Just as I was about to reach him, a powerful green wave launched from his body in my direction. All nearby monsters that got in the way were shredded into mincemeat, and even walls of the dungeon blew apart when the wave has reached them.

"How?!" managed to say Qin and then blood sprayed from his mouth.

My phantom claws were holding his upper body, with his head stuck between two claws. Most of his organs were crushed and it was surprising that he was still alive.

As for me .. there wasn't a single scratch on my body. Well, not anymore. I did receive a few here and there when monsters ganged up on me, but my regeneration has taken care of that, and only some cuts on clothes reminded it ever happened at all.

"A secret." I said with a smile. "If you order monsters to stop, I might grant you a quick death."

The spell he just used, was a 'wave of destruction'. Normally it shouldn't have this much power, but there is nothing impossible with this amount of mana... or should I say with the mana of entire dungeon?

When I broke his barrier, I already anticipated some retaliation, and by using phantom shift at the right timing, I let his attack to pass right through me.

"You think you have won? *cough* *cough* .. Even if I am dead, monsters will follow my last order and the attack will never cease. How long do you think .. *cough* ..  all those people will last against endless army?!"

His hood now was gone and I could see his face. Despite that strange age I saw with analyze, he looked a bit older than me and wasn't ugly as I suspected .. though still miles away from matching Phoenix.

Just as he finished his words, numerous new monsters charged at me. While many of them died from his own attack just a moment ago, there was a constant flow of new from within the dungeon.

Just as I looked at the new threat, a glowing tattoo appeared on his face.

Nice try.

'Devour soul' was an evolution of 'devour mana', and just as I could still devour mana, the ability to prevent my opponents from using magic or skills that use mana, was still there.

Qin looked at me with a surprised expression and then started to scream when my 'devour soul' was activated in its true meaning. Not for long. I quickly crushed his body to silence him.

But the suffering for his soul has only started.

Piece by piece his soul was torn apart. Some of it was remade into mana, while some dismantled into core elements of the soul and then used to strengthen my own. Each time his soul was broken further, a fragment of his memories reached my mind.

Unique skill 'Soul Awakening' has been acquired.

Soul Awakening - You have gained awareness as a soul and the way you perceive the world has changed. As your soul grows stronger, many skills and abilities aiming at it directly will have little to no effect.

Devour Soul has reached level 2.

Class "Warlock" has been unlocked.

With the influence of Warlock class, 'Dark Magic' has been learned.

Using devour soul was harder than I anticipated. For one, I had to defend myself from monsters attacking me. That was especially true when formida entered the play.

But the biggest obstacle was mental. I felt like I crossed the line I shouldn't.

Many times through the process, I wanted to stop.

I felt dirty...

Yes, he was my enemy, but I realized that this was too much even for me. It's one thing if I just killed him, but this...

Once again I noticed just how much I changed. Old me wouldn't even flinch from this. When did I become this 'soft'? Did my new body has something to do with it? Maybe even with old memories, my thinking is a bit different now... Or was this because I meet with Phoenix?

I bit my teeth and pressed on. While fragments of his memories contained only a small part of his memories, it was enough for me to realize that he deserved this fate.

His hands were stained with the blood of many and Kalh'dor family made sure it was left unknown. One of his recent victims was a Champion, and her death wasn't a painless. They sent many people to hunt Champions when the summon failed to teleport all of them to the Capital. Which was their handiwork as well.

Even with a second chance, he hasn't changed.

I learned that originally he was from my old world. And back then even I heard about him.

A few years back, his name was mentioned many times in the news.

A serial killer who committed a sexual assault and murder on 13 women. But from fragments of his memories, I knew that the number was incorrect.

He was later captured by police and sentenced to imprisonment for life. But just a few years after imprisoning was killed in the jail by a cousin of one of his victims. 

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After his death, he was summoned by a being calling himself a God and became his servant. I had no clear memories of that time, but from the rest of fragments, I put together most of the picture. There are more people like him and they were a bit similar to Champions of Goddess.

Though most of them were killers in their past.

They call themselves Harbingers.

To achieve their goal, they created three groups: Blade, Shield, and Crown. Usually, one group doesn't know about actions of another.

The main plan of group 'Blade' was to take over the dungeons, which would provide an endless army for their cause. From his memories, I learned that they are still not ready. But the house of Kalh'dor was important for their plans and when the Lord of our city got evidence of their involvement in shady dealings, they decided to act.

*

Just as I finished, an unimaginable pain assaulted my very being, and in the moment of weakness, I was a bit late to dodge. With a powerful swing from formida I was sent flying. Left lung blew apart from the impact, and if not for my new bones it would be much worse.

Still, in the air, I shifted my position and after activating teleportation used the inertia of my body to tackle formida from behind.

With my fast regeneration, the lung has already almost recovered, but the pain from before was still there. If anything, it was only increasing, the very soul was the target as large amount of uncontrolled mana was assaulting me. Yet I had to endure, the battle isn't over.

Right as I killed formida with phantom shift just like I did with the one before, after all, with that massive amount of mana flooding my body every single moment, mana was really not an issue now. I then used her body to block the incoming stream of fire from a hellhound. My tail sliced few monsters from the side while metal disc blocked the attack of arachne from another.

