A huge shockwave could be felt all over the last floor. The air felt heavy, and the entire dungeon was shaking due to the power that was being released on the last floor.
Two people were fighting with their full power, and their fight was shaking the entire dungeon due to their immense mana.
Dora ran with her fans and jumped in the air while sending wind blades at Zodiac.
"Mana, creat a wall to protect thy vessel. Magic Barrier!"
Zodiac said and created a powerful magic barrier that protected him from the wind blades.
Dora, with both of her fans in hand, landed opposite of the demon Zodiac and looked at him. Zodiac, with his staff in hand, glared at Dora who glared right back at him. Both of them were looking at each other and were ready to attack at any moment.
They have been fighting for more than two hours already, and both of them still have a lot of reserves left in them. Zodiac was a powerful demon Duke who specializes in magic while Dora is now a powerful A rank who specializes in both magic and physical combat.
'After evolving to A rank, I am now able to comprehend more spells clearly, and my chant has been shortened. I can now use the four main magic elements well, but it is still not enough to kill this demon,' Dora thought to herself.
"I will admit, female fox, you are quite powerful, but you won't defeat me," Zodiac said to Dora with arrogance.
"Oh, we'll see! Earth's guardians, fierce and strong! Earth Spikes!"
Dora stepped on the ground, and spikes made of earth came out from where Zodiac was standing. Zodiac flew up in the air immediately after he sensed Dora's magic, which allowed him to escape her earth spikes. He began to chant.
"In twilight's shroud, our power untold,
Darkness gathers, fierce and bold! Darkness Barrage!"
Many magic circles appeared in the sky in front of Zodiac and began to shoot balls of darkness at Dora.
"Flame Halo!"
Dora raised both of her fans and waved them, creating a torrent of flame like a giant blanket in front of her. The flame blocked all of the darkness spells without a single one passing through it.
As this was happening, the sky and the air outside the dungeon felt heavy, making all the adventurers there wonder what was actually happening inside the dungeon.
Back to the fight, Dora took a leap into the air in the direction of where Zodiac was. Behind her were multiple Ice Spikes being created by her. She has mastered her ice magic so well that she doesn't need to chant for it anymore.
Zodiac saw her approaching with many ice spikes behind her. He immediately waved his staff, and a magic circle appeared above the entire floor. Immediately, the gravity increased in the room, which forced the ice spikes to shatter under the pressure.
Zodiac saw that Dora was still approaching him and was shocked. "How...!"
"You should know that a little change in gravity will not affect the new me," was Dora's reply before she reached him.
Dora raised both of her fans and brought them down with great power and force on Zodiac's head. Zodiac raised his staff and blocked the two fans with it in a horizontal way above his head.
Dora released all her mana, greatly increasing her strength as she pushed her fans, and Zodiac did the same as he blocked it. Both of them began to power struggle in the air with their full power while screaming.
The dungeon kept shaking, but it didn't get destroyed. The reason is because dungeons were created by the god of this world, and it has its divine blessing. This means that no amount of power from a mortal can ever destroy a dungeon. Anyone who can destroy a dungeon is said to have powers on par with the gods.
The two continued to struggle for some time, with Dora trying to smash her fan at the demon Duke Zodiac's head while Zodiac was trying to prevent that from happening with his staff.
This changed, however, when Zodiac noticed that he was being overpowered by Dora as her power kept increasing.
"No way! Why is your power still increasing this much?" Zodiac asked in shock and confusion.
Dora let loose all her new mana, which increased her powers greatly, shocking Zodiac even more.
"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh..... Fall down, Demon Duke Zodiac!"
Dora overpowered the shocked Zodiac and smashed her fans on his head, sending out shockwaves all over the floor as Zodiac flew with great force and impact to the ground of the floor, destroying it on contact.
Right before the fight started, Dora created a powerful ice barrier which she used to cover the tube which the vampire kid was inside of. This was the reason the boy was still alive even after all the clash and shockwaves in the room.
