Birth of the Demonic Sword

Noah's disappearance didn't go unnoticed, especially after decades of battles. Missing a war wasn't something that he usually did, and his eating habits made it even stranger since many experts had joined the fray.

Chasing Demon pretended not to hear King Elbas and created a series of small puppets that shot toward him and detonated right before touching his chest.

A massive gray cloud formed, but flames burnt the smoke and revealed King Elbas, who stared at the Demon with an irritated expression.

"I thought we were over with the usual pretense," Chasing Demon said as he shrugged his shoulders. He had seen that conversation happening so many times that he had grown tired of it.

The Hive had joined the war only because of the Council. Chasing Demon would have never chosen to start a long battle now that the Hive's growth was peaking. Yet, the terms of the alliance forced him to deploy some forces, so he took it as a chance to seize more resources.

"Yes," King Elbas said as the flames condensed into a dozen giant fiery snakes that covered his body. "We are done talking."

The three powerhouses entangled themselves in a series of exchanges, but they soon returned to their domains to leave some space to their underlings. They had no intention to go all-out for those petty battles. The other cultivators could defend the honor of their organizations on their own.

Chasing Demon returned to the Hive with a pensive expression. King Elbas had spoken the truth. Noah had disappeared, and the higher-ups only knew where he had gone.

The Hive didn't send any search team. The Elders trusted Noah and his resourcefulness, and they respected his desire to venture in that journey alone. Still, they couldn't help but feel worried about his well-being, especially now that the pride of the Hive was at stake.

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While the new continent saw large-scale battles happening every month, Noah and the group of rebels were traveling through the sea of magma.

Snore carried the black metal and the Ape specimens as it kept Noah's protected, while Skully handled the thousands of human cultivators' defenses. The other heroic experts helped each other during the journey back to the surface, but it was evident that they reached their limits after months spent in that state.

Noah munched pieces of magical beasts all the time to suppress his pain. The injuries on his back had mostly healed, but his mind's situation had remained the same.

The magma's constant pressure pressed on his mental sphere and enlarged its cracks, while his mental energy washed them often to mend them.

Noah felt stuck in a cycle of pain and refreshing feelings that had continued since the beginning of their journey through the red sea. The only thing that he could do to alleviate his situation was to satisfy his hunger.

No one spoke as they explored the rocky ceiling at the end of the sea of magma. The giant lizard had destroyed the previous entry point, so the group had kilometers of rocks that had endured unthinkable temperatures for millennia to cross now.

Even Noah's and Skully's physical strength weren't enough to pierce it. Their only option was to continue exploring until they found another opening toward the surface.

Noah had memorized God's Left Hand's map, but there were no other exits on it. He could only float blindly, hoping that something had formed since the last time that Shandal explored the seabed.

He didn't even need a complete passage. Just a hole deep enough to cross the initial rocky layer would be enough to make them reach the surface.

The group of rebels struggled to continue after more months through the magma piled on the previous ones.

The human cultivators were relatively fine since Skully's protection blocked everything. They were only hungry due to the complete lack of food for them. Instead, the heroic experts were about to exhaust their energy.

Skully was beginning to consider the idea of letting the human cultivators die and focus her mental energy on the stronger assets when a narrow crack appeared on their path and gave them hope.

Noah shot toward the crack and explored its insides. The fissure wasn't too deep, but it crossed the sturdiest part of the seabed, leaving only a small layer of hard rocks in his path.

Skully reached Noah and showed an ecstatic expression at that sight. That was the best path to the surface that they had found along their journey. They had to try to pierce it.

"Get back," Noah transmitted through his consciousness. Black smoke began to come out of his body and destroy the magma around him as Skully retreated.

Waves of pain spread from Noah's mind as he used mental energy, but he held on and summoned all his strength to launch his best attacks. The second form of his martial art landed on the fissure's ceiling, and Snore's elemental offensive followed it.

Skully returned to her underlings and deployed her mental waves to protect them. Pieces of the seabed fell as the red sea trembled, but Noah didn't come out of the fissure when everything settled.

Another tremor ran through the area. Noah had attacked again, but even that didn't seem enough to pierce the sturdy layer since more impacts made the whole region shake.

Noah was going all out to pierce the seabed, and the rocky stratum eventually crumbled under his relentless offensive.

"Open!" Noah shouted through his consciousness, and Skully quickly mobilized the rebels. The group entered the narrow crack and saw Noah punching his way through the softer rocks.

He had dispersed his Demonic Form, so the heroic cultivators and Skully swam forward to help him out.

The group had to dig the seabed for kilometers for the first drops of water to land on their faces. The event made them even more determined to reach the real sea, and the last rocks that separated them from it soon fell apart.

Noah closed his eyes when the cold water fell on his face. He had grown tired of the constant heat of the hidden world, and that refreshing sensation made him feel home.

He had finally returned to the surface. He was back among the old monsters!

The rebels saw the sea for the first time and remained speechless. They had only heard about it from Skully's stories, but they had started to wonder if something like that existed long ago.

A cold sea was unthinkable for them. The magma was everything the rebels had ever seen. Even the few rivers in the hidden world only had hot water that usually burnt their tongues.

Skully couldn't contain her emotions. Her expression showed disbelief, sorrow, and joy in sequence. She was the one who had suffered from in the hidden world more than anyone else, but she had finally returned now.

As for Noah, he thought only about returning to the Hive and isolate himself to fix his sea of consciousness. However, he suddenly felt a dangerous sensation coming toward him.

When he turned, he saw the giant lizard that had destroyed the tunnel again.