The demons roared and swarmed him at the same time. Blasts of mana tore through the air, and the remaining warrior demon decided to hold back for now. Perhaps it had already seen Julius teleport and was wary of leaving the mages alone.

It was honestly a smart decision, but unfortunately, it wasn't going to help them much. Julius finally created a plate of thick mana he had been preparing this entire time. It was one that was woven with aura, making it much more durable than his other barriers.

Thus, when the blasts of mana smashed into the shield, they barely made it shake. The black mana tried to eat away at his barrier, but he used some extra aura to wipe it out completely before it had the chance.

Then, before they could launch another group attack, he launched a dozen spikes at the demons. These ones weren't created with woven aura. He hadn't gotten good enough or fast enough yet to make it reliable in combat, but they were still dangerous.

The demons created their own barrier, and he was somewhat surprised to see it handle the spikes of mana decently well. Their barrier managed to withstand three spikes before it was shattered into mana particles. The remaining spikes continued forth. He felt the mages come together and try to rip his constructs apart with some kind of mana disruption technique, but he enforced his constructs with extra willpower. Not to mention, his Concepts were already infused into them.

This meant the mages could not make the spikes flicker for a single second. Their willpower washed over the constructs, and he could see the surprise in their eyes as their attempt was rebuffed so easily.

They likely hadn't expected their disruption to be ignored so casually by someone who had appeared to be a warrior. The spikes were just about to slam into them when he spotted the lone sword demon use some kind of skill and watched with interest as it covered its body with a thin layer of black mana. The demon's sword was similarly covered in this black mana. This mana glinted in the light like the stars in the night sky.

Then, before the spikes made impact, the demon swung his sword at the incoming projectiles. He displayed an impressive showcase of skills as he elegantly sliced through most of the spikes. The demon even managed to dissipate the explosion Julius had charged into them with some kind of skill. However, no matter how skilled the demon was, it wasn't able to deal with all of the spikes at once. There were simply too many of them. It was forced to use its own body to block the rest.

Two of the spikes slammed into its protective barrier, but it wasn't enough to handle the others, and the demon was impaled in the chest by them. It was alive, but the wound was quite bad.

The mage demons tried to help their friend, but Julius had already begun to close the distance. A quick activation of his kinetic energy had him dashing toward them, and once he was close enough, he used a [Void Step] to appear right behind one of the mages.

He noticed that while it was able to sense him appear behind it, it could not do anything since it wasn't fast enough to react in time.

Julius blew its chest open just as it was trying to conjure some kind of attack.

He was gone after another quick use of [Void Step], appearing beside another one. This time, he manipulated the existing gauntlet around his arm and shaped it into a long blade. The mages had already created a barrier to protect themselves and were slightly different than the ones he had seen before.

These ones had a bit more mana condensed into them and had a Concept or two infused into their structure. He noticed that they required much more concentration to maintain, and the demons weren't able to attack while holding them in place. With that being said, he was able to feel that the barrier was much stronger than their previous ones.

He still wanted to test their strength, though, and slammed his bladed arm into the shield. He made sure to infuse his Pure Severance Concept into it. It managed to hold up pretty well, all things considered; he wasn't able to break through immediately. However, no matter how much mana was packed inside, it couldn't withstand the full brunt of Julius's mana and the addition of his Sharpness, Force, and Will Concepts.

His Emblem also lit up as he felt it helped him overcome the opposing Concepts more easily. After a brief moment, the blade slid right through the barrier, as if it wasn't even there. However, the barrier managed to shift the angle of his attack just enough that he sliced through the demon's arm instead of the neck he had been aiming for.

He sensed another blast of mana coming after him from the other remaining demon and was forced to create a barrier of mana at his back. He then frowned when some kind of aura skill attacked him. It wasn't quite painful, but its purpose was to destabilize his control over his skills. He was forced to use his own aura to counteract it, leaving him open for a brief moment.

A moment that the demons didn't fail to take advantage of. Unlike the usual blasts of mana, he was struck by a chaotic storm of black mana. His barrier wasn't protecting his entire body, and the storm began to eat away at his flesh.

He quickly used some aura and mana to protect himself. But despite his body skill that heightened his defense, it wasn't enough to completely save himself. He ignored the small injuries for the moment and as he was obscured by the storm, he disappeared with [Void Step].

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Unlike before, there must have been too much mana and aura around to sense him. They weren't prepared for him to teleport behind them. The first one didn't even turn around before Julius's bladed arm sheared its head off.

The second one, who had already gotten their arm removed, barely reacted in time and threw up another shield. Julius was more prepared this time, and before his blade struck the shield, he used some aura to deteriorate the barrier's integrity. It didn't completely destroy it, but it was enough that the blade met no resistance and cut right through. The demon managed to angle itself away, but the blade still cut deeply into its neck.

