Chapter 1924 - 1924. Connection

"Elbas, I'm going to need more explanations," Noah stated at the sight of the upper tier hydra.

"I told them that it was better if some of them died!" King Elbas announced without showing the slightest shame.

"Do you even control that thing?" Sword Saint asked.

"We never had control over it," Wilfred snorted.

"So, it has gone berserk now," Noah commented while pointing his curious gaze toward King Elbas. "Is that the reason behind your desire for the life sphere?"

"Exactly," King Elbas replied.

"Did you build backdoors?" Noah questioned.

"It's a new inscription method," King Elbas explained while moving his gaze where no one could look straight at him. "It had backdoors during the first six deaths."

The pills that King Elbas had given to the wounded experts quickly improved their conditions. A new life filled their flesh, but they remained pretty pale. Still, it seemed that their centers of power were ready to deploy their peak might. The only unclear aspect concerned their current durability, which forced Noah to avoid making plans that involved a long fight.

Everyone looked at King Elbas. His last line had hinted at a troublesome answer, but his aura revealed intense pride. The cultivator didn't care about the problems that he was causing at all. He was only enjoying the results of his new inscription method.

"Did you copy me?" Noah eventually asked as his mind sent information about the hydra in the distance.

"I didn't copy anyone!" King Elbas shouted while turning toward Noah. "Your application of the higher energy is childish! You have one of the most flexible materials in the world, and you use it to create vaguely hard-to-kill puppets!"

The Demonic Sword, Night, Snore, Duanlong, Shafu, and the parasite peeked out of Noah's body and fixed their threatening attention on King Elbas. The sight was quite hilarious due to the different sizes of each companion, especially when it came to Shafu and Snore. Still, no one dared to laugh or make jokes in front of their chilling aura.

"You only feed on dark matter," Noah complained while looking at the root that had come out of his shoulder. "Why did you even come out?"

"The plant wanted to eat," Duanlong commented.

"It does nothing but eating," The Demonic Sword added.

"Though it has good dark shades," Night praised.

"It's only a parasite," Snore scoffed.

"That thing is dangerous," Shafu said in a deep voice while moving its gaze toward the hydra.

The scene left the group speechless. They knew about Noah's companions, but they had never seen them joining their bickering. They didn't even know how intelligent they actually were, at least for some of them.

"Do you really live with so many voices in your head?" King Elbas asked as a helpless sigh escaped his mouth. "No wonder you have a death wish."

"Back inside you go," Noah announced as dark matter covered the companions and dragged them inside the separate space.

Truth be told, his companions had felt a bit bored lately. They continued to grow, and Noah even deployed them in specific battles, but they had reached the point when their power stood in-between easy fights and impossible struggles. They had to wait for the next breakthrough to become a core part of his prowess again, but the matter wasn't as immediate as it looked.

All of them were unique existences, so Noah had to personally oversee their arrival in the ninth rank. They might even require a specific process to fulfill their potential and remove their main weakness in that part of Noah's cultivation journey.

Heaven and Earth would probably be Noah's last opponent in the world, but that would involve countless counters that he had never dared to make his companions face fully. Yet, that weakness had to go away if they wanted to remain useful.

The adapting ability of the hydra felt incredibly interesting when Noah inspected it. He didn't know how King Elbas had pulled that off, but he would probably need to study that new inscription method to bring his companions' power to a superior realm.

"Noah, you can't learn that," King Elbas warned in a severe tone when he noticed Noah's interest in the hydra. "My new inscription method requires my knowledge and my plan to reach the ninth rank. You would need to change your existence to learn it."

"What about letting me see it properly?" Noah asked.

"You know how I feel about showing imperfect methods," King Elbas replied.

"Dragons' spheres," Noah mentioned.

"I agree!" King Elbas promptly shouted, but his voice soon turned serious again as he changed the topic. "You might need to leave behind some of them."

"Nonsense," Noah asserted. "They are part of me."

Noah was wearing the cold and driven expression that he usually showed whenever he was ready to do something crazy, so King Elbas didn't add anything. The other experts around them also remained silent as their eyes moved between the duo and the hydra. The creature was still busy stabilizing its new power, but it would soon turn toward them.

"Do we run?" Robert asked to break the silence that had fallen after Noah's statement.

"It has an innate connection with my power," King Elbas explained while shaking his head. "It would find me even inside the orange city."

"What a pity!" Wilfred dramatically shouted. "I guess we have to part ways."

"It has been fun teasing you with the pig," Divine Demon announced.

"Do you remember stuff now?" Wilfred asked Divine Demon. "It's hard to keep track of your behavior."

"A demon never reveals his secrets," Divine Demon proudly announced, but Robert and Steven showed skeptical expressions at that statement.

"He probably doesn't know either," Robert whispered.

"Is it bad if we tell him?" Steven asked in the same low voice.

"You have also fueled its power," King Elbas continued to explain, doing his best to ignore everything happening around him. "The hydra will find all of you."

The explanation forced everyone to turn serious. Only Noah and Sword Saint would be safe there, but they had no intentions to run away. Noah had already started to radiate a faint hunger, and Sword Saint's eyes shone to no end when he thought about the possibility of facing an upper tier creature.

"Do you think we can defeat it?" Noah honestly asked.

"It will depend on how strong Sword Saint has become," King Elbas revealed. "It's not a proper magical beast. It's only a mass of energy with an intense attraction toward life. It's like the winged cockroaches, just bigger, stronger, faster, smarter, better, and definitely created by someone with a more artistic sense."

"Can we skip to the part when I cut it?" Sword Saint pleaded.

King Elbas had to give up on his bragging at that remark. "Fine. First of all-."

A rumbling noise cut the explanation short. Something that resembled a lightning bolt fell from the sky and filled the area with blinding light. The experts couldn't see anything for a few seconds, but they felt a wave of dense power sweeping them. That force tried to push them away for a bit, but it didn't inflict any injury.

The experts had to wait for their eyes to grow used to the light since something was preventing their mental waves from expanding toward the spot where the light fell. Even Noah found it hard to push his consciousness forward. There seemed to be a similar power blocking it.

Once their vision returned, the experts could see how an immense white sword had pierced the hydra and had stabbed the ground far away under them. A cultivator sat cross-legged on the blinding handle of that colossal blade, and his angry eyes didn't hesitate to point at Sword Saint.

****

Author's notes: Hopefully I can stick to the single hour for the third chapter.