Birth of the Demonic Sword

Noah flew at full speed across the continent. There was only the dimensional crack in his eyes, and his goal was to reach it before the packs breached the city's defenses.

According to Luke, the rebellion had already started, which meant that the hybrids were heading toward the city. Seven creatures in the sixth rank and thousands of weaker ones were resurfacing from the sea's depths and marching toward the continent at that exact moment.

Noah had lost a few weeks to return to the hunters' guild, but the invaders needed months to break through the defensive measures. The only variable was how close they were to the landmass in the first place.

Even with his strong body, Noah needed a bit more than two months to reach the dimensional tunnel. He would take less if he had his movement technique, but he had yet to spend an extended period focusing on improving his spells and martial arts.

Everything had happened too quickly after he came out of the chrysalis, and problems had piled up, leaving him no time to focus on adapting his battle prowess to his new power. However, Noah had a long trip in front of him, and he could use that period to improve.

The dark star in his chest began to spin faster as if understanding his intentions. His thoughts turned into instincts that his mind processed far faster than usual. Then, the light of the Divine Deduction technique shone on the sea inside his sphere, quickening his thinking speed even more.

Noah couldn't put into words what he felt when both his body and his divine technique worked together to improve his mind's capabilities. The world in his eyes changed color, and he began to see arrays of laws rather than matter.

However, Noah didn't want to enhance his awareness as a whole. The entirety of his mind began to focus on the modified version of the Merging spell and reviewed its structure to look for possible improvements.

The thinking speed that his body could reach on its own was incredible, but nothing could match the effects of the Divine Deduction technique when mental energy in the sixth rank fueled its shining lines.

Noah understood aspects of the Merging spell's diagram that he had never even thought of looking for before. His mind generated the feelings that had led to those lines, recreating the original reasoning behind the ability.

After understanding its origin, Noah could create different lines through his will. Instead of transforming a spell with rank 5 potential into a sixth rank technique, Noah focused on its core and expanded it according to his needs.

It wasn't a modification nor an improvement. Noah took someone else's idea and made it grow on a path that suited his needs, avoiding the original limits that the creator had been unable to cross.

A formless lump of darkness floated above the sea in Noah's mind. Mental energy rose and arranged itself around the minute cloud, triggering its effects from time to time.

Noah's mind tested different dispositions while improving the new diagram. A spell brewed directly above the mental sea, and he couldn't put into words the countless thoughts that surged inside him.

Noah munched pieces of the Hydras' bodies as his flight continued. He didn't feel hungry, but he enjoyed sensing his body improving. Moreover, his dark sphere redirected part of the nutrients to quicken the production of mental energy.

Once Noah set his mind into something, his body would do anything to improve the functions related to his project. It was as if his dark star was a sentient automaton made of his instincts and desires.

A month passed, and the lump of darkness eventually became a vast lake that had strange fabric. Its shape became blurry even inside Noah's mental sphere, but an intense sharpness filled the ethereal area.

A sense of enlightenment dawned upon Noah. The original Merging spell made him use the world's darkness to fly faster, but that new ability relied on his sharp individuality.

It didn't perform a partial fusion with the environment anymore. It expected Noah to force himself into the darkness around him to push the acceleration further.

'It reached the sixth rank,' Noah thought as he moved to the next phase of his project. The spell alone was already an incredible achievement for a cultivator, but he was far more than that.

Noah kicked the air and performed strange movements from time to time. His speed wavered, becoming lower or higher according to how successful his tests were.

The Divine Deduction technique and innate awareness were still concentrating on completing his movement technique. Immense quantities of mental energy vanished every hour, and even vaster amounts of solid darkness disappeared after each test.

Noah had reached the point when he needed to fuse his new spell with a martial art to create a technique suitable for his species. The only problem was that he had a limited amount of "Breath" due to his body and mind's high requirements.

Still, that didn't stop him from testing as much as he could. He only had to stop once a week to refill his dantian and let his mind disperse the tension accumulated during the travel.

The scenery changed once he reached the other side of the continent. The long defensive walls of the natives' previous domain appeared in his view together with the ruins of their abandoned cities.

Most of the natives had moved to the main world after they lost the war. Many were slaves or guinea pigs used in experiments with the compound, but the most stable among them had become part of unique armies.

The Hive had managed to take that project to the next stage because of Noah's authority over those creatures. There were entire regions in its domain meant for the breeding, growth, and training of whole packs of hybrids.

The desolate scenery couldn't faze Noah, who was still perfecting his new technique. However, countless cries soon reached his ears, which forced him to divert part of his attention to the vague shape of the neutral city in the distance.

Noah saw countless figures on the ground and sky marching toward the defensive wall of the neutral city. He noticed a total of three armies led by seven powerful leaders that roared at the shining shield that had appeared to stop them.

Luke had spoken the truth. The creatures' strength matched his description, and the same went for the time they had required to reach the city.

Noah and the packs had reached the city simultaneously, which gave him a considerable advantage due to the many defenses in place.

Nevertheless, the shining shield suddenly became ethereal, and the energy that had accumulated on its form dispersed in the air. The various beasts and hybrids had yet to attack, which meant that someone had deactivated the defensive formation from inside the city.