Birth of the Demonic Sword

King Elbas was a cultivator. His body didn't have any physical enhancement except for the fact that final energy now made its fabric.

The puppet was the same, but its level was leagues beyond the expert. The clash should have crushed King Elbas, but the exact opposite happened, and Divine Architect couldn't even begin to explain the event.

King Elbas didn't stop there. The puppet was in his reach, so he swung his spear diagonally. The attack severed the creature's torso smoothly, without meeting any resistance.

"You are too easy to break," King Elbas sighed as his palm landed on the severed lower part of the puppet.

The golden radiance released by the crown intensified and added power to King Elbas' touch. The puppet's lower body destabilized before falling apart and transforming into multiple gales that flowed inside the expert.

"How are you doing all of this?" Divine Architect's voice came out of the puppet. "You are barely using any power. Your attacks don't respect the laws that regulate energy."

"They respect it," King Elbas corrected. "They simply are a set of rules that you have never encountered. I'm also learning them as I go."

King Elbas moved his palm on the puppet's chest, and his influence shattered its fabric on that spot. The energy released after the destruction entered inside his body again. Only the creature's head remained intact, but Divine Architect believed that King Elbas had left it there on purpose.

"Explain," Divine Architect asked. "I paid you to get answers."

"There is nothing much to explain," King Elbas announced. "I improved my existence until it matched the final energy. I can express more power at a lower cost now. It's as simple as that."

"How did you even reach that state?" Divine Architect questioned. "Your final energy was far from perfect, and the same went for mine. They shouldn't have been enough to trigger such a transformation."

"That's what you fail to understand," King Elbas explained. "It's not a matter of fuel. The final energy has been a good trigger, but the transformation happens from inside. My existence was ready to step on the last stage because I'm the best."

"This doesn't make any sense," Divine Architect scoffed. "How can an inscription master even rely on something so vague?"

"Please," King Elbas laughed while taking the head in his hands. "I fly around with a monster who adds powers to his existence randomly, an idiot who doesn't respect any regulation, and a sword addict who managed to summon powers from outside the sky. How can you even call me vague?"

"You are the inscription master of your team," Divine Architect stated. "It's your role to grow by following rules."

"My role is to reach the peak," King Elbas continued to laugh. "Don't deem me as vague only because you don't understand my field. Take it as a statement of my superiority."

Divine Architect snorted before detonating the head on her own. King Elbas' grin broadened as his golden shield stopped the power released by the explosion before adding it to his body.

The connection with the sky opened above King Elbas, and a series of materials fell from it. Divine Architect was keeping her side of the deal, and she made sure to add a faint promise to the event. "We'll see each other again."

King Elbas gathered all the resources inside his body while showing his arrogant grin toward the sky. His face turned serious only when the connection closed and storms filled the area.

His items disappeared inside his body, and only the crown remained on his head as he glanced at his hand. A small spot on his palm flashed with golden light from time to time. It appeared unstable, but King Elbas was limiting that flaw for now.

King Elbas had never lied to Divine Architect, but he had hidden part of the truth. His new power came from the clarity obtained during his near-death experience. The final energy had helped him throwing away all the impurities in his existence and reach an almost perfect state.

Nevertheless, that state was incomplete. King Elbas was facing a simple issue that he had kept hidden from Divine Architect. He was too strong for his centers of power. Even the final energy that made his body couldn't contain the insane might radiated by his existence.

King Elbas was a ticking bomb ready to explode, and only the breakthrough to the ninth rank could solve that issue. However, his requirements had become insane after improving his existence. He would need to do something crazy to advance, and a familiar face inevitably appeared in his vision during that reasoning.

'I need to ask his help,' King Elbas sighed as he looked in the distance.

King Elbas didn't like to ask favors, but the shame that would have accompanied that act before didn't appear now. His existence had cut away his toxic expectations during the transformation, so he didn't feel too bad about the idea of asking Noah to help him solve his issue.

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Wilfred and Steven had left the floating lake with the young-looking cultivator. The expert had agreed to fight them at the same time, and the two quickly discovered that his decision didn't come from simple arrogance. It had proper confidence to back it up.

Wilfred and Steven were powerful, far above the average of ordinary cultivators and hybrids. Yet, they had always fallen behind their monstrous companions.

Noah, King Elbas, Divine Demon, Alexander, and even Robert had something more, something that made their power unreasonable even in the realm of monsters. Instead, Wilfred and Steven appeared quite plain, and they even lacked broad laws to fix the issue by enhancing some of their aspects.

Steven had made use of Noah's ability to steal understanding to deepen his determination. Still, there was a limit to how much stronger he could get without new techniques or actual breakthroughs. His law didn't even have specific abilities since he could apply it to basically everything.

Wilfred was even worse off in that field. His existence was extremely simple. He was the real brute in the group since his abilities had merely added ranged properties to his great strength.

Their weaker state also had another significant issue. Their companions seemed able to surpass their own laws through mere aspects of their existence.

Noah's dark matter could replicate the power of Steven's determination and even add stronger effects. The latter's law appeared as a weaker version of the higher energy in battle.

Wilfred's incredible strength also fell short in front of Noah's body. His greatest pride couldn't compete with something that his leader treated as nothing more than a regular aspect of his power.

That inferiority inevitably affected their mindsets. Wilfred and Steven had ended up wondering whether they really suited that group of monsters multiple times, especially after Robert's death. They were keeping up because their laws were extremely simple, but they didn't know if the ninth rank could force them to abandon their companions.

Those doubts only intensified against their liquid stage opponent. Wilfred and Steven had decided to fight that cultivator together because they were aware of the inferiority of their power. Still, the expert soon proved how the numerical advantage didn't make up for their weakness.