"How are you doing this?!" Gratia shouted in disbelief. "How are you destroying a power that comes directly from Heaven and Earth?!"
Night didn't move, but invisible attacks continued to shoot out of its figure. Cuts and cracks opened on Gratia's world whenever the Pterodactyl hit her, and her existence soon surpassed the point when Heaven and Earth could heal her without a complete rebirth.
Night stared at the disbelief, reluctance, and unwillingness on Gratia's face. It knew those emotions far too well. They were the same feelings it had experienced during its first life when it had ascended only to find a world full of light.
Heaven and Earth set the system and the fairness, but it didn't involve feelings in their calculations. Everything was a matter of balance between potential and punishments, but they had never cared about the obvious flaws of that environment.
A constant suppression gave birth to stronger existences. Heaven and Earth had partially done that on purpose since they wanted to absorb laws capable of surviving their punishments, but they had also generated monsters with that method.
The existences that managed to resist their punishments and temptations even after reaching the ninth rank became members of an elite group that surpassed what Heaven and Earth could comprehend with their corrupted fairness.
The rulers had taken them as unavoidable flaws that their success in taking control over the world would eventually fix. Still, they didn't consider the emotions that their followers would experience in front of them. They simply didn't care enough to think about that issue.
Instead, Night had stood on both sides of the fairness. It had been the clueless magical beast that Heaven and Earth's system had forced to live in a world where it couldn't survive and the mistake capable of surpassing their comprehension.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtNight could confirm its achievements in Gratia's crumbling face, but it felt no happiness in that event. That cultivator was only a mere pawn. It had taken the first step toward its goal, but the sky still shone on its body.
The Pterodactyl looked at the sky as the expert above it fell apart and transformed into a darkness that couldn't blend with Heaven and Earth's world. The white layer felt so close when looked from that position, but Night knew that the path was still long. However, a glance at Snore's regrowing body filled it with confidence. Noah would bring everyone there. It was only a matter of time.
"Why?" Gratia continued to complain as her voice broke. "I had the power of the rule-."
Gratia couldn't complete her line since her figure crumbled and her whiteness transformed into a current of dark energy that flowed inside Night. The Pterodactyl stared at the temporary dark area that its previous attack had created before diverting its gaze once the world filled it with new laws.
The storms returned to fill the area, but Night barely noticed them. Its body drew black lines on the sky as the sharp lines of its body cut the chaotic laws that it crossed, and that energy naturally flew inside it.
Snore voiced an angry hiss as its body completely regrew. It wanted to complain and bicker, but it remained silent since Noah's well-being had the priority.
The dark matter that made Snore's body opened and brought Noah into the outside world. The snake let him rest on its scales, and Night neared him while pointing its pointy head toward his chest.
Snore didn't feel any worry. Night could potentially have the power to sever every connection it had with Noah and become a separate existence. Yet, the companions knew each other too well not to understand what they were thinking. They had literally lived inside the same mind for millennia, so a simple glance was enough to study each other's intentions.
Dark currents flowed out of Night's lines and entered Noah's chest. That was the power absorbed from Gratia's existence after Heaven and Earth had filled her world. It contained the amount of energy that only liquid stage cultivators could have, which made it immensely valuable for Noah.
Still, the black hole refused to absorb that energy. It pushed it outside Noah's chest through currents of dark matter that flowed back inside Night's lines.
Noah was still in the middle of his mental coma, but the black hole knew him well enough to make decisions in his place. However, both Snore and Night were also aware of their master's character, so they immediately understood the reason behind that refusal.
"This is only the first of the white things that I'll kill," Night solemnly announced. "Let me offer my first victim to you, the existence who has made all of this possible."
"Besides, you need more power," Snore continued through a hiss. "You might have to evolve some more of us, and I won't tolerate you leaving the Pterodactyl above us."
Night waited for a few seconds before sending that energy back into Noah's chest. The process went smoothly that time. The black hole let those dark currents flow into its insides where it could purify and turn them into power to send toward the organs in need.
Even Noah's insane requirements had to bow in front of the energy of a peak liquid stage cultivator. Gratia had reached the step right before the apex of the cultivation journey during the last empowerment, so the entirety of the higher plane would struggle to provide something better.
The black hole sent part of the energy to reactivate all the functions of Noah's mind. He finally blinked after that wave of energy awakened his consciousness, and his mental waves quickly resumed to flow normally.
Part of Gratia's energy went on his dantian and reinforced its walls. Noah wouldn't normally need that, but his aspects had become too heavy for the current level of his centers of power. He needed more, even if that meant slowing down his growth even more than that.
The largest share of energy went toward his body. Noah's flesh cheered as he straightened his position and sat on Snore. He grew stronger on the spot, and his potential also increased due to the victory over Gratia, but he still felt that it wasn't time for his breakthrough.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm'Well, someone advanced,' Noah thought as he patted Snore's scales while glancing at the Pterodactyl by his side.
"You know that I've heard everything you've said, right?" Noah teased.
"I have said nothing but the truth," Night proudly declared.
"If only I think about how grumpy you were back then," Noah laughed. "I didn't think the cultivation journey would turn you into a cutie pie."
"A what?!" Night shouted in disgust, and Snore almost lost its balance due to the loud laughs that escaped its mouth.
"Give me back my darkness!" Night complained.
"It's too late for that," Noah replied.
"I will steal all the targets from now on," Night continued. "You won't even get to smell their energy."
"Sure, sure," Noah laughed. "You have clearly deserved some rewards."
Night snorted before glancing at the sky. The storms tried to hinder its vision, but they couldn't do much now that it had stepped on the ninth rank. Its power even started to fall, but it quickly stabilized a bit above the bottom of the lower tier.
"We are almost there," Night commented, and Noah couldn't help but join it in its stare at the sky.
****
Author's notes: The third chapter should arrive in less than one hour.