Chapter 2158 - 2158. Battle
"Prepare for battle!" Emperor shouted.
"Brace for impact!" Queen followed.
'Duanlong,' Noah thought as the giant avatar stretched both its arms toward the crumbling environment.
The ninth floor was a crumbling mess, but that went for the entirety of the Labyrinth. Giant cracks ran throughout the starry sky, the land tainted by the Foolery, and the very space-time array that Cursed Reality had created.
The insides of the cracks showed identical scenes. Whiteness and weak sky stood behind those fissures and tried to seep into the crumbling structure of the Cursed Labyrinth. Heaven and Earth were invading what Emperor, Cursed Reality, and Queen had called home in the last millennia.
The giant arms pierced the Labyrinth easily, and the starry sky finally crumbled completely. Even the shards transformed into dust due to the incredible pressure generated by the violent gesture.
The arms didn't stop there. They continued to descend as they stretched their fingers toward the army. Giant white pillars grew closer to Noah and the others as Heaven and Earth's blinding radiance filled their vision.
Emperor, Cursed Reality, and Queen were about to launch an attack to fend off the incoming hands, but Duanlong acted before them. The dragon opened its mouth to activate its innate ability, and the light in the environment immediately dimmed.
Duanlong growled in pain as it returned inside Noah's figure. The dragon had gone overboard, but its help had been incredible. The army and the five solid stage cultivators on the scene remained speechless when they saw the new state of the avatar.
The crackling giant had lost parts of its hands. Part of its arms had also disappeared, and lightning bolts came out from the damaged areas. Duanlong had absorbed as much energy as possible, significantly affecting the avatar's structure.
Of course, that wasn't enough to stop Heaven and Earth's assault. The lightning bolts seeping out of the avatar's injuries expanded and multiplied. Crackling spiderwebs stretched out of the maimed arms and recreated the missing parts.
The giant continued to dive into the ninth floor while its arms regrew. Massive sparks even detached themselves from the healing process and transformed into lightning bolts that shot toward the army. Yet, their trajectory changed when they got too close to some experts.
"Pellio, dream of a way out of this," Noah ordered as Snore and Night remained ready behind him.
Pellio closed his eyes, and the healing process suddenly slowed down. The lightning bolts coming out of the injured spots began to move in random directions, affecting the reconstruction of the arms.
"Cursed Reality, open a passage," Pellio declared. "Heaven and Earth will force my dreams out of their reality in a few seconds."
"Don't order me around," Cursed Reality snorted as he waved his hand.
The lights in Cursed Reality's eyes began to move, and the Labyrinth imitated that process. The energy, shards, and materials falling into the immense whiteness converged in the spot gazed by the expert to give birth to a giant vortex.
Heaven and Earth didn't miss that event. Lightning bolts came out of every inch of the avatar and shot toward the vortex. Many of those attacks ended up flying in completely random directions, but a few converged toward Cursed Reality's creation.
"I got that," June announced as she shot above the vortex.
The lightning bolts in June's range suddenly changed direction and converged toward her figure. They crashed on her body and left deep black marks on her skin, but she seemed to get stronger during the process.
"Queen, you are up next," Pellio exclaimed.
"I hate you," Queen commented, but the crackling noises released by Heaven and Earth's avatar suddenly intensified and gave birth to a soundwave.
The soundwave acted as a wall that destroyed everything on its path as it flew toward the army. Part of the matter converging toward the vortex disappeared due to the attack. Even the fabric of space twisted as the noise advanced.
Queen flew above the army and stretched her hand toward the soundwave. The attack didn't stop, and nothing happened in the area around Noah and the others. Genuine concern for the imminent attack appeared in everyone's minds, but Noah roared to force them to remain still.
Noah didn't know what was happening, and his instincts were as lost as him. They begged him to run away, but he trusted Pellio's dream, and the same went for Queen.
The soundwave eventually reached Queen, but she went through it just fine. Her body remained in one piece, and her aura also didn't experience any change during the event.
June and the portal were the next on the path of the soundwave, but the attack didn't affect them. The lightning bolts converging toward them crumbled, but they didn't feel anything.
Noah and the rest of the army came next, but the same happened. Noah remained stunned to see the attack crossing his figure without dealing any damage. It was as if the soundwave had stopped existing, at least when it came to its destructive power.
The soundwave quickly proved Noah's guess wrong. The space's fabric began to twist under the noise's pressure as soon as the attack crossed the army. The rest of the ninth floor vanished, and the weak sky soon took control of every side of the area.
The army had returned to the higher plane. Noah could sense the familiar space-time array taking control of his surroundings. Heaven and Earth's iconic pressure also fell on his figure, but his focus remained on Queen.
"What exactly did you do?" Noah asked when he found himself unable to come up with an answer.
"Are you interested in my partner's power?" Emperor asked without hiding the trace of pride in his voice. "She is more amazing than me."
"My beloved becomes too humble when it comes to me," Queen sighed while reapproaching Emperor. "I didn't do much. I've only taken away the soundwave's danger for a few seconds."
The vortex stopped rotating and stabilized while Noah tried to understand the limits of Queen's power. Cursed Reality opened his mouth to speak, but Pellio interrupted him by flying toward the portal.
Noah and the others also moved there. June's eyes lit up when she saw more lightning bolts coming out of the avatar, but Snore ate her and forced her to cross the vortex with the rest of the army.
The scenery changed in an instant, but only in its details. The army's surroundings remained white due to the presence of the weak sky, but everyone knew that they had teleported into a different location.
"What now?" Emperor asked only to notice that a series of black crystals had already appeared above Noah's skin.
June voiced a snort as she came out of Snore, and a disappointed expression appeared on her face at the sight of the calm environment. She wanted to complain, but Noah was busy trying to hear the old rulers' voice.
Still, a tremor suddenly ran through the weak sky around the army. Those white crystals began to move as Heaven and Earth's aura intensified. Giant chunks melted and converged toward a seemingly random spot to build the immense figure that Noah and the others had just left behind.
"You can't escape us," Heaven and Earth's declared as a new giant avatar took form and began to move.