Birth of the Demonic Sword

'Did we win?' Noah wondered as injuries opened on his torso before the energy absorbed during the last attack healed them in an instant.

The smooth black surface of the metal landmass at the bottom of the hole didn't feature any ghosts, and it even lacked their strange energy. The same went for the entire cavity and the areas past its edges.

Sensing those creatures was hard, but they were out of hiding spots. Noah wouldn't even know where to look for them with the region in that state.

Of course, a counter capable of keeping the old rulers busy for a long time couldn't die after a simple discharge of energy. Actually, it could crumble and fall apart, but it had so many specimens carrying its power that losing a platoon barely affected its army.

Noah's consciousness couldn't sense much, but his instincts warned him about the arrival of a new threat while he continued to inspect the area. His eyes promptly rose toward the sky, where he saw countless ghosts seeping out of the spots that featured the intense storms.

King Elbas and the others had also sensed the arrival of that threat, and their faces couldn't help but darken at the sight of the massive army slowly descending from the sky. The valley had featured less than a hundred ghosts, but thousands of them came out of the storms now.

King Elbas forgot about his bickering and started giving orders. It didn't matter that Divine Demon could surpass his methods with his unreasonable law. He remained the only one to know what the formations in the area did, so he was in charge of changing the layout of the battlefield.

Everyone had abandoned their position after Noah's reckless discharge of power, but they were still close enough to hear and execute King Elbas' orders. They didn't hesitate to take new spots in the area and prepare specific abilities as the battle formation deployed by the group adapted to the new threat.

King Elbas took care of moving the orange brim of energy that radiated the old Heaven and Earth's aura. The expert moved it to the ground and quickly created a series of inscriptions that spread its aura throughout the transformed region.

It was essential to control the direction of the enemy offensive in that situation due to the enormous difference in number and power. The ghosts were peculiar creatures that didn't even seem to have a cultivation level, but their influence depended on the quantity of dark energy they carried, and the army had a lot of it.

The formations prepared beforehand were still in place thanks to Divine Demon's help, but they couldn't cover such a large area. The group had to find a way to draw as many ghosts as possible between the mountains without losing the core of their offensive, but the situation seemed quite dire. The army seemed able to overwhelm them with a simple charge.

Noah, Alexander, Sword Saint, and Divine Demon didn't need orders. They had one role there, and King Elbas could only ask them to benefit the general strategy with their reckless approach.

Meanwhile, Wilfred and Steven had to take care to move the battlefield in the groups' favor. Their pure destructive power was great, but it couldn't match the other four experts. It was better if they focused on manipulating the energy in the area.

Robert had yet to unleash his attacks against the ghosts, but he didn't remain still during the battle. His law could study their targets and improve its corrosive abilities, so King Elbas had created a formation that inspected the dark creatures and sent what it learnt to Robert. That inscription had never stopped working since the beginning of the fight, so the expert's toxic power had reached insane levels.

The expert felt already confident enough to kill many ghosts in a single attack, but he didn't want to waste time sending attacks on an immense army. It was better for him to fuel the formations connected to his power before limiting his offensive to his own power.

The army of ghosts didn't show any emotion as they descended toward the massive hole, attracted by the old rulers' influence. They didn't care about the experts on their path. In fact, they would even ignore them if they simply left.

Noah, Alexander, Divine Demon, and Sword Saint didn't even consider stepping out of that battlefield. The four experts flew higher in the sky until they stood above the two mountain peaks. All the ghosts would converge there. It was up to them to kill as many of them as possible.

"How will they avoid the illusions?" Steven asked when he looked at the four in the sky.

"They won't," Wilfred snorted. "The madmen will go all-out and trust their power. Prepare for the first wave."

"The ghosts are still far away," Steven commented.

"The ghosts won't take part in the first wave," Wilfred explained before glancing at King Elbas on the other mountain when the expert did the same.

Noah and the others higher in the sky couldn't allow themselves to hold back their blows. They didn't know the actual resilience of the ghosts, but they couldn't risk going easy on them.

"Better to die by your hands than theirs," Alexander laughed.

"Don't you have seven different abilities to come back to life?" Noah mocked.

"I really have one," Alexander laughed again before explaining himself better when the three experts turned toward him. "It requires many preparations, and it's worth it only if I'm suffering from a curse that I can't fix. If I die, I die."

"I guess we'll find out who is the strongest among us," Sword Saint smirked.

"Overconfidence is a curse, young one," Divine Demon announced in a deep voice.

"I would need the energy of the world to say that in his situation," Alexander announced before spreading his arms and cracking a joke. "World, give me the power to say such nonsense!"

The three experts next to Alexander laughed, but they all showed cold expressions once the ghosts entered their range. Their dark energy even shot out of their figures to fly toward the group.

The four's auras shot outward as their abilities activated. They all knew that they had to deploy both offensive and defensive techniques at the same time to make sure that their companions didn't kill them in one blow.

Noah wore his usual demonic armor and let corrosive roots cover his figure. Trails of dark matter that depicted faces came out of the two swords in his hands and accumulated power for the next attack.

Azure energy gathered around Divine Demon before flowing inside his body. The expert transformed into a monster-like giant humanoid figure with long nails and sharp fangs. His muscles even bulged to the point when they resembled boulders.

A silver aura covered Sword Saint and surrounded him in a sharp membrane that seemed able to cut every material in the world. A blade even materialized in his grasp, and he wielded it with both hands before pointing it forward.

Alexander glanced at the sky before closing his eyes. The whiteness contained in the environment condensed before shooting toward his figure and filling him with raging energy. A blinding radiance came out of his gaze when he lifted his eyelids.

The four monsters were ready to fight.