Birth of the Demonic Sword

"Couldn't you warn me first?" Noah cursed without even bothering to hold back his angry voice.

The situation was extremely delicate, but the cursed sword had ended up hurting the mental waves that covered the area during its breakthrough. It had literally shown that Noah and the experts weren't worthy of trust. After all, who could even believe experts that have no control over their abilities?

"It's not my fault, Master," The cursed sword replied in a voice that everyone could hear. "Defeating the giant gave me a lot of power, but your ambition ended up pushing me toward the breakthrough. I didn't notice it until it was too late."

Noah wanted to scold the weapon some more, but he had to take care of other important matters first. The three lower tier Kesier apes were looking at him while showing clear hostility, and the consciousness that covered the dead zone had yet to react to the sudden event.

The silence was worse than the evident hatred. Noah didn't know what to say in that situation. Every word that he could think of sounded like a lame lie.

"Ehm," Noah cleared his throat before continuing with a human voice. "Well, some of my abilities are strange. This sword isn't even the strangest in my arsenal."

King Elbas felt the need to rip off his hair when he heard his leader. Steven, Robert, and Wilfred experienced a similar feeling, Alexander remained completely speechless, and Divine Demon exploded into a loud laugh.

Meanwhile, Sword Saint materialized a silver blade and prepared himself to fight, but his action only caused another wave of anger to spread around him. His companions and the Kesier apes were shooting furious stares toward him.

"What?" Sword Saint asked when he noticed that reaction. "We are crazy. They'll never trust us."

King Elbas opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out of it. He couldn't say anything against that statement. Sword Saint was completely right.

Noah rolled his eyes and scratched the side of his head with the base of the cursed sword. He had tried to be polite, but that approach seemed doomed to fail every time.

"Look," Noah eventually shouted in a human voice, "Tell me what you want to do. We can fight or talk. It's honestly the same at this point."

Noah wasn't delusional. He knew that his opponents had at least one middle tier creature in their ranks. However, the cursed sword had just advanced, so the potential battle didn't appear completely hopeless anymore.

The cursed sword could make its user express more power. Yet, it had previously been in the middle tier, which put its maximum power output in the upper tier. Noah could empower its might further with his ambition and other abilities. Still, the actual attacks remained disappointing for a weapon meant to ignore the gaps among the tiers and ranks.

Yet, the cursed sword had advanced to the upper tier now, which put its new output of power in the ninth rank. Noah could even empower that ability with his many methods, which could potentially create attacks capable of hurting rank 9 magical beasts in the middle tier.

Of course, that math was purely theoretical. The cursed sword had just advanced, so it might struggle to reach the ninth rank in terms of power on its own. The same went for his empowerments. He could defy logic, but he might lack the potential needed to push his power to the desired level.

Still, Noah didn't want to continue with that pretense, especially after the cursed sword shattered it. He would fight if the Kesier species wanted a battle and talk if they were okay with a peaceful approach.

The silence became deafening, and only Divine Demon's occasional laugh broke that suffocating environment. Everyone waited for the leader still hidden inside the city to speak, but its words struggled to come out. Noah's group didn't know whether that was a negotiation tactic, but they could only wait and see what the pack would do to decide their next move.

"Did you just scold your weapon?" The ancient female voice eventually resounded again, but a tinge of liveliness had appeared in it at that time.

"That's not its first time either," Noah snorted while glaring at the cursed sword. "It announced its power once. Can you imagine? You should be a trump card, not an announcer."

"How come that's not the strangest weapon in your arsenal?" The voice resounded again, and it sounded even more lively now.

"You'd be surprised," Noah sighed. "All the strange and crazy in this world ends up under my banner."

"We don't have a banner," King Elbas coughed.

"What's the point of having a banner when we are the last organization in the world?" Noah complained.

"It's a matter of pride," Steven announced.

"You literally came from a force that hid the names of its members," Noah rebuked.

"The banner was in our minds!" Steven shouted while raising a hand to the center of his chest and raising his face to wear a melancholic expression while looking in the distance.

"Even the Demon sects had banners," Divine Demon commented in a low voice.

"And the Legion," Alexander added.

"And Heaven and Earth," Robert whispered.

Noah shot a cold gaze toward Wilfred at that point, but the expert limited himself to shrug his shoulders.

"We'll get a damned banner," Noah eventually sighed.

"It's quite pointless now that I think about it," King Elbas exclaimed. "Who would even see it?"

"Our figures are enough to spread fear in this empty world," Divine Demon continued. "Being alive is our banner."

"Is this finally happening?" Steven asked. "Are we throwing challenges at Defying Demon?"

"We are getting better at this," Alexander commented. "It took us millennia of training, but we have finally reached the point when Noah has to remain silent."

"If only the pig were here," Wilfred sniffed while pretending to wipe away tears from the corners of his eyes.

"Please, tell me that you want to fight," Noah shouted, but the Kesier species didn't satisfy his desire.

The mental barrier that covered the city fell as a pale-orange halo ran through its invisible surface. The buildings changed shape as the illusion fell and revealed their true form.

The old and crumbled buildings transformed into tall and shining structures covered by an array of lightning bolts that connected all their roofs. A pale-orange halo surrounded the entire city and shot into the environment now that the barrier was down, but the heavy consciousness made sure to suppress that radiance.

The scene was quite spectacular, especially for experts who claimed to be part of the last organization in the world. The city appeared as the most advanced fusion between architecture and inscriptions. It was majestic, functional, and powerful. The palaces on the black landmass felt like poor imitation built by children in comparison.

"The apes build better than the humans," King Elbas heaved a helpless sigh. "The higher plane desperately needs an Elbas family."

"Did Second Prince and the mansion meet in the end?" Noah asked. "I'm actually curious about that story."

King Elbas limited himself to snort. He seemed in the process to say something, but a large throne suddenly floated out of the buildings and revealed a tall Kesier ape that sat lazily on the armchairs while sipping a grey liquid from a large cup.

"We found perfect allies!" Divine Demon shouted, and Noah could only shake his head.

The cultivation journey resembled a dive toward madness rather than a constant struggle to reach the peak. Everyone who got into the high levels was simply too crazy to understand those details.

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Author's note: The battle to publish on time will restart once I wake up. Hope you enjoyed the chapters.