'They always get distracted when they counter the Shadow Domain,' Noah snorted in his mind while descending through the battlefield.
Noah had attacked as soon as the blue fire swept Isaac's insides. He had expected the expert to have a counter ready for his Shadow Domain, so he had charged ahead to finish him in a single attack.
However, Isaac's life-saving spell had activated as soon as the Demonic Sword hit his head. Noah's sharpness didn't manage to pierce the explosion of blue flames, especially since it propelled his opponent toward the ground.
Noah descended through the weaker troops, who stopped fighting and let him pass when they noticed his arrival. It didn't matter if they were allies or enemies. They halted their abilities and performed respectful bows until he was outside their range.
A blue dome surrounded Isaac. Raging flames that featured human faces covered a large area on the surface and created a defensive shield that even Noah's instincts feared.
'Can that thing hurt me?' Noah wondered.
He could sense that the power of the flames could pierce his skin even after the empowerment generated by the unstable substance. Yet, there seemed to be more behind them. The various faces carried a strange presence that Noah couldn't completely identify.
'I'll just pretend to be Sword Saint,' Noah snorted while drawing the cursed sword from his c.h.e.s.t.
A wave of bloodl.u.s.t flowed out of his figure and covered the entire battlefield. His violent thoughts inevitably affected the weaker experts and made them engage in reckless assaults. They stopped caring about their safety and only aimed to destroy their opponents.
The bloodl.u.s.t also affected the swarm of rats coming out of the ground to jump on their flying opponents. They became even more selfless in their assault, and the deaths on both sides inevitably increased.
Noah completely disregarded the effects of his influence on the weaker troops. They were fighting among existences who were almost ready to step on the last part of the cultivation journey. Those risks were necessary.
Noah pointed both his swords toward the blue fire and unleashed a powerful lunge. Darkness took control of the area as a sword-shaped slash fell toward the flames while devouring everything on its path and surroundings.
The attack clashed with the life-saving spell and caused an explosion that spread black and blue shades through the entire surface. Some of the faces even followed the fiery tongues before dispersing in the air.
Noah teleported toward one of the dispersing faces and contained it with his dark world. A few fireballs flew out of his mouth and crashed on the surface to restore part of the damage suffered by his body while he studied the strange spell.
'They feel like different existences,' Noah thought while information flowed inside his mind. 'It almost resembles Kirk's law, but it doesn't steal others' abilities. The faces become part of the flames and empower them, but there still is something strange about them.'
"Do you understand who they are?" Isaac asked while walking out of the hole that had appeared among his flames.
The blue fire followed Isaac as he flew higher in the sky. He still made sure to remain outside of the weaker cultivators' range. The flames stayed under him to avoid spreading their deadly influence upward.
'The attack with the cursed sword didn't do anything to him,' Noah commented in his mind.
The cursed sword could force his attacks to surpass their limits. The weapon was still in the middle tier, so it could only reach the upper tier. It could release slashes far stronger than his Demonic Sword, but their power wasn't enough to hurt Isaac under the protection of the blue flames.
"I'll give you a hint," Isaac continued while waving his hand to morph the flames. "They were like you."
"Did you hunt those who oppose Heaven and Earth?" Noah asked. "Is this the power of your flames? Did you found your fire on such a frail belief?"
"How can it be frail when even the world allows it to exist?" Isaac laughed. "Heaven and Earth didn't even send Tribulations against me anymore at some point. I'm a defender of the order in the Immortal Lands."
"I will shatter it then," Noah sighed before a deafening roar came out of his mouth.
His cry generated soundwaves that spread through the entire battlefield and affected the various fights, but Noah had unleashed it only to create more chaos.
The blue flames protected Isaac from the soundwaves, but a dangerous sensation suddenly appeared above him. The expert didn't hesitate to divert his fire toward the threat, but Instabilities reappeared inside him during the attack.
The counter to the Shadow Domain activated and took care of the Instabilities, but that action affected Isaac's awareness for an instant. Meanwhile, the blue flames continued to surge upward, but they missed their target.
Noah reappeared next to Isaac, and the expert promptly opened his mouth to breathe a wave of flames. Multiple faces came out of his head during the process, and they hit Noah at the center of his c.h.e.s.t.
Blood gathered in Noah's throat as the flames ravaged his armor of dark matter and pierced the black roots that had covered his figure. They would soon reach his c.h.e.s.t and dig his skin, but Noah only needed an instant to create an opening.
The Demonic Sword and the cursed sword cut the air as they converged toward Isaac, but more flames appeared on their path. Yet, they couldn't stop the attack completely. They could only protect their caster.
Heaven and Earth's laws screamed in pain as time stopped in the small area occupied by the two experts. An azure light shone from behind Noah's eyes as the cursed sword returned inside his c.h.e.s.t and he stretched his hand toward his opponent.
Isaac had barely begun to regain control of his body when Noah's hand touched his forehead and made his mind experience an ethereal pulling force. His thoughts slowly slid toward the mental walls and tried to exit their edges. They wanted to flow toward Noah's palm and fuse with his existence.
Human faces suddenly appeared on Isaac's mental walls and forced the mental energy to remain inside its ethereal center of power. Noah continued to pull through Supreme Thief's technique, but he only managed to steal small lumps of thoughts that had nothing to do with the expert's law.
Shandal's technique ended at that point, and Isaac exploded into a wave of blue flames that sent everything away. Even Noah couldn't remain attached to the expert anymore, and the separation brought Supreme Thief's technique to an end.
Noah quickly stabilized himself and inspected his body. He had suffered a few burns, and the injuries caused by the cursed sword still lingered on his c.h.e.s.t. His resilience made him virtually at his peak, but it was clear that Isaac could damage him often.
'He is good,' Noah thought as greed flowed out of his figure.
"What were you trying to do?!" Isaac's angry voice resounded from the blue hell that had spread in the distance.
The expert had initially been wary of the weaker troops in the sky, but he wasn't paying attention to them anymore. His flames spread through the surface and gave birth to tall pillars that pierced the battlefield above. He was livid, but Noah only looked at him with deep interest. He had found the next addition to his arsenal.