The two Royals stared at him while wearing unsightly expressions. Noah's power level made no sense, and they couldn't even begin to evaluate his actual battle prowess.
Noah was only a peak rank 5 cultivator in theory, but his attacks could threaten defenses capable of blocking peak gaseous stage powerhouses. That was unreal for the standards of the cultivation world.
The Royals could understand that if Noah used his higher energy to express a prowess superior to his current level. Yet, Noah only relied on his bare hands to launch those attacks.
There was only an explanation for that power. Noah had begun to walk the path to become a law even if his dantian didn't evolve to the next level.
As for how much power his individuality could wield, the Royals couldn't predict that. They had come in contact with his existence, and that had proven that his potential surpassed their Father's.
There was another issue connected to that battle. Noah had used only his slashes, while the Royals had relied on their best spells.
First Prince and First Princess had initially thought that they could exhaust Noah due to his weaker dantian, but that appeared as a tiny hope after the last exchanges.
"Is that it?" Noah taunted them. As long as they kept on wasting "Breath", he would seize an easy victory while saving his darkness.
Still, those tricks couldn't work on powerhouses, especially after they had understood his intentions. Even the impulsive First Prince had a brain under his thick arrogance.
The duo exchanged an understanding glance and dispersed their flames. A series of inscribed items came out of their space-rings. Both Royals wore golden armor and wielded longswords that emitted flames on their own.
Golden shields surrounded their figures, and an array of runes reinforced those already incredible defenses.
The Royals then took out a few talismans and red runes fused with their bodies when they broke them. Their auras surged when the runes lit up, and more flames appeared on top of their weapons.
The duo had come prepared for everything. First Prince and First Princess could even come up with ways to fight without wasting "Breath" in a few seconds.
'This might be troublesome,' Noah thought. The Royals weren't weak, and their expertise in the inscription fields made them tricky opponents to fight.
It would be different if Noah could go all-out, but he didn't have a way to break those defenses without wasting more energy than his opponents. He would come out weakened no matter the outcome.
'I guess I can't hold back too much,' Noah concluded as the Demonic Sword came out of his space-ring and landed in his hand.
Night complained that he had chosen his weapon rather than it, but Noah ignored it as the dark matter came out of his body and took the shape of a giant snake.
Snore didn't change too much in the last centuries. Noah had only added a few weapons to its body, but he didn't do anything too invasive since he had yet to see how the dark matter would evolve.
The Blood Companion's size had increased since Noah's dantian had reached the peak of the fifth rank. It was more than one hundred and fifty meters long now, and its structure appeared slightly unstable.
Flashes of light flickered on its black body whenever the higher energy in its fabric underwent a surge of power. Those were dark glimmers, but they managed to illuminate the void anyway.
Snore launched its elemental attacks without even waiting for the Royals to act. Lightning bolts accumulated and shot from its horns, flames came out of its mouth, and violent winds blew from its nostrils.
The wings were useless in that environment since there wasn't any matter or "Breath" to destroy. Noah couldn't create primary energy, so he could only use those abilities in their weakest form.
The Royals swiftly dodged the elemental attacks, but a storm of massive slashes appeared on their paths and pushed them far in the distance.
Noah saw their defenses blocking the slashes, but he didn't chase after them. Instead, he sprinted backward, toward the lump of white light that he had blown away previously.
It took him only a few minutes to reach the raw laws that were flying in the distance. They didn't stop since the void opposed no resistance to their motion, but they didn't go too far.
Noah finally took them and inspected their structure. He had seen laws many times already, but they appeared different.
There wasn't any deep meaning inside them. The laws were only an ethereal substance that could unleash an incredible power once it became complete.
Noah had no idea how to absorb them. He felt tempted to place them directly inside his dantian, but he didn't know if they had to go through some special process first.
The Royals eventually caught up and threw a series of runes around him. The inscriptions gave birth to golden lines that created a prison-like structure around Noah.
The prison had formed too quickly. It seemed that the lines had some teleporting abilities since they had managed to isolate the area before Noah could even react.
The lines became thicker as the prison became smaller. More runes formed on its surface, but Noah promptly launched a wave of slashes that crashed with them.
The prison didn't budge. It continued to restrict, and it stopped when it isolated Noah in an area smaller than ten cubic meters.
Noah attacked again, but the outcome was the same. The lines weren't wholly material, so they managed to resist his slashes more easily.
"We know you raided the Dark Gorge," First Princess conveyed. "This is the result of our studies on that peculiar species. A prison resistant to any attack and with great power at its basis."
"Give up and hand over the raw laws," First Prince continued. "You are a formidable opponent, but you need liquid "Breath" to open a path in this item."
The Royals felt sure of the sturdiness of the prison. Their confidence came from the fact that King Elbas himself had created that item by using what he had discovered from the Night-blade Pterodactyl species.
The prison wasn't in the middle tier in terms of power, but its quality made it the sturdiest cell in the lower tier. Noah didn't have the amount of energy required to break through it.
Noah looked at the prison and sighed. The Elbas family had always tried to chain him to their organization. The memories of his time in the Utra nation surged in his mind. He had changed so much in those centuries, but the Royals didn't modify their behavior toward him.
Yet, that was their mistake. The Royals kept on building countermeasures to his power without understanding his true nature. Noah never stopped improving, and he had a card to play even in that situation.
'I'll give you plenty of food when you heal,' Noah thought, and the Demonic Sword replied with a resolute roar. It didn't care that it was going to suffer as long as Noah came out victorious.
Snore disappeared, and Noah closed his eyes. In his mind, Sword Saint's performed identical lunges capable of launching an unstoppable force.
That was the peak of the piercing attacks. Noah didn't master it yet, but he had trained in the lunge and the slash since his last training session with the Divine Cut.
Noah half crouched and retracted his sword. His mind became one with his existence, but the images of Sword Saint's lunge continued to play in his mind.
The Royal didn't know what to think at that sight, but their expression soon turned severe when they felt the intense sharpness that had begun to accumulate on Noah's figure.
'The lunge's power is limitless,' Noah thought as he thrust his blade forward.
An unstoppable force assaulted the golden lines of the prison and created a large hole. Noah's attack didn't have any form, but the Royals could see it flying in the void before dispersing in the distance.
Noah came out of the prison only to notice that the raw laws in his hand had gained peculiar meanings. They radiated his ambition.