Arthur stepped through the golden portal of the Fifth Floor, and for the first time in his life, he felt a weight that didn't come from his backpack. It was the weight of the atmosphere itself. The Fifth Floor was not a dungeon; it was a sprawling, infinite battlefield of golden sand and floating white marble temples. The sky above was a deep, royal crimson, and instead of a sun, there were nine glowing halos that pulsated with divine energy.
[Ding!]
[You have entered the Fifth Floor: The Celestial Battleground.]
[Danger Level: SS-Rank (Calamity Grade).]
[Warning: You are now in the sight of the 'Watcher Gods'. Your actions will determine the fate of the human realm.]
Arthur looked down at his hands. His Shadow Monarch armor was vibrating, the dark energy struggling to remain stable in a place filled with so much holy light. Beside him, Igris and the Frost Giant King had been forcibly summoned back into his shadow.
"Too much light?" Arthur whispered, his eyes narrowing. "Or is the floor itself trying to reject me?"
Suddenly, a sound like a thousand trumpets echoed across the golden sands. From the floating temples above, hundreds of figures descended. They weren't monsters. They were 'Sentinels of Light'—warriors clad in white and gold armor, with wings made of pure solar fire. Each one of them radiated an aura that was easily on par with an S-Rank hunter.
[Target: Celestial Sentinel x500.]
[Rank: S-Grade.]
"Halt, Defiler!" the lead Sentinel cried out, his voice a choir of a hundred souls. "This is the realm of the first trial. No shadow, no matter how great, is allowed to stain the golden sands of the Creator."
Arthur didn't reach for his dagger. He simply raised the 'Sovereign's Command Staff'. "Stain? You call the darkness a stain? I call it the truth that remains after your light fades away."
The Sentinels didn't waste time with words. They charged. Five hundred S-Rank beings moving in perfect unison was a sight that would have made any army on Earth surrender instantly. They raised their flaming spears, and a beam of concentrated solar energy struck the spot where Arthur stood.
BOOM!
The explosion was so powerful it turned the golden sand into molten glass. But as the smoke cleared, Arthur was standing there, his left hand raised, holding a spinning sphere of absolute darkness.
"Void Absorption," Arthur said coldly.
[Ding! Passive Skill '100x Multiplier' Activated!]
[Absorbed Solar Mana multiplied x100!]
[Your Mana Pool has reached the 'Divine Tier'.]
Arthur's shadow began to expand at an impossible rate. It didn't just cover the floor; it rose up into the crimson sky, blotting out the nine halos.
"You want to see a stain?" Arthur's voice boomed. "I'll show you an ocean of darkness. Arise! My Eternal Legion!"
This time, the extraction was different. It wasn't just his current soldiers. The system combined the souls of every monster Arthur had killed since the first floor. The Shadow Arachnids, the Skeletons, the Ghouls, the Ice Golems, and the Shadow Drake—they all emerged, but they were mutated. Their bodies were infused with the void energy of a level 101 Monarch.
The sky was suddenly filled with thousands of spectral dragons and knights. The battle that followed was not a fight; it was a slaughter. The Sentinels of Light, who had guarded this floor for eons, found themselves being torn apart by shadows that could regenerate instantly.
Arthur moved through the chaos, his black dagger flickering like a heartbeat. Every time he struck a Sentinel, the 100x multiplier gave him enough experience to make his soul tremble.
[Ding! Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!...]
[Host has reached Level 120!]
In the middle of the carnage, Arthur saw him. A figure sitting on a throne of light atop the largest floating temple. He was a being that looked like a man, but he was fifty feet tall and had twelve wings. He was the 'Judge of the Fifth Floor'.
"Mortal," the Judge spoke, and the very foundations of the dungeon shook. "You have broken the balance. You have used the power of the Void to devour the Light. Do you realize what you are becoming?"
Arthur flew up, propelled by wings of shadow, and landed on the marble platform of the temple. He looked the Judge in the eye. "I am becoming the one who will never have to beg for mercy again. I am becoming the one who will decide the fate of those who left me to die."
The Judge stood up, drawing a sword that looked like it was forged from a dying star. "Then die as a god, for a mortal cannot carry the weight of what comes next."
The Judge swung his sword. The strike was so fast it transcended time. But Arthur's system had already predicted it.
[Ding! Skill 'Pre-Cognition' Activated!]
[100x Multiplier: You have viewed 100 possible futures in 0.01 seconds.]
Arthur tilted his head, the star-sword missing him by a fraction of an inch. He thrust his dagger into the Judge's knee, and then he activated his most terrifying skill yet.
"Sovereign's Devour!"
A mouth of shadows opened up on the blade, biting into the Judge's divine essence.
[Ding!]
[You are absorbing the 'Essence of a Lesser God'.]
[100x Multiplier Activated!]
[Divine Essence multiplied x100!]
The Judge screamed, his light fading as Arthur literally ate his power. The floating temples began to crumble, and the golden sands turned black. Arthur felt his body evolving, his skin becoming as hard as black diamond and his hair turning white like the void.
[Evolution Complete.]
[Host is now a 'Void Sovereign'.]
[New Rank: EX (Tier of the Gods).]
As the Judge fell, his body dissolving into dust, he whispered one last thing. "The gate... the gate to the surface... it's not an exit, Arthur. It's an invasion. You aren't clearing the dungeon... you are opening the door for Them."
Arthur stood alone on the broken throne, his level now reaching 150. He looked at his inventory, which was now filled with 'God-tier' weapons and artifacts. He was the most powerful being in existence, but the Judge's words haunted him.
He looked toward the portal of the Sixth Floor. It was no longer blue or gold. It was a pitch-black rift in reality.
"If the gods want to invade my world," Arthur said, his voice echoing through the ruins of the celestial battlefield. "They better bring a bigger army. Because I'm going to make their heaven my new dungeon."