Sinner System-Chapter 519: Final Dungeon - Third Floor (Part 2)

"Well, yeah, with her normal, physical speed, she would’ve been a fair bit slower than Slasher. But since she was propelling herself around with explosions, she ended up being faster.

And, more importantly, a lot more skilled. These Sentinels, they were probably created fairly recently.

They’re incredibly powerful, and while their strong instincts do make them effective fighters, they aren’t quite skilled enough to make best use of their abilities," I explained, Jaden nodding thoughtfully.

"Yeah, come to think of it, of the Sentinels I’ve seen so far, they do seem to get pretty frantic when threatened with a real challenge."

"Well, they all seem to have their own unique personalities, so we shouldn’t expect all of them to be exactly the same," Remarked Aria objectively, before adding as she glanced at Ciel, "By the way, how did you figure out how to use that Explosion Blade ability of your Personalis Arma?"

"Huh? Oh, I’m not entirely sure...when my power surged, it felt like something clicked, I got this instinctive sense of understanding over Fragor," She replied, as she glanced at her bracelet.

With her new boost, we’ve got a fair bit of power between all of us now. Jaden’s full power, between his Telekinetic Surge which triples his stats, and the additional twenty-five percent boost from his Personalis Arma stacked on top of it, his Power Level at full power should be a bit over six million now.

Aria’s full power is around the same, though she can’t maintain that for very long. My full power is at just a shade under six million, but I’d like to have my power boosts fully available by the time we reach the top floor.

That means I can’t use Descent at all, since it has a cooldown period of a full day. Though Enrage should be fine, since the cooldown is now only thirty minutes.

Cleo’s full power puts her at a bit above four million, and as for Ciel, she’s at above four point eight million.

And unlike the rest of us, she’s at that level constantly, instead of it being a temporary power boost. It’s just her base stats, plus the passive boost from her Personalis Arma.

I know Iseul and Aarav have been working on their abilities too, but I’m not really sure how much they’ve improved.

That said, they’re both plenty strong in their own rights, so they should be able to hold their own.

With Ciel’s massive increase in power, we’ve got seven X-Aces on our side. It’s too bad the Apostles don’t count, as far as the roulette of the rings of pillars go, anyway.

"If things go well, it’ll be a while before you two have to fight again. Let’s hope that turns out to be the case, because otherwise, it would mean that we suffered another casualty," Remarked Aria with a frown.

"Not necessarily, though that most likely is the case. It could just be that one person can’t fight twice in a row, we can’t say for sure with a sample size of just one, after all. Though, my gut feeling tells me that it is indeed a case of everyone needing to take a turn before someone can fight a second Sentinel," I mused thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Speaking of which, think it’s time we make our move, don’t you?" Chimed in Jaden.

"Mhm, agreed," I nodded, before adding as I glanced at the Apostles, "Alright, guys, it’s time. Split up and fan out, move as fast as you can and locate the Sentinel on this floor as quickly as possible. Ira, Acedia, you two will be by yourselves. Superbia and Luxuria, you’ll pair up, and the same goes to you two, Invidia and Ai."

"<Leave it to us>," Nodded Superbia assuredly, a determined gleam in her eyes.

That’s right, she was pretty close with Rex...she’s been quiet since he died, and I can sense her anger and remorse.

"<Won’t let ya down, Boss>."

"<We’ll do our best to find the Sentinel without delay, Chief>."

"<Mhm, sit back and take it easy, Master, we’ve got this>!"

"<Come on, let’s go and get this over with already>."

"Whoever finds the Sentinel, return back into me immediately and let me know which direction to go. Alright, guys, get going, I’m counting on you," I replied, before the six of them scattered and headed out in different directions.

"I suppose we should take this opportunity to rest up a bit, huh?" Remarked Iseul, taking a seat on the ground.

"Yeah, while this should work faster than all of us moving as a group like we did in the first two floors, it could still very well take some time," Nodded Aarav thoughtfully.

The rest of the party followed suit, sitting down and taking a moment to let our guards down and rest.

Each subsequent floor will be smaller than the last, so while we should be able to progress increasingly faster, that’ll also mean less respite.

Well, I don’t think any of us were under the illusion that this was going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. And it’s likely only going to get harder and harder the further we progress.

Time steadily ticked over as we waited, and about half an hour after I deployed the Apostles, I felt one of them return, Ira.

I swiftly hopped onto my feet, chanting to summon him, the others getting back up and gathering by me as he appeared before me.

"I take it this means you found the Sentinel?" I asked him.

"<That’s right, Chief. The creature is by the left corner at the other end of this floor. The Monsters on this floor consist of Serpentoises and Hydras, and as with the previous floors, the Sentinel appears to be a higher evolved form of those species>," He informed me.

"Got it, great work, Ira. I’ll have the other Apostles make sure we have a clear path to that spot," I replied, before focusing my intent to the others.

This is it, it won’t be much longer before we face the next threat...