Birth of the Demonic Sword

Alexander could understand what was happening, but he was struggling to accept it. Injuries filled his insides, and blood rained out of his face. He couldn't see, hear, smell, or taste, but his consciousness took the place of his occluded senses and allowed him to keep track of the menacing giant cube focusing inspecting his every move.

"It feels hopeless, doesn't it?" Dwight heaved a helpless sigh. "This is the true power of the rulers. This is what they can do after taking away your place in the world. Honestly, I don't understand how any of you still hopes to feat them."

Dwight didn't need to do much in that situation. He didn't attack nor move. His focus was on providing energy to the cube, but his mental waves didn't affect its functioning. The item moved on its own, and it was doing an exceptional job even without the cultivator's help.

"I must admit that their path can be hard to accept," Dwight continued as his eyes moved toward the sky and lost themselves in the endless whiteness. "Look at me. I've spent hundreds of thousands of years chasing the peak inside their system, but they bind me to the counter of a rank 8 hybrid. Normal experts would never accept this outcome, but that's when faith comes into play."

"The faith in a system that pretends to strive for fairness," Alexander responded, and the blood flowing out of his mouth made his words hard to understand.

"That's the whole point of owning the system, isn't it?" Dwight chuckled. "Don't be a hypocrite. All of us would have bent the rules in our favor if we had the chance. The only difference between us and Heaven and Earth is that we don't sit above the whiteness."

"And you dare to call yourself a cultivator," Alexander snorted as a pale-azure light seeped out of his skin.

His body began to absorb energy at his speed and fix some of his internal injuries, but the cube released crackling noises as soon as the ability activated.

The sparks that ran among the small cubes that made the entire item intensified and made those pieces create some distance among themselves. They started to move at that point, and the weapon condensed again after it gained a different internal arrangement.

The cube began to fill the sky with faint white energy after its structure returned to its previous size and the sparks calmed down. The white fuel fused with the air and became part of the laws that Alexander's body shattered to gain nutrients and keep his healing ability active. Still, those true meanings soon became toxic for his flesh.

Alexander's body directly rejected the energy flowing inside his figure. Pieces of his flesh exploded as the toxic power made the innate ability malfunction and caused backlashes. His skin opened on its own, and patches of muscles fell from him before he managed to stop his technique and suppress its effects.

"You just don't want to learn," Dwight sighed. "This is already the eleventh countered ability. How many more do you want to test before you understand what's going on?"

"As many as I need to!" Alexander shouted as dark-silver energy covered his figure and made his skin gain metallic properties.

The new innate ability couldn't heal his injuries, but it forced his skin to condense and reflect the white shades that fell on it. The patches of missing flesh shrunk as they experienced the same transformation. The exposed muscles changed color and obtained a tough membrane that covered their surface. The wounds remained, but they stopped bleeding and remaining weak spots on his defenses.

The cube didn't let that matter go. The pieces of its structure moved as it studied the ability, and a red lightning bolt shot out of its center once it condensed again.

Alexander was in no condition to dodge the incoming attack. The lightning bolt fell on his head and spread its energy throughout his body. The scarlet sparks destabilized the pieces of skin and flesh that had gained metallic properties and made them crack, opening a new series of injuries.

"Twelve," Dwight commented in an annoyed tone. "How long do you want to keep going before understanding that you have no chances to win?

Dwight was the embodiment of confidence in that situation, but a wave of intense energy suddenly spread from near the cauldron and filled the entirety of the stormless area.

The cultivator couldn't help but glance at Noah and the others at that point. He had also lost track of the battlefield after the cube arrived, so the sudden discharge of power startled him and moved his focus back to the main reason behind his presence there.

Heaven and Earth had sent Dwight to protect the cauldron, but the item was in the middle tier of the ninth rank. Its materials weren't something that rank 8 experts could affect quickly, even when it came to the strongest existences in the eighth rank in the entire world.

Dwight was even aware of Heaven and Earth's calculations. He knew that the rulers had sent him to the area before the cauldron approached a critical condition. The rulers wanted to give him a long window and ensure his victory, but doubts appeared in his mind after the discharge of energy.

Noah, Divine Demon, Sword Saint, and Wilfred had noticed Alexander's injured state, but they had decided to deploy their strategy anyway. Rendering the cauldron's useless would make all their efforts worth it. Instead, moving to help Alexander would only give the item enough time to generate more ghosts.

The best choice appeared obvious when inspecting the, but the main issue remained. The four experts didn't know if they could destroy the cauldron quickly, but there didn't seem to be another solution. It was time to reveal their trump cards and show to Dwight their power of paths free of Heaven and Earth's influence.

Dwight inspected the energy that was flowing into the environment. Fear spread in his insides as he experienced the raging waves of power that the four experts could generate. Nothing made sense anymore in his mind at that point. His body shook as he sensed the pure destructive force that mere rank 8 existences could wield.

Dwight instinctively moved toward the group in the distance, but a sorry figure appeared on his path and blocked his advance. Alexander was on the verge of fainting, but determination seeped out of his bleeding eyes. He was ready to give his life to make that mission succeed.

Still, the cube never left him off the hook. The item chased after Alexander and prepared an ability that could put an end to the hybrid's life, but the latter also unleashed a massive surge of energy that made his level unclear.

A crazy laugh followed his gesture. Alexander couldn't help but feel elated. His recent exchanges with the cube had reminded him of something that his previous condition had forced him to forget a long time ago. He felt whole for the first time in millennia, and the cube tried to prepare countermeasures when it became aware of the dangerousness of his state.

The item studied Alexander's intense aura, but it didn't discover anything specific. The cube became ready to reassemble and cast something that could counter the incoming ability. Still, an overwhelming hunger suddenly came out of the expert's mind and made cracks open in the sky around his figure.