Panicking because of its injury, all of its skills disappeared in a flash. The demon wrapped its own hands around its throat in an attempt to stem its bleeding, but there was no use, the wound was too deep. A few seconds later, it bled out.

After ensuring they were all taken care of, Julius got the notification.

Congratulations, Eight Floor Cleared.

Almost immediately afterward, he felt the rift wrap him up in spatial energy. He didn't get a moment to recover or rest, and he wasn't able to resist as it pulled him away. This time it was different, though. The warp felt a bit more chaotic and not as smooth as it usually was.

The chaotic waves of space rippled over his body, but the rift's protective veil meant he was safe. Luckily, even without the rift's protection, he would have been shielded because of his newly acquired Space Concept and his skill that offered him safety in such situations.

With that being said, he couldn't help but feel uneasy as his gut told him something was different this time around. It was why he was already preparing.

When he arrived at the location, he threw out his perception skill in a wide net, making sure that he didn't miss anything. To his surprise, he didn't sense any large group of monsters. He only sensed one.

It was a figure sitting on a throne at the far end of the room. From what he could see, it looked very similar to the demons he had just faced. Only this one had much more developed features, the horns were more complex, and it had some kind of rugged skin that looked closer to stone than flesh. Its red eyes were also glowing with an intensity that the other demons had lacked.

Also, unlike the other demons, whose genders were harder to determine, he was quite confident that this demon was male.

What bothered Julius, though, was the feeling he was getting from this demon. Despite Julius suddenly appearing, the demon made no moves to attack him. It simply leaned on one arm on its throne as it examined Julius with impassive eyes. Unlike the demons from before who had proudly shown off their auras, this one didn't bother to do so.

It was still unleashed, but the demon wasn't going out of its way to use it as an intimidation tool. However, it didn't really need to either. The aura was so much more powerful than the other demons that just its passive effect was more intimidating.

The fact that the demon was Tier 4 certainly helped matters.

While the demon was still staring at him, Julius read the notification that he felt pop up.

Ninth Floor Condition: Defeat the Lord.

However, he widened his eyes as he read the next notification.

Notice: Rift parameters changed…

He felt a weird flood of energy rush throughout the rift, eventually coalescing at a single place. At the center of this energy stood the demon.

Ninth Floor Condition: Survive.

He widened his eyes as the condition drastically changed all of a sudden. He didn't get a chance to think hard about what was happening because it was at this moment that the demon chose to speak.

"Hmm, interesting…" the demon said softly, completely ignoring Julius. Then, it examined the surrounding environment. Julius watched as it clenched its fist experimentally and heard it mutter to itself.

"Weak…"

Julius didn't choose to speak because he was much too focused on regenerating as much mana as possible. The previous fight had drained more mana than he would have liked with his flashy uses of [Void Step]. He still had enough, but considering that the demon in front of him felt like one of the most powerful Tier 4s he had come across so far, he believed that he would need as much as he could get.

He also subtly started to create small plates of aura-woven mana constructs around his arms.

However, this didn't go undetected by the demon as it immediately whipped its head to stare at Julius with a crooked grin. "Oh, so it seems like you have some level of skill then. I thought you were just some poor, ignorant Tier 3." The demon scoffed. "Not that it's going to change your fate."

"Ignorant?"

Julius chose this moment to talk. If the demon wanted to give him more time to regenerate mana and prepare, then he was more than happy to let him.

The demon nodded sagely. "Yes, all of you humans think you are so clever, but fail to realize just how little you actually know." Julius didn't appreciate how arrogant the demon was behaving.

"You are very conceited for something that is trapped inside this rift," Julius couldn't help but retort.

The demon's red eyes flashed intensely, and he sat up in his chair angrily. "What did you say to me?"

"You're nothing but a fake generated by this rift. Such arrogance doesn't suit you," Julius said with a taunting smile.

The demon stared at him intently but surprisingly didn't choose to attack right away. Instead, it laughed sardonically and leaned back. "Perhaps, you are right. I don't know how I got here, but don't think that I am just going to allow a Tier 3, no matter how talented, to speak to me that way."

Julius scrunched his brows. "Talented? Believe me, I am not talented," he scoffed.

The demon stared at him like he had grown another head. "You truly believe that, don't you?"

Julius shrugged. "You should see some of my other friends, they are truly talented. I am just a cheater," he said while simultaneously activating his skills. He had already sensed that the demon was preparing something and didn't want to get caught unprepared.

The demon gave him one last look of disbelief, but seemed to no longer be in the mood for talking because he stood up from his throne for the first time. Julius spotted a small, dense halo of black mana appear around the demon's head. This halo was small, but the power it emitted was undoubtedly strong.

Julius took a calming breath as he readied himself.

"Let's test that, shall we?" The demon said tauntingly.