As for the sword... it was now in pieces, completely broken. I was very sad it happened as it was the first weapon Phoenix has brought and for me, it's the only type of gift that counts. And yet it was my own fault, during the moment of weakness, I simply used more force than intended.

Still, with my metal manipulation in play even broken the sword was just as deadly.

I then noticed that Phoenix was in a dire situation. Because of their help earlier a crowd of monsters managed to get close to the group.

With the help of Turion, Phoenix was dealing with one formida and hellhound, while the rest were dealing with a group of direwolfs and another formida.

Darson... no, his summon was heavily injured. His hand, with a large chunk of shoulder, was missing, and two legs on the left side, with a large part of his spider body, were burned.

I quickly summoned the disk and fragments of the sword back and then teleported to their side. They were in desperate need of help. Even more, monsters were rushing to them at the moment!

"You don't mind if I kill her?!" I shouted when appeared right behind the monster.

With my phantom tail, I coiled around the waist of formida and lifted her in the air. She started to struggle and tried to tear my tail on her waist, but it was ineffective as I constantly repaired missing parts with my mana. 

The reason I asked was because, from glowing markings on his body, it was obvious that Darson already used his spell on the one Phoenix was fighting. He should be able to cast this spell only two times a day, and he already used it once before.

"Wait! I am now level thirty, I am able to cast it one more time." shouted Darson while killing one more direwolf with the gun in his remaining hand. 

I then summoned the disk and let it join the battle, after that, I started shooting with my guns at new incoming monsters as well. As for formida, I still held her body in the air. If Darson obtains the summon of formida, our fighting power would rise tremendously.

Just as I looked at Phoenix, hellhound they were dealing with exploded into countless pieces. Turion! Somehow he managed to apply his skill 'blast arrow' on the bullets. Then, without any delay, he started to reduce the number of nearby monsters.

It wasn't long before Phoenix killed his target as well and next formida should grant our summoner a new toy.

After Darson was ready, he marked my captured monster with his last mark spell and just as I was about to finish the monster, a new wave of pain assaulted me again. It was nothing like before. I crumbled on the ground holding my head and even a shout from Phoenix sounded like a whisper.

I struggled as hard as I can, but in the end, lost my consciousness in the middle of battlefield.

*

When I woke up, the first thing that greeted me was a worried face of Phoenix. After I received 'Soul Awakening', the way I saw things has changed, I suspect that the glow I saw inside Phoenix was his soul... So beautiful. I fell for him all over again. I had no chance to pay my attention to such details during the battle... Battle...

"Dammit!" I cursed and quickly jumped on my feet.

"It's over Kitty," said Phoenix with a gentle voice while walking closer to hug me, but he never got the chance.

"Thank Goddess you are alright. I was so worried about you!" suddenly Tia hugged me from behind.

"I am alright," I said to both.

When I looked around I found that the battle was indeed over. The ground was littered with the corpses of monsters. Adventurers with soldiers were resting or mending their wounds at hastily made camps.

When I suddenly saw formida, I was startled that no one paid it attention, but then realized it was Darson. He was holding guns in each hand... all four of them. Just like with his arachne body, the upper body of his formida was a male version of his real body. Save for the upper part of the head. It reminded a strange helm just like the one of formida, and was the main reason I thought he was a monster.

Even when he looked like this, Miriel was staring at him with sparkling eyes. What did I miss? Miriel is usually more reserved, and there is no way that the rest of slaves will look at him with gratitude. Especially Derea. I had an impression they were on bad terms.

"What happened?" I asked and for the first time paid attention to the floating messages in front of my eyes.

Most of them were about gaining experience and raising levels, but one of them made my eyes open wide.

Dungeon of Enhara is bound to your soul and is now yours to command.

"We don't know. When you fell, suddenly all monsters started to howl and attack one another. It was easy to deal with them after that. With no more monsters leaving from inside the dungeon, guild master used the opportunity to seal the entrance." replied Phoenix while looking at Tia with a bit of envy.

Strange. From memory fragments of Qin, I learned that once the connection with the dungeon is formed, it should be impossible for anyone else to take control. How did this happen?

Bound... have I somehow replaced this bond when devoured his soul?

I looked at the entrance of the dungeon and what I saw was a large hill. Probably a work of guild master. A lot of earth must have been moved to completely bury the entrance to the dungeon.

"Finally, you are awake. We need to deal with the source as fast as possible. I just received a word that an army is approaching us is already close. Officially they are here to help us deal with the dungeon, but Ramella said I shouldn't bet on that." interrupted my thoughts guild master.

After Tia released me she sat on a chair not far from the bed. Not long ago I was sleeping on the bed and Phoenix probably used that chair to wait for my recovery.

"Ramella?" I looked at guild master not sure who he is talking about.

"She is the right hand of our city lord." Red joined the conversation.

His armor was bent in a few places, but otherwise, I didn't notice any serious wounds.

"Well, I don't think that the dungeon will cause us any problems," I said while testing my bond with the core.

"It's now completely under my command," I finished with a grin.