Turning time back to when June's battle was still ongoing, Noah, Chasing Demon, and Great Elder Diana were fighting against the defenses they had memorized in the last two years.
Night and Noah focused on the formations' cores, and the two leaders handled the ballistae and the Royals' attacks.
The trio had become used to cooperate in the last period, and Noah had learnt to trust Night a bit more. The creature had grown after resting inside his mental sea multiple times, and it had become fonder of his Master.
Most of that came from the harmonization with the modifications applied during the suppression. Still, the fact that Noah and Night shared similar personalities and goals had played an essential role in their relationship.
"Ten in one sprint!" Night shouted, and Noah heard its words inside his mind. "Give me a decent body already!"
"Ten," Noah calmly conveyed as he retracted the Demonic Sword and sprinted backward. "I might think of doing a second blade if that's everything you can do."
Night snorted and charged toward more cores. Noah kept making bigger and better bodies every time it destroyed them, so surpassing their structural limits had become a goal for the creature.
Noah didn't mind that. Third Prince and First Princess fixed part of the formations after every battle, so he needed Night to go all-out every time if they wanted to conquer that region.
It still had a bird-like appearance, but Noah had experimented a bit to see what suited its species.
Two years weren't a long time for powerhouses, but Noah had learnt a lot by studying the corpses amassed in his space-ring. The Night-blade Pterodactyls' innate ability allowed them to turn into darkness to generate darkness.
They became blades capable of cutting the fabric of the world and causing a natural creation of darkness. Their bodies then fed on those laws and repeated the process until they advanced.
Noah could spend an entire day listing the weaknesses of that species. The Pterodactyls advanced slowly, they had poor reproductive capacities, and their bodies were quite frail against attacks that crossed their natural defenses.
They couldn't even live under the sunlight, which halted their potential to the seventh rank since the Immortal Lands had a perpetual white sky.
However, Heaven and Earth had applied their fairness on the Pterodactyls' kind too. That species balanced those weaknesses with the most threatening offensive power that Noah had ever seen!
Noah could cut laws with his new slashes, but the Pterodactyls became blades made of laws when they attacked. There was virtually no defense that could stop them as long as their rank was high enough to cut them.
Replicating that feature was challenging, and Noah was still testing how to apply such a miraculous ability to the dark matter. The task would be easier if he used his darkness, but Noah wouldn't limit his weapon's potential because of a few hindrances.
Night became darkness that lay waste of twelve cores in an instant. The creature was too fast and precise for the Royals to develop a countermeasure in a few years. Moreover, it was hard to identify the nature of the attacks, so they chose to focus on the powerhouses for the time being.
Night's body came out more wrecked after every attack. It had destroyed more than two hundred cores on its own during that battle, but it had sacrificed its lower half in the task.
Only a small portion of its torso, one wing, and its head remained intact. Noah guessed that it would need to return inside his mind after less than ten exchanges.
Noah destroyed eleven cores, and Night's laugh resounded in his mind. The creature had learnt to savor those small victories in silence after understanding that they weren't its Master's fault.
Night could sense due to the connection with his mind how the Demonic Sword suffered to keep up with Noah's prowess. The living weapon grew together with his dantian, so it was still unsuited for battles on that level.
'I can't keep up much longer either,' Noah thought as he inspected the Demonic Sword. A few cracks had appeared on its tip. It could launch less than ten attacks too.
"We broke through!" Chasing Demon suddenly sent a message, and Noah called Night back as he turned toward his Patriarch's direction.
The allied powerhouses had exploited Noah's attacks to destabilize the shields, and a large hole had finally appeared in their golden surface.
Cracks spread from the hole. The shields began to crumble as that instability started a chain reaction. The Royals even retreated at that sight, indicating that they couldn't do anything to save the defensive formations.
Chasing Demon and Great Elder Diana quickly prepared spells to destroy the ballistae. Noah relaxed, but something peculiar reached his mind now that his consciousness stopped focusing on the shields.
At first, he sensed June's familiar aura. He felt happy that she had rejoined the battlefield and that her centers of power worked properly. Yet, his dark star spun like crazy when he noticed the arrival of the third enemy powerhouse.
He didn't even remember when he entered his dimension. The world in his eyes became devoid of light as he flew toward the side of the battlefield to intercept the enemy spell.
Nevertheless, before he could even reach Second Prince, a wave of flames hit him, forcing him out of his dimension.
The defensive formations and ballistae crumbled behind Noah, but his eyes remained on Second Prince's eccentric figure. The small crown on his head was eye-catching, but Noah's focus was on the red mark on his forehead.
Noah's mind felt a dangerous sensation coming from that prism-like mark. It reflected the light that landed on it, making it shine together with the Prince's golden eyes.
It was a piercing gaze. Noah felt as if a dense halo tried to dig through his natural defenses and inspect the very core of his existence. However, his mental waves cut that foreign presence and freed his body of that strange pressure.
'How did he even sense me?' Noah thought as he continued to exchange stares with Second Prince. He had noticed his friends and lover under him, but something told him that he shouldn't get distracted.
'Is he really that strong?' Noah couldn't help but feel surprised.
Second Prince was a powerhouse in the lower stage, which put them on the same level. He was slightly stronger than his brother and sisters, but Noah had fought two of them together already.
Nevertheless, Second Prince appeared different. Noah didn't know where that sensation came from, but he felt sure that he was in front of another monster.
"You must be his heir," Noah said. He rarely spoke once a battle began, but he wanted to buy June and the Demons time. Also, he tried to destabilize his opponent with his revelations.
June and the Demons quickly left the battlefield, and Second Prince followed them with his eyes. He had to focus quickly though since Noah didn't let his distraction go to waste.
Second Prince turned into flames that shot sideways, and a tall fissure appeared on his previous spot. His fire continued to retreat, but Noah reappeared above it, ready to thrust with his blade.
Another large fissure appeared in the sky, but Second Prince's flames dodged it by separating and regrouping in another spot. His body reformed just in time to see Noah's fingernails slashing at his face.
Five smaller cuts appeared in the sky, but a golden light shone from the Royal's skin and blocked Noah's attacks. Second Prince smiled when he was face to face with his opponent, and the brightness surrounding him intensified before exploding into a sea of fire.
Second Prince reappeared higher in the sky, but his gaze remained on the flames below. His smile remained wide, but his eyes became solemn when he saw the half-naked figure of his opponent walking out of the fire.
Noah didn't suffer any injury. His skin shone with metallic properties, and black gas came out of his mouth as he held back his flames.
Noah didn't know if the Royal was powerful enough to face him, but he had confirmed that he was more ruthless than his siblings.