Chapter 1763 - 1763. Core

'Supreme Thief's technique was working,' Noah thought while deploying his defenses again, 'But I need to damage him a bit before using it again. I've already wasted Shandal's law for today. I can't risk exposing more of my intentions.'

The surface had transformed into a raging blue hell. Fiery pillars and tongues escaped from the array of flames flickered among the incessant noise of the battlefield. The faces on their structure added a gruesome touch to the scene, but Noah couldn't stop smiling.

It was rare for Noah to find a suitable ability. He wasn't like Supreme Thief, who stole everything that stirred his interest. Noah was a perfectionist when it came to his battle prowess, and he accepted only techniques that could make him stronger.

Noah didn't exactly know how Isaac's fire worked. Still, he had only needed to learn that it grew stronger by killing enemies to become interested. That ability seemed perfect for him, but he had to overcome Isaac's defenses to obtain it.

Noah shot ahead as his companions dispersed through the environment. Isaac waved one arm to launch a massive fiery pillar toward him, but Duanlong materialized on its path and opened its monstrous mouth to absorb its power.

Isaac poured more energy into the pillar, and Duanlong soon became unable to endure that output of power. However, Noah spread the dark world and used the dark matter to enhance the dragon's innate ability.

Duanlong managed to stand its ground for a few more seconds, which give Noah the time to change direction and leave the pillar's trajectory. Part of the flames quickly invaded the dark world to destroy its structure, but Noah and the dragon had left their previous position by then.

The flames only found an army of six-armed dragons waiting for them in the back of the destroyed dark world. A fight immediately happened, and many of the disposable puppets detonated themselves to destroy part of the fire.

The explosions didn't happen randomly. The dragons had orders to detonate whenever they entered the range of a human face. Noah had seen them vanishing in the air when the flames left the main source of power, so he believed that he could weaken Isaac with that approach.

"You can't hide!" Isaac shouted while waving both his arms toward his right. "My law is your enemy. I live to hunt you down. I can sense the corruption that you are bringing to the world!"

'Why do they never shut up?' Noah wondered while flying inside the Shadow Domain and leaking puddles of dark matter whenever Isaac seemed about to pinpoint his position.

The dark matter took the shape of clawed fiendish armors that shot forward and launched black slashes. Isaac's attention went on them as soon as they appeared, but he only found detonations waiting for him.

Noah couldn't help but feel surprised by the sheer amount of power that Isaac could discharge. He could overpower most solid stage cultivators because his attacks were the result of multiple perfected abilities enhanced through his ambition, but Isaac was different. His flames were a single technique with a very specific fuel that made their potential nearly unlimited.

They were different from the flames inherited from the Light-devouring Dragons. They also had unlimited potential, but empowering them through light was tiresome, especially after he had fused them with the Eternal Snake's innate ability. His body advanced faster than his lungs, so specific exercises had become pointless at his level.

Instead, the power of Isaac's flames came from his kills, which seemed to give a significant boost. They appeared similar to the cursed sword, which needed to defeat powerful enemies to grow.

Those requirements were perfect for Noah. After all, he was always at war or immersed in some battles.

Noah inspected the flames while remaining inside the Shadow Domain. The barriers between the dimensions made his senses clouded, but he could still keep track of the variations in the fire's level.

He wanted to understand if the destruction of the human faces could lower the power of the flames. Still, nothing seemed to change even after many of them had vanished into the air.

"I don't know what you are trying to do," Isaac shouted while continuing to counter the fiendish armors that appeared among his blue flames, "But my fire isn't something that you can study or counter. These faces only mark the number of rebels that I have taken care of during my life. Destroying them has no meaning either."

Noah suddenly stopped his inspection. He had no reason to believe Isaac, but the latter didn't need to lie either. His words were probably true, which left Noah with a troublesome issue that had only a straightforward solution.

'I need to overpower his flames,' Noah sighed in his mind before coming out of the Shadow Domain and drawing the cursed sword again.

Isaac smiled at that scene, but his expression froze when he sensed the amount of sharpness acc.u.mulated around Noah's figure. He had joined his two swords and placed them on his forehead while a series of black roots covered his weapons.

The armor of dark matter almost crumbled when the power acc.u.mulated on Noah's forehead shot forward and covered the entire region. His sharpness fused with the parasite's corrosive aura and created black slashes that spread through the surface while acc.u.mulating all the energy they found.

The slashes gave birth to an expanding sea that the blue flames couldn't oppose. The fire slowed down the attack, but the energy released during its destruction fueled Noah's technique and made it pick up speed.

Isaac felt the need to escape, but a massive snake suddenly materialized behind him. Snore had taken that chance to surprise its opponent and spread its wings to unleash a storm of feathers.

Isaac found himself between threatening explosions and a wave of slashes. He summoned the entirety of his energy to generate enough flames to save his life, but energy inevitably seeped past his defenses.

His body began to shatter as the attack converged on his figure, but a hand appeared from a crack next to him before the entire area fell into complete chaos.

Noah dragged Isaac inside the Shadow Domain and shot out of the area. The clash between his two abilities created shockwaves capable of seeping through the layers that divided dimensions, so he couldn't deploy his plan there.

Isaac tried to struggle, but sword-shaped dots made of dark matter entered his body and suppressed his centers of power. He had become a prisoner now, and his injuries didn't allow him to muster enough energy to free himself from Noah's restrictions.

'Time to see your core,' Noah thought once he reached a safe area inside the Shadow Domain.

An azure glow filled his eyes as his hand went on Isaac's forehead. Faces appeared on his mental walls again as his mental energy tried to leave his mind, but Noah wasn't in a hurry at that time.

Noah slowly went past the many mental defenses before gaining access to the entirety of Isaac's mind. His thoughts and emotions burnt under the effects of Supreme Thief's technique, and part of Isaac's existence also suffered the same consequences.

Then, Noah saw a blue lump of light seeping out of the mental walls and entering his palm. That energy wanted to go directly toward his mind, but the black hole activated its pulling force and dragged it inside its dense waves of dark matter.

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Author's notes: I'm back.