full of curiosity and hope.
The floor below us starts to show countless lines and dots. It even shines with white light like the edges of the archway before that had too many high-quality ether commands activating to stay hidden even in my suppressed state.
They all form geometric patterns, connecting in hexagonal runes, and circling around the entire floor.
There is nothing to sense at first. It just looks like another holographic performance is activating around us.
More and more glyphs activate until the entire floor below is bright white.
Ulgar’s intrigued eyes stare down at us, slightly distracting me from concentrating, but eventually, the white flashing lights on the floor burst upward to create impenetrable pillars of energy surrounding us. They expand into walls, then even shine bright enough to cover our view of the sky.
We begin to float in what feels like an empty white room.
The air fills with sparkling lines and dots, flowing through us, swirling around and around countless times.
My breathing slows, and I hold both of Maria’s hands in mine.
We slowly spin, like gravity is no longer acting on us, and we feel as though we’re free-falling while staying still in mid-air.
The unsensible glyphs start making more sense to me when they pass by, but only for a split second in my peripheral vision; like it’s an illusion.
They even start feeling warm, like each one is giving off energy of some sort.
My eyes widen as I stare forward at Maria, and the faint glimmer of recognizable glyphs flash all over her skin in the depths of my consciousness. When I blink again, they’re gone… I can’t tell if I really saw them now, or if I’m just recalling a memory from the temple within the Ravine.
Comments
Erik McPherson
TYFTC Kae
gabriel johnson
Thank you for the chapter
