Birth of the Demonic Sword

The battlefield was a mess of cracks and destroyed areas. The ghosts had disappeared, but their aura continued to fill the region. Noah felt almost able to smell its peculiar scent while his companions confirmed that he was back into the real world.

'It has been a while since we lost so badly,' Noah thought as the black hole covered the injuries with dark matter.

Noah's first instinct was to laugh. He didn't really care about the old rulers, and all his companions were alive. He had no reason to feel sad over a mere defeat. Part of him even felt glad that the world could still put him in front of challenges.

Those who had fainted slowly awakened as their minds became aware of the situation and activated their centers of power. Everyone learnt about the outcome of the fight at that point, and their attention instinctively converged on Noah.

Almost everyone in the group had suffered deep injuries. They had even lost the piece of the old rulers. The mission had been a complete failure, and the path ahead appeared unclear. The experts usually relied on Noah to develop a brazen plan that could force their power to increase, but he shared his confusion at that time.

The group couldn't bait the ghosts out without the piece of the old rulers' existence. Noah felt sure that the old Heaven and Earth would happily give part of their law again, but he didn't know whether fighting those dangerous creatures so soon was the right move.

The issue was with the lack of solutions to their innate ability. That power felt too troublesome to deal with, and the ghosts were even unsatisfying opponents to defeat. Noah and the others had destroyed many of them, but that feat didn't seem to lead anywhere. It almost appeared pointless.

Noah flew toward King Elbas, and the experts imitated him. The group soon gathered around the expert, and their attention couldn't help but fall on Divine Demon, who was still inside the golden prison.

"Do I really have to break it to get out?" Divine Demon asked while looking at the expert sitting on the golden bars above him.

The expert had regained his normal appearance after his body dispersed the azure energy accumulated inside it. That power had tried to flow back into the world, but the gold bars had burnt it before it could seep past them.

"I want to," King Elbas revealed, "But my hands won't move. Can't you stay inside it for a little while? I think I've never been happier in my entire life."

Divine Demon snorted while placing a hand on the golden bars. His palm burnt, but azure light soon gathered above it and transformed to create something capable of destroying that quasi-rank 9 item.

The azure energy eventually took the shape of ice that spread through the golden prison and froze one of its sides. Divine Demon punched the frozen bars at that point, and they crumbled without opposing any resistance.

"You all are in pretty bad shape," Divine Demon commented after King Elbas stored his cage.

"You are to blame for most of our injuries," Steven snorted before turning toward the four experts who had dealt with the army's frontlines. "Thought you all helped him."

"Did you manage to see the entirety of the fight?" Noah asked.

"Not everything," Steven admitted. "My thoughts become messy after the dark aura filled the surface."

"Same here," King Elbas announced while taking a circular golden disc from his pace ring.

The disc lit up and depicted the previous battle. Noah, Divine Demon, Sword Saint, and Alexander could quickly notice that some parts didn't match their memories. That didn't only involve the images where they could clearly divide the real events from the illusions. Those different scenes started before the first time the dark aura touched them.

The recording continued to show how the four of them had started launching attacks toward each other while they believed to fight the ghosts. Everything turned out for the worst after the experts on the ground also fell prey to their effects, but the scenes went through a sudden change once they reached the last part of the battle.

The experts went from attacking each other back to the illusion. The recording played everyone's memories before the images changed again and showed the scenes that had welcomed Noah when he went back to reality.

That recording revealed two scary features of the ghosts' power. It became obvious that the dark aura could affect minds without directly touching them. It was enough to be in its range to risk suffering from its effects.

The second feature was even scarier. It seemed that the ghosts' power didn't only affect experts with mental spheres. It could also influence inscribed items.

That seemingly simple but powerful ability turned out to be far worse now. Some in the group even felt worried about their current situation. They didn't know if they were in the middle of another illusion, and they felt unable to solve their doubts with their abilities.

"How can they affect your recording?" Noah loudly asked. "What's the explanation there?"

His vast knowledge in many fields felt useless in that situation, especially since he didn't know much about King Elbas' item. Its functioning was a mystery, so only the expert could correctly evaluate the type of influence that the ghosts had to carry to affect the golden disk.

"I have a few," King Elbas replied as a conflicting expression appeared on his face.

King Elbas also felt worried about the ghosts' power after seeing what it did to his inscribed item. He had already imagined what it would take to affect the golden disc, and the answer sounded completely unreasonable.

"Does he want to create tension on purpose?" Sword Saint asked since King Elbas remained silent.

"He likes to be dramatic," Divine Demon commented.

"Brutes," King Elbas shook his head while heaving a helpless sigh. "I'm trying to sort my thoughts. We might be able to be in front of something stronger than Divine Demon's law here."

"I like how you use me to measure power," Divine Demon smirked.

"This inscribed item doesn't have a mind," King Elbas explained while ignoring Divine Demon's words. "It simply records what happens around it, which can only mean that the illusions aren't only illusions."

Everyone's eyes lit up before surprised gasps resounded among the group. Some experts directly saw to accept that explanation. The situation was worse than they had initially thought.

"I know for a fact that the ghosts didn't tinker with the disc," King Elbas continued. "I'd be surprised if they knew how to surpass its innate defenses and changed the images in its insides. The issue is with the actual recorded scenes. It's as if the real version of the battle didn't exist at all."

"But our injuries are real," Alexander contradicted. "They must have come from somewhere."

"I think that reality and illusions happen at the same time," King Elbas responded. "Both versions exist until one of them wins and takes roots into reality. The existences affected during the process would obviously maintain their changes, but things like inscribed items would forget about the losing side."

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Author's notes: Something came up and made me waste a lot of time. It's 8am already, but I'm fully awake. You can expect the chapters in the next hours. I'm sorry you had to go through this again. I should have fixed this issue by tomorrow.