Dora landed down on the ground and looked to see if the demon Duke Zodiac survived. She didn't have to wait long as the dust cleared to reveal the demon Zodiac standing with a great wound on his head which covered his face with black blood. Many wounds were on his body, but they were showing signs of healing.
"To think that a newly promoted A rank would be this strong..... I underestimated you," Zodiac said with deep breath.
Dora wasn't really that shocked that he survived. "That's a demon Duke for you. I guess he won't go down easy."
Dora raised her fans once more and used her speed to rush Zodiac, but he jumped away from her before she could reach him.
"As much as I would love to fight you some more, I really have to leave," saying that, Zodiac with great speed flew to the entrance door of the final floor.
"Wait!" Dora tried to chase after him, but she couldn't make it on time.
Just when Zodiac was close to the door of the entrance, a heavy energy wave slash rushed out from the entrance door and headed straight for him. Zodiac, being completely taken off guard, couldn't dodge in time, and the slash went through his left arm, severing it.
He flew down at the other end of the room in pain and glared at the entrance. A red-haired human girl that looked like a teenager calmly walked out from the entrance with a katana in hand. This was Jeanne Baret, the tenth strongest A-rank in the human realm.
"Well, I didn't expect to meet a demon all the way down here and a demon Duke at that. Good thing I came," Jeanne said while walking up to the demon.
Dora landed beside her and looked at her. "Who are you?"
Jeanne looked at Dora and saw that she matched the description of the partner of Lilia. "You must be Dora. My name is Jeanne Baret, an A-rank from the capital city of Eclipsora Kingdom."
Dora was shocked when she heard that. "You mean you are the Jeanne Baret who ranked 10th among the A-ranks of the human realm! What are you doing down here?"
Jeanne smiled at her. "I came to see the new A-rank of Eclipsora Kingdom, but I didn't expect to see another A-rank besides my target. Tell me, how did you level up when the information about you said that you were B-rank a week ago?"
"That's a long story. Let's kill this demon first before he tries something," Dora said, dodging the question.
"Well, you are right. Let's finish this demon before asking questions," Jeanne said, turning to the demon.
Zodiac held his severed left arm with his right hand while leaning on the wall of the floor.
"You think you both can kill me that easily? You will have to prove that you have the ability first."
Saying that, multiple magic circles appeared in front and began to shoot several condensed dark magic at them.
Dora immediately created an ice wall, which began to block the dark magic attacks of Zodiac. On the other hand, Jeanne casually began to walk up to Zodiac while ignoring all the dark magic attacks that were hitting her body.
To say that Zodiac was shocked would be an understatement. Heck, even Dora had her mouth open as she watched Jeanne walk through those powerful magics like they were nothing to her.
Jeanne waved her katana, and the magic circles shattered and disappeared, leaving Zodiac helpless before her.
"I forgot to mention that my Spirit is over 700, 000, which basically makes me immune to most A-rank magic. Your magic would have been more powerful if you were at your peak, but sadly you are not at the moment. I am the worst opponent for weak magic users like yourself," Jeanne said as she slashed her katana at the weakened Zodiac.
Zodiac raised his staff with his right hand to block the slash, but the slash went through his staff and right hand at the same time. Zodiac screamed in pain as his right hand, which held his staff, fell to the ground.
"Ice prison."
Dora raised her fans and encased Zodiac's body in an ice block, leaving only his head free. She made sure that he wouldn't be getting free before she sighed and released her mana, causing the dungeon to stop shaking.
Jeanne walked back to her. "Where is your partner? I thought you both took this quest!"
Dora nodded. "I'm not sure actually, but I know she will return when she is done with her fight."
The door of the entrance opened, and three people walked into the room. They all looked surprised when they saw the demon that was trapped in the ice prison.
"Can't believe I couldn't watch the fight up close," Aiko said with disappointment.
"It can't be helped. We are too weak to approach the area where A-ranks are fighting at full power," Kirito said as he approached Jeanne and Dora.
"Yep yep. Hey leader, what happened here exactly?" Elano asked Jeanne.
