"That was your best attack," Heaven and Earth commented. "Such pristine destruction, such intense rage. You got so far, but you can barely scratch the surface of our being."
Noah laughed. His expression showed nothing more than cold madness, but his mind was calm. That peace allowed him to confirm that Heaven and Earth were right. His swords couldn't pierce the lightning bolts no matter how much he pushed and tilted.
"We must have hurt your pride," Heaven and Earth continued while Noah struggled to push his blades deeper into their body. "Good. An ant should know its place."
The lightning bolts seemed to react to Heaven and Earth's mental state. They grew stronger and louder according to their intentions.
The Cursed Sword and Demonic Sword were barely hanging on while being so close to the lightning bolts. Noah had to constantly replace the dark matter around his blades to prevent them from suffering damage. However, his efforts became useless once Heaven and Earth grew serious.
Sparks left the lightning bolts that made Heaven and Earth's body and stretched through the protective dark matter. The defensive layer shattered in no time, and damage soon expanded on the blades.
The Cursed Sword and the Demonic Sword were sentient weapons. They felt pain when those sparks ran through their structures and left large cracks behind them.
However, the two blades didn't give Heaven and Earth any satisfaction. They didn't cry in pain. The rules could only hear a defying roar and a loud, high-pitched noise coming out of them.
Heaven and Earth seemed confused about that development. They turned their head to glance at Noah, but they didn't notice anything strange. Yet, everything changed when Noah exploded with even more power than before.
"Do you have any idea how much potential I get from hurting you?" Noah growled.
Heaven and Earth finally realized what was happening. The spark Noah had previously cut away was insignificant for the rulers, but Noah was a mere liquid stage expert. The sole fact that he could make a dent on a quasi-rank 10 being deepened his very world.
New potential flowed through the two blades, allowing them to fend off the sparks. Dark matter filled the cracks while they expressed even more power. Noah's physical strength also reached higher levels and made him push the swords slightly past the crackling figure's surface.
The new damage was slightly more than nothing. Noah had merely forced his blades into already unstable areas of Heaven and Earth's body. Yet, two sparks left the crackling figure, and more power filled Noah's world after the event.
Noah didn't hesitate to deploy that potential. Part of it went to his mind to fuel violent thoughts, while the rest went to his centers of power, weapons, and companions.
Duanlong did its best to absorb superficial layers of energy from the crackling figure. Part of the dark matter in Noah's fiendish armor transformed into violent gales that crashed on Heaven and Earth. Night even added its power to the blades to open a path through the lightning bolts.
Meanwhile, Noah's destruction, pride, greed, hunger, sharpness, and anger reached incredible levels of power and added different natures to his attack. He didn't want the slash to be a mere expression of his physical prowess. He needed to add depth to his offensive.
Heaven and Earth budged. The force pushing on their back made them bend forward slightly, but the event didn't actually change the current balance.
Nevertheless, the sole fact that Noah had improved in a matter of two exchanges revealed a new truth. Unleashing everything he had while remaining on Heaven and Earth could kill him, but it could also accelerate his growth.
Heaven and Earth didn't want Noah to die just yet, and, most importantly, they couldn't allow him to use them as a training dummy. The rulers had to take care of other matters first, and they weren't willing to lose face in the meantime.
Four sparks left Heaven and Earth, but the edges of Noah's ethereal blackness expanded far more than he expected. He had managed to make the rulers move. He had forced his will on a superior existence, and his world reacted to that.
Potential beyond Noah's wildest expectations filled his world before flowing into his centers of power. He felt stronger than ever, and even his incredible body started to struggle to keep up. He had long since surpassed the limits of the liquid stage, but he was now reaching a far higher level.
Still, a thick lightning bolt shot out of Heaven and Earth's back and interrupted Noah's offensive. He had to divert most of his new power into his defensive measures and resilience, but he couldn't stop the attack from sending him flying away.
Heaven and Earth watched Noah being pushed toward the storm for a few seconds before moving their focus back on the landmass. Lightning bolts gathered on their palms and condensed to create crackling white spheres that illuminated their surroundings.
Most of the higher plane turned white due to the immense power radiated by Heaven and Earth's spheres. It was unclear how much damage the rulers could inflict with those attacks, but everyone understood that letting them act freely was too dangerous.
Divine Demon and the others struggled to make their way through the blinding radiance. The sheer pressure radiated by the spheres was too heavy for them. Yet, they eventually gave up on crossing the light without suffering injuries.
Alexander, Divine Demon, Sword Saint, Wilfred, and Supreme Thief reached the rulers, but no one could see them among that blinding light. Only Heaven and Earth could notice the many injuries on their bodies, and they made sure to open even more of them.
Heaven and Earth let go of one of the spheres, which exploded right after leaving their palm. The energy inside the item fused with the blinding radiance and added electric properties that the various experts couldn't hope to oppose.
A series of multicolored lights flashed among the blinding domain before the white glow vanished completely. The void regained its natural color, revealing five fuming figures flying toward different areas of the storms.
The battle appeared utterly one-sided. The best experts in Noah's organization couldn't do anything against Heaven and Earth, but that was quite normal.
Actually, it was beyond surprising how mere rank 9 experts had survived so many attacks launched by a quasi-rank 10 existence. Heaven and Earth were partially to blame for that, but they had never planned to let their opponents retain so much strength.
It was clear that Noah's core team wasn't only above Heaven and Earth's expectations. It was also improving during those one-sided exchanges. The rulers could conclude that they wouldn't be able to act so freely forever, but they wouldn't mind that as long as they completed their preparations.
Heaven and Earth's second sphere had condensed its radiance inside its structure. Its behavior resembled a bomb that the rulers launched toward the landmass as soon as the area was clear.
The sphere descended at high speed, and Shafu felt powerless at that scene. It tried to change the trajectory of the item, but its influence couldn't affect it at all.
Still, the sphere slowed down anyway, and chunks of its power even left its structure to fly in a seemingly random direction. Soon, more and more rivers of energy formed until the bomb transformed into a messy mass of lightning bolts.
The lightning bolts weren't dense enough to resist that external influence. They quickly shattered and fused with the rivers to fly in a single direction. Their colors even started to change and turned completely orange right before landing on June's chest.
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