Birth of the Demonic Sword

Noah completed the obelisk and let King Elbas step in. The structure enlarged as golden materials turned it into a proper palace with Noah's creation at its center.

Needless to say, the golden materials turned black in a matter of hours, but King Elbas had predicted that outcome. He had even helped it by adding Noah's influence to his calculation and favoring its expansion.

The pace was initially barren, and the experts would have accepted it in that state, but King Elbas didn't let anyone inside until it reached the level of perfection that had to accompany his name.

King Elbas added inscriptions to create reinforced training areas. He spread formations throughout the entire dead zone to connect the storms to the structure and provide a stable energy source. He even built multiple halls meant for each expert.

It would be hard for Noah's group to find someone who could do a better job than King Elbas, even if they explored the entirety of the storms. Still, he made sure to leave the central obelisk empty.

That structure was a symbol that no one wanted to taint with their influence. Gathering and political meetings might happen there one day, but the six experts were past that. They preferred to keep it as a monument that perfectly depicted Robert's existence.

All the experts needed to recover. Dealing with rank 9 existences was always troublesome, especially for experts who had yet to gain access to rank 9 centers of power. Their worlds could affect laws and leave lasting injuries, and something similar had happened to the group. Only King Elbas, Noah, and Sword Saint had managed to avoid those consequences.

King Elbas was simply a monster who had already studied the sword cultivator's existence and created a counter to his influence. Sword Saint carried the aspects of the sword path that the expert wanted to retrieve, and Noah had a rank 9 mind that allowed him most of the superiority that centers of power in a higher realm could apply.

Divine Demon, Steven, and Wilfred didn't have it too hard either since the sword cultivator's existence had been on the verge of falling apart since the beginning of the fight. He could affect mater and other laws, but his influence couldn't compare to stable true meanings even if he had initially been in the solid stage.

The easier process didn't shrink the time that the experts needed to recover. They had all suffered severe injuries that risked spreading to their centers of power, so they had to take care of them. Moreover, rebuilding bodies from scratch could be a pain, depending on how strong they had to be.

s

Only Sword Saint was virtually completely fine after the battle. His new understanding of the sword path and the role that his companions had given him had prevented him from suffering injuries. Also, he was a real rank 9 existence now, so he could express far more power than his peers.

Sword Saint had planned to leave as soon as the battle ended, but he knew that Robert's death was partially his fault. He didn't regret his actions nor blame himself, but his friends had lost one of their pillars because of him, so he delayed his departure to make sure that everyone would recover completely.

Noah ended up being one of the first among the group to recover completely. He had already healed before the battle through the remaining solid stage energy and the fuel left by the brown avatar, so his injuries only came from his clash with the already weakened cultivator.

Noah spent a bit cultivating before contacting King Elbas and confirming that he was ready to receive him. He had a lot in his mind, but he wanted to study a few things before approaching his future projects.

"Don't tell me that this is about the puppets," King Elbas asked when Noah entered his training area.

"Don't call them puppets," Noah scolded as a series of cries came out of his chest.

Warm golden light filled King Elbas' training area. Multiple brighter lines spread from under his cross-legged figure and stretched on the various surfaces.

Flames came out of the walls from time to time. It was as if King Elbas had spread his existence throughout the area to increase the amount of energy that he could gather at the same time. Still, that power didn't seem to go to his centers of power.

"Are you drawing more power than us from the palace?" Noah asked.

"I'm not you," King Elbas snorted. "Each training area gains access to the same amount of energy. I only absorb it faster, so I get the refill before all of you."

Noah laughed before disregarding the matter. He could also exploit the palace's structure, but he didn't need more energy at that level. It was almost useless for him to absorb storms.

"How did you create a puppet capable of adapting to each attack?" Noah went right to the point. "I know I did my best with my higher energy. A few arrogant comments won't distract me from what you are doing."

"You could have definitely done more with your higher energy," King Elbas commented.

"Oh, please," Noah teased. "Who came begging the darkness hybrid to create the higher energy that you couldn't make?"

"I barely remember that stuff," King Elbas exclaimed while turning his gaze.

"Can the great Xavier Elbas even forget things?" Noah teased again while sitting on a spot at some distance from the expert. "Maybe he isn't so great."

King Elbas voiced a sigh before playing with the space-ring on his finger. He appeared hesitant about revealing his new ability, which surprised Noah since his friend liked to brag about his achievements.

"You can't use this method," King Elbas eventually revealed. "Do you want to know it anyway?"

"How can I know that I won't succeed before you?" Noah scoffed.

"I'm serious," King Elbas repeated. "This isn't something that you can approach. You would need a deep understanding in every inscription field ever created just to start working on it."

"Do you have it?" Noah asked.

"Of course not," King Elbas declared. "That's impossible. Not even Heaven and Earth can achieve so much. You would have to exist since the beginning of time just to have a chance to learn everything."

"Why did you even start it then?" Noah frowned. "You are curious, not dumb."

"Because I saw a path," King Elbas explained. "My path possibly. In theory, I could have made up for the missing fields by regressing current methods and finding their origins. That has given birth to new ideas until I found something else."

"Come on, Elbas," Noah cursed. "Don't grow shy on me."

King Elbas heaved another sigh before stretching his arm forward. The golden jelly-like sphere that he had used against the swarm of flying cockroaches. Noah could study it easily, but he couldn't find anything too strange there even after inspecting it with his rank 9 mind.

s

The jelly seemed a regular lump of King Elbas' higher energy. It was denser than his usual flames, but the expert had experimented so much with his golden power that nothing could surprise Noah anymore.

"This is incomplete," King Elbas stated, "But it's on the right path. On the way to recreate forgotten fields, I've found a power capable of uniting them all. The energy of the magical beasts is the primordial fuel capable of becoming everything, so something that contains everything must exist. I'm trying to create the realm above the higher energy."

****

Author's notes: I need a bit more for the second. It shouldn't take more than an hour.