"I would like to ask that myself." Jeanne turned to Dora. "Do you mind explaining what exactly happened and what a demon Duke is doing in this dungeon?"
"I don't mind, but who are these people?" Dora asked her.
"Oh right! Forgive my rudeness. The female elf on my right is Elano, our archer. The black cloth-wearing dude beside her is Kirito, our swordsman. The female witch beside him is Aiko, our magician. They are my party members, and we are called the Crimson Fortress," Jeanne introduced.
Dora nodded to them. "Pleasure to meet you guys. My name is Dora, and you can say I am a new A-rank adventurer."
"You are A-rank? But the receptionist in the guild said that you were B-rank a week ago!" Kirito said in shock.
Dora scratched her head in embarrassment. "It's kind of a long story, and I don't plan on revealing it just yet."
"No problem, no problem. Everyone has their secrets. So can you tell us what happened here?" Elano asked.
"I'm not sure myself. My partner and I came in here and saw two powerful demons who were..."
Dora didn't get to finish her explanation because the dungeon began to shake again. The space near the ice barrier she used to protect the boy in the tube began to crack, putting her along with Jeanne, Aiko, Kirito, and Elano on guard.
Suddenly, the space shattered, and a red energy was blasted from it. The red energy moved and was headed straight for Dora and the rest, but they jumped out of the way on time, leaving the red energy to impact on the wall of the dungeon, destroying it and shaking the entire dungeon in the process.
Aiko, for the first time, had a scared look on her face. "What the heck was that?"
"I wish I knew, but that power was definitely above something an A-rank can produce," Kirito said while slowly getting up.
Jeanne, who was already up, glared at the wall where the red energy impacted, which was near the demon Duke Zodiac who was trapped in ice. She was glaring at the wall with her katana in hand, but her hands and legs were shaking from fear.
Dora, who was beside her, was also shaking, but she stood her ground because she has felt this energy before and it was weaker compared to the first time she felt it.
As the smoke cleared up, it revealed the once powerful demon general Belphegor in a miserable state. Both of his horns were broken, half of his face was melted away and his facial bones could be seen, his left arm was missing and black blood was gushing out of it, his right hand was missing its fingers, his left leg was gone and his body was burnt leaving burn marks all over his body. Even with all these wounds, Belphegor was still alive.
Frankly, it was truly a miracle that he wasn't dead, but that is the perks of being a demon general. Even though he was in a miserable state, Belphegor's mana still dwarfed the mana of everyone in the room by a huge margin, which is why none of them had the confidence to approach him.
Even though Belphegor noticed the extra people in the room, he ignored them and focused all his attention at the space crack in the room.
Before anyone knew what was happening, an even bigger mana that dwarfed even Belphegor's mana was felt coming out from the cracked space. Aiko, Elano, Kirito, and even Jeanne fell on their knees not being able to withstand all the mana in the room. Dora, for some reason, was alright. It's not that the new mana was not overwhelming for her, it's just that the source of the new mana will never be harmful to her. She felt no harm from the mana, but rather comfort.
"I commend you, Demon General Belphegor, for actually surviving that attack. Truly the defense of a Demon General is not to be underestimated."
Lilia walked out from the space crack with her sword in hand and not a scratch on her. Her aura filled the entire dungeon, and it left everyone in the room besides Dora speechless.
Belphegor glared at Lilia, but he was still frightened beyond measures. "I surrender. Please have mercy and spare my life!"
Jeanne, who was on her knees, couldn't believe what she was hearing. This powerful demon general whose power is on another dimension when compared to her own was reduced to this and begging for his life to the silver white-haired girl in front of him. Wasn't this the girl who was said to be the new A-rank adventurer of Eclipsora Kingdom? Just who is she?
Lilia gave Belphegor an angry look before she pointed her sword at him. "Unfortunately for you, your sins are too big for me to spare your life. I will kill you to rid the world of evil scum like you!"
Belphegor knew at that moment that his death was close at hand.