Birth of the Demonic Sword

Noah used the dark world to run away and buy time for the workshop. Facing Duke in that state was suicide, so he had to rely on petty tactics to keep himself safe.

Duke's assault was relentless. Noah had to give up on creating dragons to maximize his number of tentacles since they were the only weapons capable of slowing down his opponent.

The twenty copies charged toward the dark world and destroyed huge chunks of dark matter with the shockwaves generated by their fingers. Yet, Noah continued to retreat while forcing the workshop to give birth to more octopuses.

'When will he finish his energy?' Noah cursed in his mind.

Noah's battle prowess was incredible, and the expert didn't even seem able to use his full power. However, Duke continued to gain ground.

Noah had long since stopped hurting his opponent. Duke had too many shields at his disposal, and his lower tier magical beasts couldn't pierce those spells.

The sky had become a mess of dark matter and tentacles, but Duke continued to advance. It wouldn't take him much to reach Noah.

The inevitable eventually happened. Duke's twenty copies cornered Noah in a lump of dark matter and forced him to activate the Shadow Domain to dodge the incoming attack.

Noah reappeared higher in the sky. He was almost back at the exit, but he couldn't fly away in a straight line since his opponents would reach him in no time.

His only shot at survival was to exhaust the expert slowly. Noah didn't know how much energy a liquid stage cultivator had, but he guessed that it was almost time for Duke to reach his limit.

Duke continued to press forward until he forced Noah to activate the Shadow Domain again. Noah unfolded the dark world once he reappeared high in the sky, and the expert resumed his chase.

Noah didn't bother to keep track of the number of rank 8 fake cores consumed during the chase. He was wasting countless priceless items during the battle, but he had no other choice.

Duke eventually managed to corner Noah, but a singularity shot out of the last lump of dark matter and bought him enough time to retreat. Then, the dark world expanded again, and the chase continued.

Noah had almost reached the exit when something happened. Duke's copies began to slow down, and their assault lost power. Some of them even stopped relying on the shields when the tentacles cracked in their direction.

'Almost there!' Noah shouted in his mind while forcing the workshop to produce even more octopuses.

The tentacles created a storm that the twenty copies seemed unable to overcome. They managed to destroy those creatures in a couple of attacks, but Noah always had new beasts to throw at them.

The copies slowly grew unstable. Their skin started to radiate an azure light that dispersed part of the energy contained inside their centers of power.

Noah began to use the cursed sword more often at that point. His new limit was around ten attacks, and he didn't hesitate to use all of them to increase the amount of damage that those copies had to suffer.

Then, some copies detonated and released a massive wave of energy that forced Noah to use the Shadow Domain. He decided to reappear closer to his companions at that time, and his dark world promptly followed that event.

The copies continued to detonate, but Noah was aware of that ability now. He stayed away from Duke and let his magical beasts handle the rest.

That safe approach forced Noah to waste more fake cores, but he ignored that loss. The bloodlust that filled his mind made that task easy since he could only think about destroying Duke.

The copies continued to explode until only one of them remained. Duke appeared exhausted after that long chase, but the buzzing noise still came out of his figure.

'It's similar to what has happened with the bees,' Noah thought. 'Something forces him to fight even if his dantian is mostly empty.'

Noah was quite fine even if he had gone all-out. He had mostly relied on the dark world and workshop during the chase, so his dantian and mental sphere didn't waste much energy.

'How do I kill him now?' Noah wondered before summoning Snore inside the dark world.

Duke flew inside the currents of dark matter even if the technique suppressed his influence. The expert didn't even have the power to fight against those restrictions, so Noah could wait until he was deep inside the dark world to launch his attack.

Snore unleashed the full power of its wings and gave birth to a series of explosions that destroyed the dark world and generated shockwaves. The violent dark matter spread in every corner of the battlefield, but Noah was too far away to affect his companions.

Duke had reactivated his shield to face that attack, but his defenses eventually shattered due to his lack of energy. The violent dark matter managed to land on his body and crush him piece by piece.

The expert tried to use his remaining brim of energy to fend off that power, but Night cut off his head before he could change his approach. Of course, his body continued to move even after the beheading.

Noah didn't know how to handle that existence, so he limited himself to launch everything he had on Duke. Night could finally show its actual value in that battle since the expert didn't activate defenses anymore, but Noah also relied on Snore and Duanlong.

Night cut Duke piece by piece while the other companions assaulted him or ravaged his energy. Noah also relied on the Demonic Sword and the sword-shaped roots to launch more attacks.

Duke eventually crumbled under Noah's relentless offensive. The expert crashed on the terrain and slowly transformed into the dense liquid that Noah had seen underground.

Noah didn't let that happen. His flames, dark matter, and Duanlong flew toward Duke and used their destructive power to absorb the energy contained in the dense liquid.

Part of the dark world even seized that liquid and stored it inside Noah's black hole. He wanted to study what had caused the transformation. He was very curious about the story behind that mountain, and only the corpse could give him answers.

Most of the corpse ended up fusing with the ground, but Noah managed to obtain a large chunk of energy for his centers of power and Duanlong. He even seized a second sample of the liquid, so he considered himself lucky.

'I did it,' Noah exclaimed in his mind before dispersing the dark world and inspecting the outcome of his battle.

Duke wasn't at his best, and his ability had evident drawbacks. However, Noah had managed to hold his ground against a being capable of liquid stage might. That was something that even his ambition acknowledged.

Noah felt his potential surging whenever he reviewed the scenes of the battle. His Shadow Domain, unstable substance, workshop, and cursed sword gave him great flexibility in a fight, and the base power of those abilities almost granted him the chance to make his might step on the next stage.

Noah wasn't sure whether his battle prowess had reached the liquid stage since his opponent had many flaws. Still, he had finally killed an expert at that level. He felt as if his ambition could burst out of his waist and fill the entire world.

'They should end their battle soon,' Noah eventually thought while glancing at the fight happening in the distance.