The sudden fall of the expert's cultivation level wasn't a temporary weakness caused by instabilities. His existence had continued to destabilize due to the absence of core aspects of his law, and the exchanges with Noah's group only quickened that process.
Moreover, Heaven and Earth seemed to have no intention of fixing his state. Noah believed that the expert had gone rogue and was attacking them on his own since Sword Saint naturally attracted his existence, but he didn't know whether to expect something afterward. It felt strange for the rulers to ignore his group after what had happened, but he could also justify their decision to remain silent.
Noah couldn't even imagine how Heaven and Earth must feel after losing important laws gathered throughout the eras. Their existence was already unstable, so he guessed that Sword Saint's breakthrough had worsened that feature. The rulers would probably need to go through a long period of stabilization that involved throwing away laws that opposed their new state, but the chaos of the battlefield didn't let him remain deep in his thoughts for too long.
His body was still falling apart, and his two companions tasked to be part of the cannon fodder were in the same situation, if not worse. King Elbas' light was enveloping them, but there was a limit to how much power it could provide to three experts that had immense requirements.
Divine Demon was the only one who could vaguely stabilize his shape since the world kept shattering on its own to give him energy. The whiteness that made the battlefield was nothing more than a mass of tiles full of fuel for his technique, and he seemed able to affect it intentionally now.
Seeing the only real weakness behind Divine Demon's law disappearing as he approached the ninth rank felt scary. His companions couldn't even begin to think what he would be able to do without limits applied to his miraculous ability.
Wilfred struggled to absorb enough energy from the golden light. He even ate pieces of magical beasts that he had stored throughout the years, but his innate healing abilities had never been great. His species was incredibly strong and resilient, but it fell off when it came to other features.
Noah ended up being the worst of the three. His condition appeared decent due to all the dark matter covering his injuries, but he was feeling the structural limits of his body in that situation.
The issue wasn't with the sheer power released by the cultivator's attacks. He would suffer less damage than his companions because his body was stronger. Yet, his incredibly high requirements made him unable to recover since he never had access to enough energy.
That forced Noah to remain injured while his companions healed little by little. His condition was the best after the first exchange, but it had reached the last spot now, and he could only delay the worst possible outcome for now.
The life-saving pill won in the bet with King Elbas came out of the separate space and melted among the waves of dark matter. The same happened to most of the resources that he could quickly recover with a few hunts. His only regret came from the brown avatar contained inside Shafu since he had no way to turn it into energy quickly. Even the dragon could barely contain it.
The sacrifice of most of his stash activated Noah's instant healing and brought some relief to his condition. King Elbas' pill turned out to be so amazing that layers of muscles reappeared above the torn and damaged organs. His state remained awful, but that was enough to keep him at his peak for a bit longer.
'This should be enough to kill the cultivator,' Noah thought after sensing the drop in his opponent's cultivation level.
The three experts exchanged a nod before shooting ahead and approaching the liquid stage cultivator. They didn't have to stick to the cannon fodder's role now. It was finally time to pay their opponent back for what they had to suffer.
Robert and Steven joined their three companions when they saw them charging ahead. Only King Elbas and Sword Saint remained behind since they were more important in that battle.
Steven shone with a newfound power that covered the charging group with an invisible barrier. Large bullets made of the same energy shot forward to converge toward the liquid stage cultivator, and the other experts didn't hesitate to join that offensive.
Divine Demon opened his monstrous mouth as a blue light gathered in his throat, and a beam soon shot forward. Robert created a rain made of toxic drops that engulfed the area, and Wilfred accumulated his physical strength to prepare for the imminent clash.
Noah didn't want to use even more of his ambition or summon his companions against an opponent with unclear power. His abilities were empowering his body, dark world, and workshop, so he limited his offensive to them.
The dark world expanded and recreated the previous favorable environment. The new power of Noah's mental sphere and the empowered state of his technique allowed him to adapt different patches of dark matter to the various abilities flying through it without removing the weakening effects on the cultivators.
Steven saw his determination intensify, the rain's drops became bigger and released toxic gas, and patches of additional muscles appeared on Wilfred's arms to increase his peak power output. Moreover, an army of peak rank 8 dragons appeared due to the workshops set all around the dark world. Some even materialized in Noah's hands so that he could throw them.
The liquid stage cultivator was still trapped in his confused state. His centers of power simply stopped working at times, and his level continued to fall since his existence didn't stop crumbling.
The storm of attacks converged on his body before he could even realize that something was flying in his direction. A series of explosions resounded in the area once their attacks slammed on the cultivator, but the experts didn't feel satisfied. They could sense that their techniques had failed to pierce past the innate defenses. They had only weakened them.
King Elbas seemed to understand their mental state since a series of golden swords suddenly entered the dark world. Noah didn't even study those weapons. He directly used the dark matter to transport them right before the liquid stage cultivator, where they immediately activated their effects.
The swords stabbed the cultivator, but they didn't open injuries. Instead, they pierced past his innate defenses and created openings that led directly to the internal organs still hanging from that skeleton.
The experts didn't hesitate to launch another wave of attacks that converged in those spots, but the cultivator's eyes became aware of his surroundings before the offensive could reach him. Activating abilities in time to stop those techniques seemed impossible, so the skeleton decided to detonate the three immense swords stabbed on the ground.
The event had been too sudden. The three swords weren't inscribed weapons. They were part of the cultivator shattered existence. They probably were one of his strongest abilities when his law still existed, and the expert had even created them when his cultivation level was still in the solid stage.
The world in Noah's eyes slowed down when the wave of power radiated by the detonation was about to engulf him. Calculations happened in his mind, but he didn't reach any promising conclusion. He didn't have enough influence on space and time to dodge that attack or teleport himself away. His centers of power instinctively activated all the defenses they were capable of, but his consciousness went dark anyway.