The world lost its light for a second, and Noah reappeared in the sky with his fiendish mouth still open. Flames spread under him, and the armored knights crumbled under the might of his innate ability.
The aura radiated by the purple lines pressed on his mind and made him deplete more mental energy, but Noah preferred to take care of the other defenses first. Moreover, he would exhaust his solid darkness before emptying his sea of consciousness anyway, so he didn't mind those inscriptions.
Some of the mirrors shattered under the shockwaves released by his attack, but the others followed his figure and launched beams made of different elements. Meanwhile, the cultivators in the distance fired their cannons, which shot large bullets covered in a smelly substance.
Noah tilted his wrist, and hundreds of black lines shot from the Demonic Sword. That simple gesture had been enough to launch slashes in every direction, and all of them had a quasi-rank 6 power!
The Demonic Sword didn't feel any pressure when releasing that attack. The period spent immersed inside the Cut's aura had made him able to control his strength and turn his every move into a slash.
The slashes crashed on the defensive measures. The beams couldn't do anything against them, and the black lines landed on the mirrors. The bullets opposed some resistance, but Noah's attacks pierced them anyway, even if they dispersed a few meters after.
The mirrors shattered, and their buildings began to crumble due to the impact. Corrosive smoke spread on those spots too and seeped inside the cracks that had formed.
The bullets exploded after being cut in half. They released a poisonous cloud that clashed with the Demonic Sword's corrosive smoke. The two corrosive abilities destroyed each other as they fought.
Noah's eyes sharpened at that sight. He didn't unleash his full power, but the Elbas family had managed to block him without suffering any losses. Also, those were only the first layers of defense.
'I might not be able to seize anything,' Noah realized when he saw more knights rising from the ground. They were different at that time. Their metallic surface had turned black and had a few runes on it.
More mirrors appeared on the intact buildings nearby. They began to accumulate "Breath" again, but Noah felt a sense of disgust when his consciousness analyzed that flow of energy.
He understood what was happening instantly, but he wanted to test how effective that procedure was. The world lost its light again, and more flames covered the ground.
Most of the knights crumbled, but some of them managed to endure the might of the flames. The mirrors launched white beams at that point, and Noah answered with the same slashes.
The cultivator's cannon shot again, but black lines were already flying in their direction, and the clash with the bullets created threatening clouds right next to them.
The slashes fended off the white beams, but they didn't manage to reach the buildings. More black knights surged from the ground, and they appeared as an improved version of those that had survived his flames.
Noah could only watch as the defensive formations adapted themselves at his abilities and element. The new knights had high resistance to flames, while the white beams had used "Breath" of the light element as their fuel.
He had never heard of anything similar. Formations usually had a specific task and set weaknesses. They didn't change their approach according to their opponent unless someone controlled them.
'Can I even reach the core?' Noah wondered, but he knew the answer to that question already. He was in the middle of one of the most advanced places in the world. He had no hope to cross those defenses on his own.
Noah changed approach at that realization. Continuing to fight the defensive formations would only cause him more problems. It was better to aim for his target and unleash as much destruction as he could along the way.
A human-shaped crack appeared in the sky as he shot toward Cecil's presence. The latter was right beyond the three water puppets, and Noah's initial idea was to ignore them.
However, more lines lit up in the sky while he sprinted in his dark dimension. A series of currents came out of the puppets, and they blocked Noah's path in multiple spots as they created a massive wall.
There seemed to be sensors that worked together with the defenses all around the Academy. Puppets at the bottom of the sixth rank could gain an awareness superior to many powerhouses thanks to them.
Noah felt forced to stop. Currents shot out of the wall in front of him, and white beams came after him from behind. The cultivators had pulled the trigger on the cannons, and the knights had begun to fly in his direction.
That situation was dire. Noah wouldn't suffer any injury, but he couldn't let the formations gain the upper hand in that situation. Being suppressed there would mean having to break through the constant assault of protections tuning with his power.
Snore enveloped his figure, and a layer of dark rocks covered its dark skin. Then, Noah threw hundreds of Instabilities as the rocky armor formed.
Explosions echoed in the Royal Academy. The sky became a chaotic place filled with clouds of corrosive smoke and saber-shaped runes.
The many attacks that had adapted to his power fell apart under the Instabilities' might. Noah had taken the defensive formations by surprise when he relied on a different offensive.
Nothing went through the layer of black rocks, and Snore released Noah when the storm of fuming sabers ended.
Devastation unfolded in his eyes. Many buildings of the Academy had crumbled due to the sudden deployment of so many disposable weapons. Only the defenses that surpassed the fifth rank in power had survived that amount of destruction.
Some of the shining lines had also gone dim, which gave Noah hope in defeating the defenses of the Academy. However, a wave of golden light soon spread from the ground, and the destroyed formations began to reform under that halo.
The Elbas family had even created methods to restore inscriptions. Noah wasn't an expert in the formations field, but he knew that such a feature was incredible even for the best masters!
Noah didn't stop his tracks due to his astonishment. Flames came out of his fiendish mouth, and elemental attacks shot from his Blood Companion. Snore even spread its wings as it began to charge its feathers.
His wrist trembled from time to time, and hundreds of black lines shot out of the Demonic Sword. More cultivators rose in the distance, and Noah even saw Cecil through the holes that had formed on the water puppets' wall.
The Elbas family's assets were ganging on him, and his smile couldn't help but become wider at that sight.
Those same cultivators had tried to suppress him in the past, but he was fighting alone against them now. Noah felt as if he was finally solving a grudge that had lingered in his mind for centuries.