"... Are you going to fight like that until the end?" Icarus asked. "Why are you just watching with your arms crossed?"
"To make myself look more badass," Billy replied.
The others had no idea, but Billy was recovering a lot more mana than they thought since he was also using Absolute Thievery to take the mana from the enemies. Regardless, once again, Billy's actions made the others feel more motivated to improve themselves and they began to think of how they could use their abilities better in that situation. They finally had some leisure to think straight, so they needed to use the chance…
However, before that could happen… The entire dungeon began to tremble, and Billy almost could see the magic power vibrating around for some reason.
"Wha… What is going on?" Icarus asked.
Meryl and Lucyna were as much confused as Icarus, while they could tell that something caused the magic power of the dungeon to shift to a more violent nature, they couldn't tell what did it. A single human being wasn't supposed to have that much power to enact their influence on a dungeon of that level. Unlike them, Billy was certain that the maker was the cause of it… So, he used his powers to recover as much mana as he could since the Hydras stopped moving in response to that event.
After waiting for five minutes, the tremor ended, and then they noticed that the Hydras were starting to disappear in the distance. Billy never saw that before, so he took a good look at it with his Magic eyes… He only saw them turning into magic power like that was something normal…
"It can't be…" Billy furrowed his eyebrows when he muttered that.
Eventually, even the zombies disappeared, which made the others even more surprised. Only Billy's Frost Hydra remained in place…
Soon enough, the group saw a figure slowly approaching in the distance. He was flying, and most of his body was covered in weird silver armor. It was weird because the armor felt pretty much alive. As for his appearance, he was a tall guy who had long brown hair and green eyes. As for his demi-human characteristics, he didn't have many aside from some feathers on his arms and back and red wings on it as well. They were red like the fire that was still burning…
"I never saw a demi-human like him… You never mentioned this tribe either," Icarus said while readying his bracers.
"... He was born among a pretty small tribe. They had a weird power that made them feared and hunted," Meryl replied with a severe expression on her face. "I don't know how they were called, but just like the Phoenix, they could revive if they die as long as they have enough magic energy."
That certainly was useful, powerful to have, and troublesome to deal with. Still, Billy was more worried about the fact that the enemy was approaching too slowly while showing a weird expression on his face.
"He isn't taking us seriously…" Lucyna said.
"He has all the reasons not to…" Billy said. "Never mind using Appraisal on him to see question marks, and I can't see any window status when I use it…"
The others tried the same and finally realized that it was true. Instead of having a spell that protected him against magic, it was more like he had a field around him of anti-magic properties.
Billy felt like clicking his tongue when he realized that… Instead of just raw power, the enemy was far ahead of them when it comes to techniques as well. They had to be careful since it was hard to say the limitations of that kind of power…
In the end, the enemy stopped when he was fifty meters away from the group and did nothing. He just stood there with a blank expression on his face.
"Zenis…" Meryl said.
"Meryl…" Zenis said.
"Are you mocking me?" Meryl asked. "What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to wait for us at the end of the dungeon?"
"I am merely reacting to your words," Zenis said. "There is no reason for me to wait for you all anymore."
"Really, I was sure that you would need to obtain our powers to challenge the guardian," Meryl said while forcing a smile.
"I defeated the guardian a year ago," Zenis said. "Since then, I used my time to absorb the dungeon's core and improve my skills to the maximum. Hence, there is no reason to wait for you all there."
Just as Billy thought… Zenis obtained the power of the core, he had that feeling when he saw that the last sector was filled with monsters while the others weren't. He had recalled that the tyrant guardian also did something similar… but he did it to enhance himself, not to control the population of monsters in the dungeon.
"I felt like I could give you some answers if you managed to achieve the same as I did, and you didn't fail," Zenis said. "You managed to slay more enemies that the core could usually spawn after just half an hour once you arrived. It took me three weeks, so consider me impressed."
It was hard to consider that when the guy had one hell of a blank expression on his face. In any case, something was weird. The enemy indeed lured them to the dungeon, but he was a lot less bloodthirsty than expected. He also didn't look like someone who would have any reasons to fiddle with the memories of his goons.
"It seems you have something to tell us… What is it?" Icarus asked.
"I am sure you all have wondered a few times why you have come to this world once or twice, but just like me, you didn't have the means to learn that," Zenis said. "Every five hundred years, some humans are reincarnated in this world, and they are destined to fight to the death until one of them emerges victorious with all the innate skills… with a single purpose..."
