Mimic Awakening

"Vor...doth?"

Azrael responds to the man’s question with visible confusion, seemingly unbeknownst to the identity of the name. However, the man just smiles.

"Well, it won’t surprise me if the world has forgotten my name. In that case, have you at least heard of the Dungeon God or Evil God?"

He has heard those names once from Claire when they talked about this world’s history. Apparently, those names come from the ancient scriptures of the temple that dates back at least twenty thousand years ago, the time when magic was not as common as today.

According to the scriptures, there were once two gods walking in this world alongside mortals. Both of them were incredibly powerful and said they worked on a global scale. They were standing on a different level even from the standard of this current era.

The two gods were on good terms with one another at first. However, under some circumstances, the relationship between the two started to crack. Unless suddenly, they found themselves fighting against each other, and the battle between the two gods commenced.

The magnitude of the battle between the two gods, Veleriz and Vordoth, brought destruction to the world. The world shook by the sheer power of their magic. The ground zero turned a vast grassland into the place currently known as the Ashir Desert.

Seeing how destructive their battle had become, Veleriz decided to end the fight. He had the upper hand to begin with; he was a lot more powerful than Vordoth, but he could not bring himself to kill him.

Ultimately, Veleriz made the choice to seal Vordoth to the depths of earth, which was successful, but it brought unprecedented events.

It was said that after being sealed, Vordoth continued to wreck havoc on the surface by creating the dungeons, bringing monsters above. The dungeons kept appearing all over the world, and Veleriz was not omnipresent enough to keep them all in check.

During this time period, humanity had no way to fight back, as there were only a few magic casters around. In addition, the mana condensation at that time was so thin it would be unnoticeable in this era.

Leaving no choice, Veleriz made the ultimate decision. Putting his hope in humanity, the selfless god sacrificed himself and converted his whole existence into pure energy. That energy then scattered and mixed with the atmosphere, creating the mana that everyone possesses.

Years and centuries went by; humanity eventually learned to wield this new power and utilized it to fight against the monsters brought by Vordoth. To this day, both the gods have been fighting in the new form of dungeons and humanity.

This is bad... If he claimed to be that god, then I’m done.

Realizing what kind of monster he is currently facing, he breaks out in a sweat down his temple. He cannot run away or escape; he has to think of something to survive this problem.

"I thought you were just a myth," Azrael says while trying to hide his nervousness. "What would a god have to do with me?"

"Oho? You really have no idea? Very well, let me explain. Recently, I noticed that my power mysteriously lowered permanently. When I came to check, I found you eating a magic core, and you somehow gained more powers. Is that a coincidence? I think not."

It is true that Azrael has been consuming magic cores to power up, so he cannot deny that in front of a god. He does not expect that every time he consumes a magic core, he is also stealing a fraction of the Dungeon God’s power.

Hearing this fact, Azrael assumes that mana cannot be created or destroyed like energy, it is just converted or transformed into another form regardless of efficiency.

If Azrael were in Vordoth’s shoes, he would get mad if someone were stealing his powers. He is not sure how Vordoth will react to this; he doesn’t know whether he can talk it out or resort to using force.

"Still playing dumb?" Vordoth is getting impatient of his silence. "If you can steal my power by consuming my creations, then I can take it back the same way."

"Hey! Can you at least hear me out—?!"

Before Azrael can explain himself, Vordoth suddenly vanishes from his spot and then instantly appears right in front of him.

"!!!"

Clink!

Azrael reflexively swings his sword upwards to parry Vordoth’s attack. The black-haired man then seems to teleport a few meters from him before he starts walking while brandishing his right hand, which has become a dragonic claw.

"You are quick. I’ll give you that. But how about this?"

Right after saying that, the Dungeon God transforms his body into black mist and quickly surrounds Azrael like a twister. In that form, Vordoth launches a barrage of spears that are made of those black slabs at him. Each of the black spears fires several times the sonic speed.

Azrael tries to parry the first spear, but the momentum of the spear is so powerful that he is having a hard time just changing its trajectory. He tries to cover himself with the archdragon’s barrier, but it cracks instantly. Learning how powerful each attack is, Azrael quickly switches to avoiding it by moving his body insanely fast.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

With his greatly enhanced perception speed, he is able to track each of the black spears’ trajectories and avoid them one by one. Fortunately for him, the black spears do not seem to follow him and just hit the floor.

Since he is surrounded by the raging black mist, he always has an opening for Vordoth to take advantage of. However, he has yet to land a solid blow on him. But that is one part of his plan.

