A single second could mean the difference between life and death in battles featuring rank 8 existences. Even a slight delay in the activation of a defensive technique was enough to kill them.
Noah had understood that the two leaders only wanted to buy some time. His current level made him strong enough to defeat most gaseous stage cultivators, but it was hard for him to deal with two of them simultaneously.
Overwhelming their defenses while fending off their attacks would lead to a long battle. Noah strongly believed that he could defeat both his opponents at the same time, but he didn't know if the reinforcements would arrive before the fight ended.
Noah only took an instant to make up his mind. He liked to keep his trump cards a secret unless the situation required them, but he had the chance to inflict consistent losses at that time.
Supreme Thief's technique had allowed Noah to seize Shandal's law. Noah had then transformed that true meaning into a diagram that required darkness, mental energy, and dark matter.
The world screamed in pain when Noah activated the spell. His influence seeped into the matter and took control of one of its fundamental laws.
Shandal's law was part of Heaven and Earth's system. It belonged to those mighty existences, but Noah had transformed that true meaning into a spell that could forcefully put him in charge for a second.
The area darkened, and Noah shot forward. Nothing moved in the world, but he knew that the effects of his spell wouldn't last for long. Still, the roots had already covered the Demonic Sword, which was ready to cut in half one of his opponents.
Noah could only perform a simple slash in that time. Any other attack would have required him to gather more energy, and his spell would have ended by then.
His physical strength was enough to pierce the defensive items and innate protections. The sharpness of the Demonic Sword also helped, and the corrosive aura around the roots performed an important role too.
Noah reached the cultivator who could summon storms of glass-like shards and cut her body in half. His spell ended right after his attack, and time started flowing again.
The cultivator cleaved in half was still alive after the attack, but Noah promptly covered her in black flames. The resilience of rank 8 existences was incredible, but she had suffered far too much damage by then.
The second leader had watched the whole scene. The time spell didn't affect his senses. Part of him felt glad that Noah had chosen his companion over him, but that feeling didn't manage to overcome the terror that filled his mind.
"What do you even want?!" The cultivator asked while watching his companion turning into tiny black flames that fused with Noah. "We gave you the chance to complete your vengeance. We were even willing to pay for our mistake. What else can you possibly desire from us?"
The cultivator was panicking. He didn't know how to handle that situation. He wanted to find a way out, but Noah appeared invincible after killing the other leader.
Jordan stopped right outside the battlefield. She saw that Noah was in complete control of his fight, so she didn't want to interrupt his hunt.
"What do I want?" Noah asked while taking long steps toward the leader. "I want the human domain to fear me. I want every organization to be too scared to even think about hurting my organization. You are only the first name that has come to my mind."
The leader could understand Noah's view at that point, and it even made sense in his mind. A sense of loss filled the cultivator, but he didn't let his will to fight vanish.
His body transformed into a series of sparks that spread through the sky. The leader had resorted to an evasive maneuver, but Noah could quickly identify the lightning bolt that carried his consciousness.
The lightning bolts were almost as fast as Noah, so he took a bit to reach them. Yet, his blade eventually fell on those flying sparks, and the leader reappeared in the sky.
The cultivator had lost an arm and a leg after Noah's attack, but no pain appeared on his expression. Instead, a series of sparks began to accumulate in the area as his domain spread.
The sparks soon gave birth to countless lightning bolts that converged toward Noah. Those attacks didn't even vanish since the leader never stopped filling them with his "Breath".
The attack managed to slow Noah down. He felt a violent force landing on his body from every side, but the Demonic Form, the fiendish armor, and his skin prevented it from reaching his insides.
Noah also continued to move through the storm. The leader was doing his best to injure him, but he appeared unable to leave a mark on his skin.
"How can you be a simple expert in the gaseous stage?!" The leader asked without stopping his attack. "How can you walk through this with your sheer strength?!"
Noah wasn't only relying on his body to defeat that technique. The Demonic Form was giving its corrosive aura, and the liquid dark matter was covering his skin.
The parasite alone was enough to multiply Noah's might. He was adding a rank 8 creature to his power. It was normal for his strength to surpass an average rank 8 existence.
The dark matter increased his level even further. His foundation was also far better than any other creature in the world. The leader had to go all-out if he wanted to hope to injure Noah.
'I'm wasting too much time to test my power,' Noah thought before stopping moving.
Duanlong came out of his chest and opened its mouth. Snore also materialized around his figure to give the other Blood Companion enough time to deploy its innate ability.
The lightning storm slowly crumbled as its energy converged toward the dragon. Noah could soon shoot toward the leader without meeting any obstruction.
The leader performed its evasive maneuver again, but Night cut its actual lightning bolt before he could fly too far. The expert reappeared in the sky, but he lacked another arm at that time.
Noah didn't hesitate to charge ahead again, but the expert promptly unleashed a series of inscribed items. Swords, shiels, disposable weapons, and barriers of various kinds exploded in front of Noah and delayed his victory.
Snore, Duanlong, Snore, and Noah quickly dealt with those items, but the expert tried to run away again. Noah had to chase him for an entire region to reach him.
The leader was out of methods at that point. His space-ring didn't have useful resources anymore. His techniques seemed useless against Noah, and he was even slower than his opponent.
The hopeless situation didn't suppress his desire to survive. The cultivator tried to run away again, but Noah acted before his opponent could activate his evasive maneuver.
Night destabilized the expert's technique, and Noah cut off his head. The corpse tried to explode into a wave of lightning bolts to discharge its remaining energy, but Noah suppressed it with his dark matter.
When Noah turned, he noticed that Jordan had long since left to help the others. He had successfully defeated two rank 8 cultivators on his own, but that achievement didn't bring any satisfaction.