Chapter 2045 - 2045. Fear
The monster's angry growl spread through the area affected by its influence and warned everyone that something had changed. Even the privileged cultivators could understand that the empty creature had gained something after enduring Noah's attack.
The empty creature stopped moving, but the privileged cultivators continued making their way through Sepunia's technique. They didn't know what Noah had done, but they prioritized getting into a safe area before studying the environment.
King Elbas prepared to reveal more weapons, but he held them back inside his figure while his eyes moved between Noah and the monster. Stopping the privileged cultivators would be hard now that the empty creature didn't advance anymore, so he wanted to understand what was happening before investing resources.
Noah inspected the monster while dark matter covered his chest to suppress the injury caused by his last attack. His cold smile slowly broadened as he confirmed that he had succeeded in his project. It was only a matter of time before he gained access to the energy that he needed.
King Elbas frowned, but he eventually decided to hold back his assets and retreat into distant areas of the cage. Sepunia and the dragon followed him, even if confusion filled their expressions. Still, they didn't say anything as they waited for something to happen.
The privileged cultivators quickly reached normal areas now that Sepunia wasn't paying attention to her technique. Their opponents didn't deploy anything, so they had the chance to attack them. Yet, the monster's strange behavior and Noah ended up claiming the entirety of their attention.
"What have you done?" Dinia asked, but another growl forced his companions and him to focus on the monster.
Something was clearly happening inside that empty creature, but the privileged cultivators couldn't inspect those events due to its unique structure. Even King Elbas, Sepunia, and the dragons were clueless. Only Noah seemed to know more about the matter, but he remained silent as he waited for the monster to act.
The growl carried anger again, but it had something different now. There was a sense of freedom in that event that only confused the audience even more. Only Noah began to laugh since he knew what was about to happen.
The laugh attracted the audience's gazes, but the monster suddenly started to move, claiming everyone's attention back on its giant structure. The empty creature didn't resume its advance through King Elbas' cage. The privileged cultivators' faces froze when they saw it slowly floating toward the distant sky.
"What have you done?!" Dinia shouted again, and Noah finally turned to look at the expert. Yet, he laughed a bit longer before deciding to give a proper answer.
"I gave the monster what it desired," Noah explained. "It wanted to become like us, so I severed its fear of the sky."
The statement left everyone speechless. Doubts and questions obviously appeared in their minds, but answers arrived on their own since all of them knew Noah's abilities deeply.
Studying the monster was impossible due to its unique nature, but everyone knew how to hurt it. Noah could express his sharpness with every part of his existence, and he even knew Heaven and Earth enough to develop an attack that could solve the monster's greatest weakness.
The ethereal slash from before had a simple purpose. Noah couldn't actually see which parts of the non-world feared Heaven and Earth, but he didn't need to find them to destroy them. The non-laws could annihilate opposite laws, so he only had to add specific meanings to his attack to obtain the desired effects.
Noah didn't fear Heaven and Earth, but he knew what form that meaning would have. He had filled his slash with dark matter that carried similar properties before turning it ethereal so that it would have a better chance of reaching the non-world's core.
The monster had done everything on its own afterward. Non-laws that countered the meaning implanted by Noah naturally moved to destroy his attack. The disappearance of those non-laws created an imbalance between the creature's fear of Heaven and Earth and its desire to oppose them, ultimately leading to its decision to attack the rulers.
Everything had felt far too easy for Noah. His existence instinctively knew how to hurt Heaven and Earth, so creating a new opponent had been almost natural. He only had to give up on his hopes to transform the monster to understand how to affect it.
The news also surprised Noah's companions. They had come there to absorb the monster, only to end up with a new powerful ally. Their eyes remained on the spherical mass of blackness as it flew toward the sky and accelerated.
"What are you doing?" Noah laughed after reappearing next to his companions. "The higher plane is about to go crazy. The least we can do is benefit from that."
King Elbas and the others could only nod and shoot toward the sky. Noah waved his hand toward the four stunned privileged cultivators before following his companions. Dinia's group knew that Heaven and Earth would need their help, but they didn't want to risk their lives joining such a dangerous battle. Actually, part of them would like the rulers to grow weaker.
Noah completely disregarded the privileged cultivators as he reached his companions and continued his flight toward the sky. He could already guess how Heaven and Earth would react to that incoming threat, so he deployed the dark world and tainted it with the dark metal to prepare for the return inside the higher plane.
Noah and the others were initially faster than the monster, but the latter seemed to muster its courage as the sky grew closer. It accelerated and eventually distanced itself from its followers.
Heaven and Earth reacted as Noah had guessed when the monster crashed on their white layer. The sky was the most important part of the rulers' power, so they let the empty creature pass freely to avoid suffering heavy damage.
Of course, the same didn't happen for Noah's group, but they didn't worry about Heaven and Earth. They knew that the rulers would be too busy with the monster to mind their presence, so they pierced the sky through methods that relied on the dark metal to reach the higher plane and witness the monster's battle.
Sepunia and the dragon felt initially wary about Heaven and Earth's intentions, but King Elbas and Noah's behavior quickly reassured them. The latter began to steal energy from their surroundings as soon as they entered the sky, without worrying that the rulers could put something on their path.
Sadly, Noah didn't find any area containing prisms on his path. He guessed that Heaven and Earth had moved those structures away on purpose, so he settled for the energy inside the sky. His body healed in no time, but the white material alone wasn't enough to push it past the limits of the eighth rank.
Noah's group took far longer than the monster to reach the other side of the sky. They had to dig through the whiteness, while the empty creature only had to cross it. When the stormy regions appeared in their view, they noticed that a massive battle had taken control of an enormous chunk of the higher plane.. Almost one-fourth of the area illuminated by the rulers had turned into a gigantic black spot surrounded by countless crackling avatars.