King Elbas flew across the mutating dark matter. The world around him changed as the rank 6 aura spread through it.
Various shapes formed as he moved toward the center of the cloud. Buildings appeared from time to time, and a large landmass formed at some point.
The dark matter inside those shapes was dense. It appeared to have a solid form, but the power that it contained wasn't superior to that inside the gaseous higher energy.
King Elbas understood that Noah was advancing to the sixth rank and that the breakthrough had triggered an evolution in his higher energy.
Noah had been like him just a few exchanges ago. He had used the higher energy only in its raw form or to empower some of his creations. However, he was now fueling a technique with it.
The dark matter never kept its solid form for too long. Intense tremors ran through the cloud and radiated a deep humming sound that echoed inside it.
King Elbas initially thought that the vibrations followed Noah's heartbeat rhythm, but he had to withdraw that hypothesis. The humming sound resembled a rotation of some sort, but the Royal couldn't understand the cause behind it.
The dark matter continued to transform. King Elbas even saw an entire town forming before crumbling into a wave of dense gas. His curiosity had long since peaked, but he didn't stop to study the area.
King Elbas reached the center of the cloud, and he found Noah floating among his dark matter. Dark gales flowed out of his chest and poured higher energy in the area, but Noah didn't seem to suffer from that.
The Royal stopped to analyze Noah. His curiosity eventually had the best of him, and his mental waves spread to study what was happening around him.
Noah released dark matter continuously and in immense quantity. The humming sounds echoed every time the dark star performed a rotation and poured higher energy into the environment.
The process didn't appear to be under Noah's control. He had his eyes closed as he floated among his dark matter, and the shapes that it took came from the depths of his subconscious.
King Elbas couldn't help himself. Noah's higher energy appeared as the perfect tool for a creator, and the Royal had an unstoppable desire to own it.
Still, his attention soon had to focus on something else. Noah's dantian had already reached the sixth rank by then, but its power grew every time he exuded higher energy.
Noah wasn't cultivating, but his dantian improved nonetheless. It was as if his organ had stored so much energy that it didn't need any external resource to grow.
King Elbas saw that the dark matter became unstable as Noah's cultivation level increased. A faint dangerous sensation appeared in his mind, and that forced him to suppress his curiosity.
He had no idea how Noah could threaten him, but he wouldn't ignore his instincts. He had chosen to go after the Demon Prince for a reason in the end. It was better to kill him before he became even more troublesome.
A tongue of golden flames gathered in his hand and took the shape of a long spear. King Elbas was about to launch it toward Noah, but the fire lost its form while he threw them.
King Elbas felt shocked. He had yet to create spells meant only for his higher energy, but that was a simple manipulation!
Flames gathered in his palm again, and another spear formed. However, the same thing happened. The weapon fell apart as he was about to throw it, and the golden fire dispersed inside the dark cloud.
King Elbas' curiosity returned at that sight. The best inscription master in the world couldn't condense his higher energy anymore, and he had to know the reason behind that shocking event.
"You might want to leave," Noah said as he opened his eyes. His focus went on his dark star, and he completely ignored the Royal as he studied the changes inside him.
His dantian had advanced in the sixth rank, and all the raw laws that he had absorbed showed themselves. They had always been inside his organ, waiting for it to accept their power.
Noah had overcome the bottleneck. All the power that he had accumulated during the journey through the void was now showing its effects.
Rank 6 darkness accumulated inside his dantian even if he didn't cultivate. Gaseous sword-like amass of energy took form inside his organ and enlarged it.
His dantian didn't even try to oppose some resistance. It enlarged at the faintest internal pressure, and it continued to grow as more darkness accumulated in its insides.
Noah surpassed the halfway mark of the gaseous stage in a matter of minutes, and his growth didn't stop there. His dantian continued to advance, and it soon surpassed the level of his body.
Part of the darkness flowed inside the dark star and gathered in its core. The higher energy that made his fourth center of power became denser and poured all the superfluous dark matter into the outside world.
Noah had started creating his world to trigger his breakthrough, but his dark star had continued to fuel it on its own. All the superfluous dark matter became part of the cloud.
King Elbas couldn't understand what he meant with that warning, but the dangerous sensation intensified as Noah's level increased. It had only been a faint feeling initially, but now it had become something far more serious.
The Royals' leader knew that he would suffer some injuries if he remained there. The sole thought that something like that was possible shocked him, but he didn't leave the cloud anyway.
King Elbas was a researcher. There was a gaseous stage powerhouse with the ability to scare him, and his curiosity needed to know how that could happen.
Deep humming sounds spread through the cloud, and a peculiar scenery took shape as the dark matter transformed again. Buildings and defensive walls appeared around Noah, and their forms were quite detailed, even if part of their fabric remained in a gaseous state.
King Elbas didn't recognize that place, but a cold expression appeared on Noah's face.
Noah didn't choose to create that. The dark matter had done everything on its own, and it had built a place that he knew far too well.
'Balvan Mansion,' Noah thought as an intense tremor originated from the dark star and spread in the dark matter around him. The buildings fell apart before the entire cloud stopped moving.
"What is happening?" King Elbas asked. "Why can't I command my higher energy as I wish?"
King Elbas wore a severe expression, but his eyes sparkled with intense curiosity as he inspected the changes in the dark matter. Everything around him was unknown, and Noah held all the answers.
The dark star released another tremor, and the dark matter in the area began to converge toward Noah.
The process was slow initially, but the dark star released an even more intense tremor that made the dark matter speed up. A third vibration followed it, and the higher energy formed proper gales that flowed back into Noah's chest.
Noah released a grunt as he felt that surge of energy. Having so much dark matter condensing inside his dark star gave birth to immense pressure, and he even crouched to endure it.
King Elbas watched as the cloud disappeared to take place in the void. Noah had reabsorbed all his higher energy at that point, but his level didn't stop increasing.
The darkness continued to flow inside the dark star and increase its density. Noah felt as if he was about to explode, but he couldn't suppress the process no matter what he did.
He couldn't contain that power, and his instincts advised him otherwise. Noah could only give in to that pressure and let the dark star handle the rest.
King Elbas was still mesmerized by that event that he almost didn't react in time to avoid the flares of dark matter that suddenly came out of Noah's chest.
A rotating dark sphere enlarged from the center of his torso then, and Noah's figure soon disappeared inside his higher energy.