Adam stared at the twitching, parasite-infused form of Resmond, his previous fury momentarily derailed by sheer, morbid curiosity. "What in the world... is happening to him?"

«Two of them escaped,» Alice snarled, her shoulder still oozing void-tinged blood. She glared at the spot where Tia and Tama had vanished. «They will return. With an army. We should have been faster!»

«That is a problem for the future, not the present,» Lilith observed coolly, though her many eyes were fixed warily on the transforming knight. «The immediate concern is that our would-be avenger is being repurposed by the dungeon's ecosystem. The parasites are integrating with his residual mana and life force.»

As if to prove her point, Resmond—or the thing that had been Resmond—lurched to its feet. Its movements were jerky, puppet-like, bones cracking audibly as the Grave-Serpent Parasites within acted as both muscle and sinew. Its one glowing gray eye locked onto Adam. A guttural, wet roar, devoid of words but full of mangled hatred, erupted from its ruined throat. It charged, faster than it should have been able to, its movements a brutal, unrefined mimicry of Resmond's swordsmanship, but powered by unnatural strength.

"Focus!" Adam commanded, shaking off his surprise. "We deal with this now. Ignis, you're on support, conserve your mana! Alice, harry its flanks. Lilith, bind it when you can. I'll break it."

«I need mana! Alice, potion!» Ignis demanded, panting. Her internal fire was guttering low.

«You are far too reckless with your mana reserves! You burn through it like it's nothing!» Alice retorted, even as she summoned a Mana Potion from her Void Locker and tossed it to the drake.

Ignis caught and crunched it, a surge of blue energy steadying her. «But burning things is what I do best!»

The Corpse-Knight Amalgam was upon them. It swung a fist that crackled with residual holy energy and sickly gray parasite essence. Adam met it with a coil of his tail, the impact shuddering through him. The power was immense stronger than Resmond had been in life. And when Adam's Venom of the Void dripped from a glancing bite onto its flesh, the parasites merely squirmed and regenerated over the necrotic tissue, mitigating the effect. It had a terrifying, sustained vitality.

The battle was brutal and chaotic. The Amalgam fought with no self-preservation, shrugging off Alice's Void Bolts and Ignis's searing bites. Lilith's Umbral Silk managed to tangle its legs several times, but it simply ripped through the strands with raw force, the parasites mending its torn flesh almost instantly.

«It is like fighting the dungeon itself! It feeds on the ambient death-energy here!» Lilith reported, frustration edging her psychic voice.

Adam knew they couldn't outlast it. They needed overwhelming, concentrated force. A plan crystallized in his mind, sharpened by Celestial Calculus.

«Lilith, on my mark, full bind! Ignis, ready your hottest, most focused blast! Alice, keep its attention!»

He waited for an opening. The Amalgam, in its mindless rage, charged him once more, its green eye blazing. Adam stood his ground, then at the last second, used Phantom Onslaught. He vanished from in front of the charge, reappearing to its left, then behind it, then finally above it in a dizzying triple-teleport that left the creature disoriented.

"NOW, LILITH!"

«Umbral Cocoon!» Lilith unleashed not strands, but a net of solidified shadow that wrapped around the Amalgam from all sides, anchoring it to the ground for a crucial few seconds.

The creature roared, thrashing, parasites straining against the bonds.

Adam didn't give it time. From his position above, he coiled and dove, every ounce of his legendary strength focused into a single, piercing point.

[ Monarch's Pierce ].

He struck like a meteor, his horned head and reinforced scales aimed directly at the Amalgam's chest, where the core of Resmond's mana and the largest cluster of parasites likely resided.

There was a sound like a mountain being sundered—a wet, crushing, final explosion of force. Adam felt his attack punch through armor, bone, and squirming flesh, deep into the stone below.

The Amalgam's thrashing stopped. Its gray eye flickered.

"IGNIS, FINISH IT! BURN IT TO ASH!"

«WITH PLEASURE!» Ignis roared, drawing in the last of her newly-refreshed mana. She didn't use a wide-area attack. She opened her maw and unleashed a continuous, white-hot Sun Lance directly into the massive wound Adam had created, pouring fire into the Amalgam's insides.

The creature didn't scream. It cooked. The parasites writhed and popped, the flesh charred and blackened from the inside out. The holy-tainted mana within Resmond's remains ignited, causing a secondary, cleansing explosion that blew the remains apart.

When the fire subsided, only a smoldering, fused lump of charcoal and melted metal remained where the Corpse-Knight Amalgam had been.

Silence returned, heavier than before.

Adam landed, breathing heavily. The immediate threat was gone, but the cost was clear. The cavern was a charnel house. And two humans had escaped to tell the tale.

As if the dungeon itself was tallying the score, a cascade of golden notifications began to scroll through his vision, one after another, listing the fallen.

He noticed something immediately: the experience points from the adventurers he'd slain after reaching Level 55 were noticeably lower than those from Kael and Silas, whom he'd defeated while still Level 54.

[ Adventurer (Adel) Defeated! +118 EXP | +140 EP ]

[ Adventurer (Max) Defeated! +112 EXP | +130 EP ]

[ Adventurer (Derek) Defeated! +108 EXP | +125 EP ]

[ Adventurer (Jeff) Defeated! +102 EXP | +110 EP ]

[ Adventurer (Glock) Defeated! +105 EXP | +115 EP ]

[ Adventurer (Pix) Defeated! +118 EXP | +135 EP ]

[ Adventurer (Zen) Defeated! +95 EXP | +100 EP ]

[ Corpse-Knight Amalgam (Resmond) Defeated! +155 EXP | +180 EP ]

'The points are less,' Adam thought, analyzing the data with his mind. 'Ken gave 280, Silas 265. But these are all under 120. Is it because I out-level them now?'

[ System Note: Experience Point gain from sentient beings is subject to level scaling. Defeating foes of equal or higher level yields maximum value. Defeating foes more than 1 level below the host yields progressively reduced experience. This adjustment does not affect Evolution Point gain, which is based purely on the density of the foe's essence.]

'So that's it,' Adam realized. 'These adventurers were around Level 50 to 54. Once I hit 55, they were worth less EXP to me. But their EP is still high because they're human. Monsters at that level would give even less.'

The system confirmed his suspicion: human adventurers were premium fuel, but the efficiency dropped if he grew too far beyond them.

The numbers from the final wave merged with the earlier gains, culminating in a torrent of power. The notifications condensed, then exploded into triumphant chimes.

[ Cumulative Experience Gained: 1640 EXP ]

[ Ding! Level Up! ]

[ You are now Level 56! ]

[ Ding! Level Up! ]

[ You are now Level 57! ]

[ Ding! Level Up! ]

[ You are now Level 58! ]

[ Ding! Level Up! ]

[ You are now Level 59! ]

[ Next Level: 0 / 440 ]

[ Skill Points: +4 ]

[ Crown of the Hollow Glutton - Domineering Will: 37 -> 45/1000 ]

[ Cumulative Evolution Points Gained: 1653 EP ]

[ Total Evolution Points: 1195 -> 2848 ]

He let out a long, steaming breath, the air around him shimmering with the released energy of his ascension. Four levels in a single, grueling engagement. It was an unprecedented haul, even with the diminished EXP returns.

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