Birth of the Demonic Sword

Two black lines shot from Noah's swords and flew toward Icy Stare. The slashes were far faster than usual due to the momentum built with the Merging spell, but Icy Stare had learnt to know her opponent in the last war.

The air behind her had already turned into ice by the time that Noah's slashes appeared. Various figures formed inside it and began to fly toward the incoming attack.

Her allies weren't affected by the frozen sky since Icy Stare had limited the area influenced by her individuality. Still, that didn't diminish the number of figures that she was able to create.

Noah saw hundreds of shapes made of ice coming in his direction, but that didn't stop his charge. Even if he wasn't using the Demonic Form spell, he felt that he would be able to face those attacks head-on.

Of course, Noah didn't need to be so reckless, especially now that he was on Icy Stare's level. He could express all his experience without resorting to irresponsible tactics.

The black lines crashed on the figures made of ice and cut tens of them before Icy Stare's spells managed to block them. Yet, Noah's attack exploded into a cloud of corrosive smoke at that point and continued to wreak havoc inside the army created by his opponent.

At the same time, Noah roared and unleashed a wave of flames that made the world lose its light for an instant. His attack destroyed most of the remaining icy-figures and melted the ice that had begun to spread between him and his opponent.

Icy Stare maintained her cold expression as she looked at that scene. She wasn't surprised in the slightest that Noah could face her attacks even after she had advanced to the liquid stage.

Icy Stare had already suffered due to her arrogance. The Second Life formation had saved her life at that time, but she had learnt her lesson. She wouldn't commit the same mistake twice.

In her mind, she couldn't underestimate Noah Balvan anymore. It would be better if she overestimated him. In that way, she was sure that she could always predict all his hidden cards and avoid ending up like the last time.

It had been hard for someone like Icy Stare to reach that conclusion, mostly since she had lived for much longer than Noah. Still, she wasn't delusional. The Demon Prince of the Hive was worthy of her respect, and she needed to face him carefully.

On the other hand, Noah felt extremely confident. It would be enough for him to unleash Snore to gain an immediate advantage in that battle. Yet, he held himself back and decided to rely on his other spells.

The dark sphere was still growing above his head, but his Ghostly Sabers were ready, and his runes were bordering the limits of the liquid stage in those instants.

Noah slashed again and controlled his spells to shoot forward. Other icy-figures formed inside the frozen sky behind Icy Stare and flew toward the incoming attacks, but that clash ended up differently from the previous one.

The saber-shaped runes had already surpassed what an ordinary liquid stage cultivator could handle. Icy Stare was an expert and had plenty of experience when it came to battles, but even her army of icy-figures couldn't survive against that offensive.

The saber-shaped runes tore apart any figure that they met. Weapons and magical beasts of various kinds had their bodies filled with holes and shattered into countless shards after the clash with Noah's attack.

They managed to block the runes at some point, but Noah's offensive wasn't over. The Ghostly Sabers flew freely through the sea of icy-shards. They aimed for Icy Stare, and they lost only a small part of their power due to the mental energy still contained in the remains of the spells.

The black lines did the same, and they had no problem cutting through those remains to reach for Icy Stare.

The cultivator of the Empire found two different types of attacks coming in her direction and could only resort to the frozen sky behind her back to block them.

Icy Stare retreated among the ice that she had created with her individuality, and Noah's attacks clashed directly on it. The black lines exploded in a cloud of corrosive smoke soon after they met the defensive measure, but the Ghostly Sabers continued for a while before stopping.

Noah could sense through his connection with the Sabers that some of them had managed to enter Icy Stare's body before being destroyed. Those mental weapons had managed to stay only for a few instants inside her though, so they had done little damage.

The chaos of the battlefield had exploded around Noah while he was busy exchanging attacks with Icy Stare.

Elder Julia had started to fight with a solid stage cultivator of the Empire and had moved their battle higher in the sky. The other Elders of the Hive had done the same, even if some of them had preferred group fights.

Noah could sense Elder Austin and Elder Ingrid battling at some distance against two cultivators of the Empire that matched their cultivation level. Daniel and Amos Udye were doing the same in another corner of the battlefield.

As for Elder Justin and Danielle, they had chosen to engage in one versus one battles against other experts.

Most of the higher-ups of the Hive were on the battlefield, and only those that covered strategical roles or were incapable of attending had remained in the new continent.

Elder Colleen had to manage the Coral Archipelago, and the two Demons were still in Shandal's separate dimension. The powerful hybrids captured there had remained in the central territories too since their mental instabilities made them unsuitable for that kind of battlefield.

Also, the Hive didn't want to reveal all its assets. So, it tasked the hybrids with the control over the nature reserve before going to war.

There were more rank 5 cultivators of the Empire on that side of the battlefield. Each Tyrannosaurus with quasi-rank 6 power needed at least ten of them to reach that level.

However, the Elders of the Council that had previously taken care of the golden shield were handling them. That prevented them from ganging up against the cultivators of the Hive.

There were similar scenes on the other sides of the battlefield. The Elbas family and the Council had managed to defeat their Tyrannosaurus and were currently facing the experts.

Those two factions didn't require additional help since they had deployed enough assets in the fifth rank, but they were having a hard time finding a quick victory nonetheless.

The human troops had their messy battle on the ground, and the rank 4 cultivators were fighting in the air right above them to avoid the shockwaves released by the higher-ups. Chaos reigned everywhere, and most one versus one battles often interfered with the fights nearby.

Nevertheless, a change happened after the heroic cultivators had immersed themselves in their battles. The central buildings of the districts near the floating structure started to shine before releasing massive arrows made of blue light.