The lightning bolt wasn't weak according to normal standards. June was only a gaseous stage cultivator, but her lightning bolt could touch the realm occupied by existences in the liquid stage. That was incredibly good, but she fell short compared to Noah and his companions.
Noah dispersed his ambition and let the unstable substance give him the power to endure the blow. The lightning bolt engulfed him and left a few black spots on his body, but he smiled while he remained immersed in that familiar energy.
Noah's doubts vanished at that point. That energy clearly stated that June was back. His many thoughts about Heaven and Earth's new approach to privileged cultivators temporarily vanished as pure happiness filled his mind.
"Did you plan to use me since the beginning?" Noah asked as the lightning bolt dispersed.
"Hey, we were fighting," June snorted. "Attack me or something. I need to stabilize my power."
Noah inspected June as potential flowed in his mind again. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with her world. Everything was working perfectly.
"Are you lying to make me fight you?" Noah asked.
"Maybe," June chuckled. "Better not to risk it, right?"
"Do you really want to fight right away instead of making up for the time spent separated?" Noah questioned, even if he knew the answer.
"We can handle that later," June announced before wearing a loving smile. "It's not like we'll split anytime soon anyway."
Noah sighed before wielding the Demonic Sword and letting his potential flow inside his centers of power. The pressure released by his figure intensified, and even the void seemed to bend to his weight.
"That will depend," Noah exclaimed.
"Depend on what?" June asked.
"On whether you can be more than dead weight," Noah stated before slashing forward.
A giant slash came out of the Demonic Sword and flew toward June. Noah didn't use his full power, but his attack remained something that her last lightning bolt couldn't stop.
June's power surged, and a dark-orange light came out of her figure as sparks accumulated in front of her. The slash hit her before she could complete her attack, but the energy accumulated before the impact allowed her to avoid serious injuries.
June flew back as blood flowed out of the large cut that had appeared on her torso. The impact made her slam on the weak sky in the distance and shattered a large chunk of that white material.
"What is it?" Noah asked after appearing in front of June. "Show me that you can follow me."
"Something tells me that I've pissed you off," June smirked as sparks ran under her injury to fix it.
"You have yet to tell me how did you end up in that situation," Noah said in an annoyed tone as he placed his hand on her injury. "Is this the new version of the Perfect Circuit?"
A tremor ran through June when Noah's fingers touched her skin. She could sense everything that had changed inside him during the last period through that simple gesture. Her eyes inevitably fell on his reptilian pupils, but they sharpened before the two could fall prey to a romantic moment.
June grabbed Noah's arm as sparks crackled in her eyes. Her aura suddenly skyrocketed and reached the peak of the liquid stage before a lightning bolt crossed her fingers to fall on his arm.
An immense force entered Noah's body and flung him away. He quickly stopped himself, but his arm now featured a series of black marks. He could also see tiny cracks on his skin, but that sight only made him smile.
"I jump through multiple levels now," June explained as her figure transformed into a blinding dark-orange sphere that flew toward Noah. "I don't need to pass through checkpoints anymore."
The sphere carried the same peak liquid stage power, and Noah prepared to fend it off. However, the aura suddenly jumped into a superior realm again. The pressure that only a solid stage cultivator could generate spread throughout the void right before June could reach Noah.
An explosion happened when June clashed with Noah. Dark-orange light illuminated a vast part of the void, but that glow vanished as soon as a giant black crystal appeared in the area.
"Boring," June sighed when she saw her sparks losing power inside the dark world.
"How did you end up in that situation?" Noah asked while slashing with the Demonic Sword and opening another cut on June's torso.
The attack flung her away, but the dark world forced her to remain inside its crystals. The technique even prevented her from stopping her momentum. She flew until Noah decided to let her slam on a six-armed dragon.
"It's mostly your fault," June revealed as sparks left her body and destroyed the dragon. "I can't find anyone better than you when it comes to my existence. Even Heaven and Earth feel dull after seeing you overcoming them countless times."
"Why did you join the rulers?" Noah questioned while waving the Demonic Sword twice to send a cross-shaped slash.
"I needed to expand my foundation," June explained before slamming her fists on each other and creating a crackling shockwave that dispersed the slashes and part of the dark world with them. "Do you remember Eccentric Thunder's theory, right? I'm not a hybrid, so I have to find ways around the innate weakness of my body. Absorbing Heaven and Earth's power was the only method to make me resistant to higher levels of energy."
"How did I come into play?" Noah asked while appearing in front of her and thrusting his blade forward.
June's hands shot forward and created a crackling barrier that blocked the Demonic Sword before it could reach her skin. She prepared herself to detonate the protection, but black lines suddenly appeared on her sparks before shattering them into waves of energy.
"I couldn't steal Heaven and Earth's power randomly," June explained as she stepped back and placed a hand on her right arm before pointing her fingers toward Noah. "I needed them to create something that suited me, so I allowed them to take me. I even sealed a pact with them so that they could experiment their new approach on my existence."
Noah's instincts screamed in fear when a spear-like lightning bolt shot out of June's fingers. The attack destroyed the dark matter on its path and forced Noah to dodge. He could have blocked it if he had used his full strength, but he didn't want to fight June seriously.
"And me?" Noah repeated.
"I needed you to rekindle my battle intent and force the Tribulation," June explained. "I knew you wouldn't have left me inside Heaven and Earth's system."
"What if I had to kill you?" Noah questioned in an annoyed tone.
"I would have loved my death," June smiled warmly before joining her hands before her chest and creating a crackling sphere. "I knew Heaven and Earth would have sent me toward you to trigger my ability and study it. I simply gambled on my talent."
"I wouldn't have liked killing you," Noah sighed as the dark world dispersed and converged around the Demonic Sword to create a tall pillar.
"I know," June stated, "But I would have lost the chance to see you one last time otherwise."
Noah could only sigh helplessly. The crackling sphere between June's hands was hurting her skin and damaging her body as a whole. That attack seemed to be her current limit, which was fine compared to the rest of his companions. She could fight privileged cultivators in the liquid stage in that state. Dinia would have probably defeated her, but she was there, in the realm of the monsters.
"This is the last attack, right?" Noah asked. "I'm tired of hurting you."
"Sure, last attack," June promised before spreading her arms and expanding her sphere.. Noah made the pillar descend after that gesture, and the two attacks crashed on each other.