Birth of the Demonic Sword

Noah didn't know how to turn those marks into an inscribed item that could control the Space Hounds' innate ability. His expertise covered different fields, and ideas on how to fuse those materials with his techniques already filled his mind.

Yet, Noah also had a vast experience facing threats that his cultivation level didn't allow him to overcome. He had often relied on tricks and shameless tactics to win certain battles, especially when it came to his time in the lower plane.

His idea to turn the runes into a weapon was crucial to developing a strategy to give the group a chance against the rank 9 leader. King Elbas and the other inscription masters immediately began to work on those marks, but the experts didn't stop their advance.

The inscription masters required materials to create the intended weapon. Most Space Hounds only had three to four marks, and they weren't enough to cover the needs of the tests.

Noah, King Elbas, and Wilfred also didn't want to give up on their loot for the team's sake. They preferred to advance through the dimensional tunnel and hope in new attacks to gather more materials.

The dimensional tunnel seemed to have checkpoints. Noah and the others would travel for months without meeting magical beasts, only to find a massive army waiting for them in the following areas.

Noah guessed that the dimensional innate ability didn't give the Space Hounds complete control over that area. That power probably had limits, which would even explain how that species had decent fertility.

King Elbas and the other inscription masters soon confirmed his guess. Studying those marks gave them a deeper understanding of the laws concerning space. The experts could eventually find weaker spots in the fabric of the dimensional tunnel that the Space Hounds used for their attacks.

The inscription masters didn't hide their discoveries from the rest of the group. They passed their understanding to their companions so that all of them could learn to find where the Space Hounds were likely to appear.

The development of the inscribed weapons proceeded smoothly since the group always found new materials. Those experts ended up having so many corpses that they started side-projects while the inscription masters handled the main aspect of the plan.

The marks interested Noah. He could sense that the laws contained inside those materials would help his movement techniques, but his ideas didn't stop there.

The dark world had always been a powerful technique, but his opponents rarely gave him the chance to use it properly. Noah often fought experts stronger than him, so the dark matter failed to affect their laws.

That weakness was inevitable, but the evolution of the dark matter limited those flaws. The dark world could affect liquid stage experts at its current power, but it was too frail to be important in those battles.

Noah mostly used the dark world to support his other techniques, but he didn't dare to forget about it. The ability was a natural evolution of the domains, and it could still improve.

'The six elements can't be the limits of the dark world,' Noah thought during one of the usual breaks. 'It can't have light due to my nature, but I should be able to add something else. I wonder if I can create a dark space after studying these marks.'

Noah would never waste time learning how to wield Heaven and Earth's laws. He preferred to copy and transform them into personal versions of the same true meanings and add them to his existence.

'Maybe I can even add time to the dark world,' Noah wondered. 'I already have a first version of dark time thanks to Shandal's existence, but it needs far more work to become something that belongs only to me.'

Limits that had always afflicted his existence began to vanish as his power increased. Noah was already a rank 8 expert who knew the path toward the ninth rank. His influence naturally started to flow into fields that he had never dared to affect before.

The travel resumed before the experts took another break. The group had developed a silent cooperation during that period, and tension built as they dived deeper into the dimensional tunnel.

The number of upper tier magical beasts continuously increased. Every new battle featured more creatures at that level. The group was clearly about to approach the center of the pack, and they even began to expect the rank 9 leader to appear soon.

That tension forced the inscription masters to work even harder and eventually led the entire group to stop the exploration until those experts developed the weapon. They had reached the point when it was too dangerous to proceed without their trump card.

Noah lost himself in his tests while King Elbas and the other experts continued their project. He had to give up on part of his loot to help the team, but he kept most of those corpses for himself.

'This ability is far different from Miss Void's technique,' Noah thought during his tests. 'It affects a different aspect of space, something that I've only destroyed in the past.'

It was normal to face those difficulties, especially since Noah didn't want to copy the Space Hounds. He only d.e.s.i.r.ed to understand how they affected the space before creating his version of that power.

His studies remained inconclusive since King Elbas and the others eventually completed their procedure. They created a series of disposable upper tier orbs that could force the space to stabilize and reinforce the barriers among the dimensions.

King Elbas even believed that the distorted areas would close on their own after the items activated, but he couldn't test that. He had spots with distorted space at hand, but he lacked enough materials to make new disposable weapons.

The group decided to resume their travel after the inscription masters succeeded in their feat. The tension didn't vanish since they still had to face a rank 9 creature, but their fears lost intensity. The experts even took fewer breaks since they didn't need to focus on their strategy anymore.

A few battles without any trace of the rank 9 leader followed their departure. The experts took that chance to gather as many corpses as possible, but they didn't have much success in that field.

The platoons of Space Hounds now featured almost ten upper tier specimens, and they required most of the experts to suppress them. Only the few existences that avoided that battle could gather corpses, but they failed to reach a decent number most of the time.

The Space Hounds didn't even remain in those areas for a long time. They mostly tried to inflict some damage with their sudden attacks, but they always retreated with they saw their numbers falling.

Fighting those magical beasts had almost become a habit for the experts. Their studies had led them to develop battle tactics that could ignore the overwhelming difference in numbers.

Everything seemed to go smoothly, even better than the first part of the journey. The Space Hounds' attacks also stopped being a reckless charge but turned into precise assaults meant to weaken the group.

That situation didn't last since the group eventually met what they feared.

The dimensional tunnel shook as areas of distorted space appeared around the group. The experts had reached another checkpoint, and they had predicted that outcome.

Yet, something different happened during that event. The distorted space in one area expanded until it covered half of the tunnel. A silverish halo also seeped out of that twisted air and announced the arrival of something powerful.

A dense aura spread through the dimensional tunnel as the rank 9 leader peeked out of its twisted space and moved its hungry eyes on the group. Drool even fell from the creature's mouth, and a deafening growl filled the area.

The terrain and rocky walls trembled as those loud growls spread through the air and reached Noah's group. The experts had to recall their consciousness to resist the pressure that its voice carried.