Birth of the Demonic Sword

'Missed,' Noah commented in his mind while his companions flew out of his figure.

The strange creature didn't release any aura. It didn't even carry energy. Noah and the others couldn't keep track of its movements with their mental waves or senses. Only their eyes could make them understand where the monster went, so Noah didn't hesitate to add the companions to the search.

Duanlong suddenly found the target high in the distance, and Noah promptly waved the Demonic Sword in that direction. His rain of black slashes couldn't grow since the environment lacked energy, but they still carried enough power to make the creature abandon its position and interrupt the absorption.

"On the right!" Noah shouted an instant after the creature moved.

Sword Saint didn't even bother to look at his right. He waved his silver blade, and a massive slash came out of it. The attack reached the sky before curving and flying right under it.

The empty creature had reappeared under the sky and was trying to absorb more black spots, but Sword Saint's slash forced it to jump away from the white layer.

Divine Demon pointed his azure blade toward the descending empty creature, and a sharp beam came out of his ethereal weapon. The attack touched the monster, but it only managed to pierce its shoulder.

The corners of the creature's wide mouth turned downward, but its body remained intact. The azure beam entered its black insides and disappeared without doing any evident damage.

That scene made Noah and Sword Saint wear ugly expressions. They were aware of Divine Demon's power, but the empty creature had endured it easily. The faint reaction that it showed wasn't enough to satisfy them.

'What's its level?' Noah wondered even if he knew that he couldn't find an answer.

The empty creature belonged to a completely different realm. Noah might have guessed correctly about its law, but that only made things more difficult. After all, non-existence or non-energy weren't features that he could quantify.

The monster could be in the ninth rank, but the three experts wouldn't be able to realize it due to the lack of aura and energy in their opponent. Their hope in the battle came from the creature's reactions since it kept dodging their attacks.

Divine Demon didn't appear bothered by the almost lack of reactions of his opponents. He actually liked that the empty creature could endure his attacks and force him to exert more power. His challenges gained real value only when he had to struggle to win.

The empty creature charged toward the sky, but Noah appeared on its path and pointed the Demonic Sword toward its face. His sharpness intensified, and the monster promptly shot to the side to dodge the incoming attack, but Noah's consciousness expanded at that point.

The companions kept track of the creature's position, so Noah could avoid relying on his mental waves to choose the destination of his attacks. His sharpness seeped inside his consciousness and generated a thick array of black slashes that covered the entire area.

An immense white area transformed into a hellish black scene. It was hard to notice the gaps among the various slashes due to the density of Noah's offensive. He did his best to cover every spot with his sharpness, and the empty creature inevitably fell prey to his attack.

Countless black slashes fell inside the darkness of the creature's body as it moved through Noah's attack. It couldn't avoid enduring a large part of the technique since sharpness covered it on every side.

The mass of sharpness helped Sword Saint follow the creature's movements. The expert embodied the sword's true nature, so he could sense whenever the blackness of the monster's body made part of Noah's attack disappear.

Sword Saint made his weapon trace the empty areas created by the monster's movements, and a sharp silver halo suddenly filled them to send another wave of attacks. The blackness of the creature's body absorbed them too, but its mouth grew uglier as it continued to endure those slashes.

The monster eventually managed to exit the black area made by slashes, but it found Noah waiting for it. He didn't share Sword Saint's mastery over sharpness, but the attack still came from his energy, so he could sense where the creature moved.

A massive slash fell on the monster and pushed it back before its strange body absorbed the attack. Noah didn't let that event mark the end of his offensive, so he followed the blow with a wave of black flames.

The flames were different from his usual innate ability. His black hole had fused dark matter with them before they could leave Noah's lungs. The organ had given them sharp features that could make them able to hurt the empty creature.

The sea of flames filled another chunk of the sky with blackness that fused with the sharp zone still featuring countless slashes. The empty creature ended up in the middle of two deadly attacks, and Sword Saint didn't hesitate to worsen its situation.

The monster appeared immune to every type of attack. Only techniques that carried sharpness seemed able to cause some reaction, but even they left Noah and the others unclear about their actual efficiency.

The empty creature didn't show injuries. It didn't even have features that the experts could sense. It was nothing more than a black dot moving among the immense whiteness.

Noah began to wonder whether the monster was there for them at some point. The trio was overwhelming the strange being with barrages of slashes that could fill the sky with blinding lights and complete darkness. The creature even seemed to suffer from them, but it didn't carry any injury, and it didn't try to attack them either.

"Do we keep attacking until something happens?" Sword Saint eventually asked. "I know that we aren't using our full strength, but we aren't getting anywhere."

"What can I even say?" Noah snorted. "Keep fighting. We have been inside the void for centuries. How bad it can be to fight for a while without refilling your centers of power?"

"It's not a matter of endurance," Sword Saint complained. "I don't see the sense of it. If we follow your theory, that thing has a non-body, which means that I can't cut it since there's nothing to cut."

"The path of the sword is boundless," Divine Demon promptly announced while shaking his head. "You younglings have yet to gaze at the vastity of this law. We see blades cutting void every day, so why would they be unable to cut nothingness?"

Divine Demon let go of his azure sword at that point and waved his hand. The three experts had kept the strange creature prisoner of three large attacks that they could move at will. The monster had continued to endure slashes during that period, but nothing seemed to affect it.

A white slash came out of Divine Demon's fingers and pierced the three techniques, dispersing them on the spot. The empty creature could bathe under the white light again, but the attack landed on its figure.

The monster appeared surprised, even if it didn't have facial features. Only its mouth could show its feelings to the group, but its expression appeared frozen.

The white slash had ended up creating a crack on its empty figure, and Divine Demon's friends couldn't help but shoot surprised glances at him. The expert had done it. He had gone past the creature's natural defenses.