After ten seconds of relentless attacks, the black spears finally come to a stop, and the black mist suddenly thickens, forming a large dome around Azrael. Seeing that the dome is getting smaller and smaller, Azrael immediately knows that Vordoth is going to devour him whole.

You think you can just eat me like this?

In a pinch, Azrael draws out a tenth’s worth of his mana, and a large magic circle appears on the floor beneath him. In less than a second, his spell is done.

"Storm Burst!"

BOOM!!

Upon casting a B-tier magic spell, a tremendous wind explosion suddenly burst forth in the chamber. Typically, this spell can only destroy a small town at max, but due to Azrael’s extraordinarily large mana and power level, the blast radius of his spell even reaches this room’s walls, which is four kilometers across.

Due to the intensity of the explosion, the black mist scattered throughout the chamber. After some time, the black mist gradually gathers at the center of the dungeon boss room.

But before it can complete its form, Azrael opens his palm and does not waste a second to fire an ancient dragon blast at it.

"Die, you, evil god. Mimic Blast!"

Boom!

The four-meter-wide blast of energy engulfs the black mist whole before colliding with the wall behind, illuminating the dark chamber.

Azrael cannot sense him for a few seconds until his slow presence appears behind him. When he turns around, he finds that the mist gathers once again and partially takes the form of Vordoth’s body.

"That was kind of rude, you know?" The god speaks. "Anyways, I took heed that your aura is kind of familiar to me. I recognize that you seem similar to the monsters I create. Perhaps you are something I created?"

"So what?"

Right after responding to his question, Azrael activates the colossus golem’s momentum charge as he points his blade at the partially completed body. Together with the griffin’s raw speed, he is able to close the distance in an instant and successfully plunges his sword into the god’s chest.

"I see. So you are one," Vordoth calmly says. "Show me how powerful you are."

"Gladly."

Accepting his challenge, Azrael prepares to execute his new power at max output. His awakened ability is to absorb the ability of anything he devours as well as take their form.

Once he awakened his ability for a second time, not only did his mana, strength, speed, and perception increase, but he also discovered that he was able to absorb the awakened ability of the one he consumed. For that reason, he is able to wield both the hero’s appearance and unique power.

With the hero’s awakened ability, Magic Armsmanship, Azrael is able to imbue magic into his sword. But instead of turning the blade into a plasma sword, Azrael uses up more than half of his mana to imbue a powerful ancient dragon fireball into his blade.

"Goodbye."

Azrael immediately let go of his sword before running away as far as he could from it. Before he can reach the wall, the blade unleashes the stored magic, and a powerful explosion sends him flying, pinning him against the black wall.

The explosion is so powerful that the entire island shakes, alerting both Claire and Alina on the surface. The intensity of Azrael’s advanced wild magic sends faint magical ripples on the surface that reach the perception of a certain individual who secluded themselves over the ocean.

The blast radius of the explosion essentially covers the entire boss room, making it impossible for almost any life to survive. After a few seconds, the blinding lights in the chamber gradually subside, revealing the figure of Azrael leaning against the wall.

"Hah... Hah..."

Exhausted, Azrael grasps for air before dropping his butt to the floor. His entire body is covered with a translucent barrier. That is the archdragon’s defense barrier he deployed to shield himself from his own attack.

"Did I make it...?"

"That was magnificent. You even burned my body to smithereens."

"?!"

Azrael hears Vordoth’s voice echoing in the chamber, but he does not see anybody. The only thing that he finds is his sword at the center, which is miraculously intact after all of that. He thinks that it must be one of the effects of the hero’s awakened ability. Exhausted physically and magically, all he can do is stay still and listen.

"I congratulate you for defeating me at ten percent of my power."

"All of that is only a tenth of your power...?"

"That was the best I could pull off at the moment. Now then, I will spare you this time. I am looking forward to our next meeting..."

Those are the last words Azrael heard of him before his presence entirely vanishes in the scene. The doors then slowly open and someone comes inside the chamber. It is Claire, who immediately teleports to the lowest floor after sensing the explosion earlier.

"Azrael! Are you okay?!"

Claire quickly rushes to his position and immediately checks on his condition.

"I’m not hurt, Claire. I just used up the majority of my mana."

"Just what the hell happened here?"

"I’ll explain it later. Let’s get out of here."

"Alright."

Azrael and Claire teleport out of their way from the dungeon.