Chapter 2200 - 2200. Fake
"What are you doing?!" Albatia shouted. "What are you trying to achieve?!"
King Elbas didn't answer. He let his aura explode with power and turn the whole battlefield into a massive storm as he continued to approach the final workshop.
Supreme Thief, Sepunia, and the Foolery were as surprised as Albatia. They didn't understand what was happening, but their instincts told them that they had to retreat. That power could put their worlds at risk.
King Elbas' power level lost clarity. Part of it remained at the very peak of the ninth rank, but brims of his aura pierced those limits and expanded in a world that the others failed to sense properly.
"This is not possible!" Albatia cried as she deployed part of her army in front of the gales converging toward her. "No rank 9 existence can gain access to that power!"
King Elbas' power level seemed to defy Albatia's words on purpose. More energy fused with King Elbas' aura and pushed it deeper past the limits of the ninth rank. He was deploying an ability similar to Noah's potential by using his inscribed items, but its effects reached heights that Noah had never touched.
Sepunia, the Foolery, Supreme Thief, and Albatia stared in shock as King Elbas reached what seemed to be the quasi-rank 10 stage. The process continued until the entirety of his aura entered that level of power. Still, the chaos didn't stop even at that point.
"You aren't ready for that power!" Albatia cursed. "No one is. Only Heaven and Earth have gained access to that realm in the history of this world. You are overstepping. This is an act of heresy toward the very cultivation journey!"
"Who cares?" King Elbas spoke in a low tone, and his voice alone shattered the remaining intact patches of space on the battlefield.
"You'll burn!" Albatia shouted. "I don't know what you have sacrificed to obtain this power, but its drawbacks will kill you."
"We'll see about that," King Elbas laughed, and his voice added more violent gales to the storm. "I have yet to gather data about this form. You are my first guinea pig."
Albatia wanted to say something else, but King Elbas finally decided to put his new level into use. Many of golden energy shot out of his figure and pierced the storms until they condensed to transform into scorching flames that flickered above his skin.
King Elbas was literally on fire, and his skin blended with those flames. It became unclear where his body ended and his energy started. Albatia almost believed that he had fused that technique with his actual figure.
"Now, let's try something simple," King Elbas exclaimed. "Don't die on me too quickly."
Albatia instinctively amassed the entirety of her army in front of her, but a fiery slash slammed on it before it could deploy a battle formation. The attack severed all of the multicolored beings in half, and the flames burnt what remained of their strange bodies.
The slash didn't stop there either. It continued to fly toward Albatia, but she managed to retreat inside the final workshop. The attack slammed on the multicolored domain and pierced it for a while before it consumed its energy and dispersed.
Albatia couldn't believe her senses when she inspected the final workshop. A charred scar had appeared on its multicolored surface and had left an immense black mark that carried King Elbas' aura.
The final workshop was only an expression of Albatia's world, but her existence suffered nonetheless. She had created that multicolored domain with the idea of defeating her opponents' abilities, but King Elbas had shattered her belief.
"Above you," King Elbas' voice thundered, and Albatia raised her head in time to see a wave of flames crashing on the final workshop.
The golden flames burnt the final workshop's edges and forced Albatia to retreat at its bottom. She tried to study the attack to improve her domain, but her senses failed to grasp the level of power that King Elbas had reached.
"You are only a liquid stage cultivator!" Albatia used her words since she felt powerless with everything else. "You might be a monster, but that doesn't make you able to step past the ninth rank. I won't believe it!"
"You are correct," King Elbas whispered while materializing on the spot right outside the area where Albatia was hiding. "This isn't the power of the tenth rank. The sky would already be in flames otherwise."
Albatia opened her mouth, but a golden line suddenly pierced her chest. King Elbas had raised his spear, and the weapon had launched an attack that had dug through the whole final workshop.
The line expanded and released flames, but Albatia performed an evasive maneuver before it was too late. She reappeared in another area of the multicolored domain with a large hole on her chest and flames still burning around its edges.
"Then, how?" Albatia asked. "How did you gain access to a power that transcends the cultivation journey without crossing the peak?"
"You privileged cultivators are really something," King Elbas stated while placing his spear inside the hole he had just dug. "You are magnific experts. Even Heaven and Earth can't understand your worlds. Yet, you bind yourself to the system that they have created."
"We transcend those labels," Albatia replied.
"But you still believe in them," King Elbas exclaimed as the spear filled the hole with flames. "That limits your perspective. You fail to see many paths like you failed to predict our rise in power."
"Answer me," Albatia reminded. "I am one of the greatest inscription masters in the history of this world, but I can't understand what you did. I need to know."
King Elbas knew that it was stupid to reveal the theory behind one of his trump cards. However, he saw the same curiosity that often shone in his gaze in Albatia's eyes, and he respected that feeling.
"I have the best energy in the world," King Elbas explained. "The final energy is my very core. It can turn into every material in the world and more, but it also carries unparalleled power by itself."
"Even the best energy in the world can't force your level to step in the tenth rank," Albatia exclaimed.
"I already told you that this isn't the tenth rank," King Elbas reminded. "This is a fake version of that realm created by my deductions and divinations. I've basically built a personal level of power that only I can reach by imitating what I know about the tenth rank."
Albatia's eyes went wide. King Elbas had so much influence on the power system that he could create a personal level. That went beyond separate dimensions and realities. He had altered the very nature of his cultivation journey.
"I can accept that the final energy gave you access to the very structure of the power system," Albatia continued while doing her best to remain calm. "Yet, creating a new power level is different from reaching it. You would still have to pay the price for that fake breakthrough."
"How can you fail to understand even after I revealed so much?" King Elbas sighed as the flames inside the hole began to dig the final workshop's insides. "What price can I even pay? I'm burning final energy and inscribed items to push myself into the fake quasi-rank 10 stage.. In short, I'm using my very world as fuel."