"Leon knows now. We don't need to worry." Riveria repeated aloud for the others to hear, even though they had overheard the message through the orb.
"Good. Leon has a good grasp of the situation, he'll act accordingly." Gareth nodded in response.
"Lefiya, you just observed the 60th floor. What's your impression?" Finn turned and asked, shifting the focus back to Lefiya.
"It matches the intelligence reports. Just ice and snow. I couldn't see any further than that." Lefiya responded, her tone still slightly breathless from the strain.
"It takes a tremendous amount of mental power to penetrate the floor and scan the 60th floor. I stopped the magic after detecting that much."
"So… no signs of mutation?" Finn's voice lowered with a sigh of relief.
In the dungeon, the most terrifying thing wasn't necessarily a powerful monster, itwas a mutation. Even a strengthened species was preferable to that.
He still remembered the last time they had encountered a demi spirit. And now, with two Level 8 monsters assaulting them at once, he had been deeply concerned that the 60th floor had also undergone some catastrophic transformation.
If that had happened, it would've invalidated their gathered intel, plunging them into chaos. And things would only become worse from there.
The current 59th floor was already troublesome enough. Another mutation? That was a nightmare they could do without.
Better to proceed step by step, becoming stronger as planned. The others clearly shared the same sentiment.
Such extraordinary events were rare. They might happen once in a while, but when they started occurring one after another, the implications were anything but good.
No one said much, but everyone's eyes once again turned toward the unfolding battlefield.
At the same time, on the surface, far from the chaos of the lower floors, Ouranos stood solemnly before the image projected by a crystal ball.
His brows furrowed deeply, and he muttered in a low voice, his tone unusually grim, "What are you trying to do?"
The image relayed was from the 59th floor, where Leon was locked in a fierce battle with the Black Dragon and the towering tree.vYet even amidst the intense fighting, Leon's attention seemed divided, a portion of his focus clearly being used to observe the behavior and status of the giant tree.
Time passed swiftly, and before anyone realized it, another half an hour had flown by. The heat that surged from Leon's back had started to decline once more.
Although he had initially planned to use the black dragon and the towering tree as sparring partners to strengthen himself, he knew when to stop fooling around. When it was time to act, he would.
After thirty more minutes of grueling combat, the black dragon had sustained visible injuries. Serious ones, at that. But its powerful physique made it so that even when heavily wounded, it showed little drop in combat ability.
The same couldn't be said for the towering tree. Over the past thirty minutes, its roots had been reduced drastically, Leon had destroyed two-thirds of them. Its aura had weakened significantly, no longer as overwhelming as it once was.
Hovering mid-air, Leon weaved between attacks, narrowly avoiding another burst of black flame. His sharp eyes glanced downward, locking onto the massive stump of the tree below.
"A coincidence? No… this can't be coincidence."
"The black dragon has been gradually shifting toward that spot ever since earlier and I interrupted it every time."
"But despite that, it still hasn't given up trying to get there."
"What's down there?"
"What are they planning?" Leon murmured to himself, narrowing his eyes.
Then, as if sensing something, he disappeared in a blur, evading another synchronized attack from the dragon and the roots.
However, in the very next instant, the answer to Leon's question began to reveal itself.
The black dragon and the tree launched another brief coordinated attack, one Leon easily dodged. But instead of pressing the assault like before, they began retreating.
Yes, retreating.
The massive roots began pulling back, retracting like snakes slithering into hiding. Simultaneously, the black dragon transformed into a streak of shadowy light and dove downward.
Leon's pupils contracted sharply. There was no hesitation. He immediately transformed into a flash of light and chased after them at full speed.
On the edge of the 59th floor, Finn and the others, still standing along the wall, witnessed the whole thing and were utterly dumbfounded.
Since the black dragon's appearance, it had exhibited relentless aggression, like a mad beast. No matter how many times Leon struck it, wounded it, or intercepted it, it never stopped its attack or turned back.
But now… this?
It just turned away and flew toward the tree?
What was it trying to do?
The bafflement Finn and the others felt was mirrored on the surface, where Ouranos and Fels stood. The two had been silently watching everything unfold from the moment Leon and his group stepped into the 59th floor.
"This… the black dragon is retreating?" Fels blurted out, unable to contain his shock. His thoughts aligned perfectly with Finn's.
Ouranos, however, said nothing. His gaze deepened, and his eyes flickered with intensity, clearly lost in his own train of thought.
He didn't know what exactly the black dragon and the tree were trying to do but Leon wasn't going to just sit around and wait to find out.
The very moment the black dragon surged toward the tree, he followed suit without a second thought.
But then…
His eyes widened. A pulse of terrifying energy suddenly erupted from the giant tree. It wasn't flame. It wasn't light. It was black mist, a toxic, sinister fog that radiated overwhelming ominous energy. The entire tree, from its roots to its shredded upper trunk, began to release this strange fog.
The moment it appeared, it surged outward in every direction.
Buzz!!!
In the blink of an eye, the entire basin where the tree had been rooted was swallowed by the mist.
Crater-like holes and broken terrain were instantly swallowed whole, replaced by a vast, growing pit.
A piercing cold wind exploded upward, chilling the air to the bone. In mere seconds, the surrounding atmosphere was overtaken by frost, the air turned to ice.
The tree's massive body began to fall rapidly into the newly formed abyss.
And the black dragon?
It accelerated even faster and dived in right after it.
Everything happened in an instant.
"They… destroyed the ground on the 59th floor?!!"
"They're trying to escape!!!"
The realization struck Leon like lightning.
He didn't hesitate. He immediately entered Tenseigan Mode, Hyper Dying Will Mode, and ignited his Dying Will Flame. His power skyrocketed, his body surged to its absolute peak.
He would not allow the black dragon to escape. That creature was a calamity, far more dangerous than even the tree.
It had the power to render people completely defenseless, reducing them to helpless shells. Only he could resist it. No one else could.
Letting this monster escape would endanger everyone, the Loki familia, the Astraea Familia, Orario, it wasn't a risk he could take.
Leon's speed broke all previous limits. In less than a second, he arrived in front of the massive pit.
But the black dragon was already prepared. As though it had calculated Leon's timing, it shot downward at an extreme velocity and vanished into the 60th floor.
The tree's descent came to a sudden halt. Its massive, vine-like roots suddenly lashed outward, embedding themselves into the earth along the crater walls. They sprawled outward, intertwining like a vast net meant to obstruct Leon's pursuit. Simultaneously, the ground began to writhe unnaturally.
The pit, which was hundreds of meters wide just seconds ago, started to regenerate. Earth and stone flowed unnaturally like liquid, and within the span of a blink, half the crater had already sealed itself and it was still closing.
"They're sealing the black dragon's escape route with the dungeon itself?!"
Leon's eyes glinted with ferocity. A cold chill passed through his heart. He couldn't let it end like this.
No. Absolutely not.
For the first time in a long while, a brilliant golden light flared to life in Leon's palms.
Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!
No hesitation.
Leon raised his arm high and swung down.
CRACK!!!
BOOM!!!