Chapter 1923 1923. Backdoors

The middle tier hydra appeared connected to the disc, but the structure wasn't losing power every time the creature regenerated one of its heads. That fuel had to come from somewhere else, and the experts' dried-up state explained everything before Noah and Sword Saint could even formulate questions.

Both of them could immediately guess that the experts had relied on King Elbas to create something that could fight back against the immense army and the upper tier leader. Still, their current condition was worrying, especially since none of them reacted to the arrival of their companions.

The hydra was a problem. The creature was keeping the flying cockroaches at bay, but the experts didn't appear able to fuel its power any longer. Its failures in killing the upper tier cockroach also increased its energy consumption.

Noah and Sword Saint had the chance to focus on the cockroaches and hope that the hydra would disappear afterward, but they didn't know how long it would take to kill the upper tier specimen. Even their incredible power had limits.

The experts might die if the duo took too long vanquishing the white army. Noah and Sword Saint had to prioritize severing the connection between their friends and the hydra to avoid taking risks. Luckily for them, severing was their specialty.

Noah and Sword Saint didn't need additional words. The former's statement had been enough to make their attention converge on the disk. Both of them drew their blades, and sharpness instantly filled the area.

"Can you see the connection?" Noah asked as he activated his many empowerments.

"Of course," Sword Saint smirked as his hands began to radiate a silver light. "Can you open a path?"

"Of course!" Noah laughed.

Sword Saint had owned techniques capable of affecting ethereal forms of energy and mental connections even before his breakthrough. Those sword arts were even stronger now that he had stepped into the ninth rank and had become an avatar of the sword path.

Noah was aware of his friend's power, so he delegated the severing of the connection between the experts and the hydra to him. Instead, he would have to handle the faint golden barrier that surrounded the experts.

King Elbas had gone all-out during the battle. The army had high chances of killing him, so the defenses deployed in the area carried the entirety of his accumulation. The hydra and the disk appeared incredibly powerful, but Noah noticed something strange when his consciousness studied them to spread his destruction.

Black lines appeared on the disk's edges as soon as Noah's metal waves landed on its surface. There seemed to be a deep flaw in the item's structure, and Noah's destruction appeared to be one of the triggers. He felt able to expand the effects of his law at an unfathomable speed. No middle tier item had ever seemed so weak.

Noah believed in King Elbas so much that he didn't let that apparent weakness misunderstand its nature, and the disk quickly confirmed the vague guess that had appeared in his mind. The black lines on the golden surface continued to expand until they took the shape of the horned head of the Hive.

The drawing was a clear statement. King Elbas had created a backdoor for his reckless plan, and he had even tuned it around Noah's power. The latter didn't feel the need to use the entirety of his power anymore. Various energies covered his swords as he pointed them toward the disk, but his ambition didn't take part in that process.

"Ready?" Noah voiced.

"Go already!" Sword Saint shouted happily.

Noah released his piercing slash. A torrent of dark energy came out of his swords and fell on the disk. He had made his attack wide on purpose so that all the black lines accumulated among the golden radiance could activate at the same time. A faint impact was enough to make everything explode and create a huge passage in the item's structure.

The disk lost a massive chunk of its peripheral area before opening on its own. A passage appeared on the barrier around the experts, and Sword Saint didn't hesitate to seize that chance.

Sword Saint didn't execute any special movement. The energy around his hands started to tremble until it released high-pitched noises. The expert clapped his hands at that point, and a shockwave shot forward.

Noah made sure to pay attention to the expert's attack since it could carry meaning that matched his law, but it felt hard to follow the movements of the energy. The silver radiance released by Sword Saint's hands transformed into an invisible attack after it started flying through the sky.

Sword Saint's energy changed state mid-air. It went from a simple discharge of sharp power to a current made of empowered mental waves that had the shape of a massive blade.

The secret behind the attack was in the difference of power between "Breath" and mental energy. Generally speaking, mental waves were frail and weak compared to what a dantian could generate, so Sword Saint would have had problems severing a mental connection with a middle tier creature.

However, Sword Saint's art temporarily turned the "Breath" ethereal and allowed it to affect mental realms while retaining part of its power. It used to lose a lot during the transformation, but his recent breakthrough had improved that aspect.

The attack crossed the opening created by Noah and targeted the ethereal connection that existed between the experts and the hydra. The pieces of the golden barrier that were still in one piece turned silver after Sword Saint's energy regained its previous nature, and cracks inevitably spread.

The cracks expanded even on the outside of the barrier as that silver light continued to shine. Noah and Sword Saint remained speechless when silver lines appeared on the peripheral areas of the disk. They resembled the same structures Noah created through his destruction, but they didn't carry his aura. They only featured the same purpose.

Sword Saint's energy activated the silver lines and caused even more destruction on the disk. It didn't take much before the entire structure fell apart and exploded into a mess of golden light. Flames appeared from time to time, and five figures eventually shot out of that radiance.

King Elbas, Wilfred, Divine Demon, Steven, and Robert revealed ugly expressions as they neared Noah and Sword Saint. King Elbas ended up enduring many hateful gazes shot in his direction, but he didn't matter too much. Everyone was still alive, so he had kept his part of the deal.

"Care to explain?" Noah asked without hiding how hilarious the scene of their dried-up state was when paired with their frowns.

"The idiot has connected us to the hydra without telling us all the risks," Wilfred announced before coughing to no end.

King Elbas gulped pill after pill, and his condition improved quickly. His complexion returned to a healthy state in a matter of seconds. The scene only angered his companions, but he soon handed a few drugs to all of them.

"I kept you all alive," King Elbas announced in a raspy voice. "And I seem to remember how all of you were in a bad position. Look at us now!"

The other experts couldn't deny that the plan had actually worked. They didn't manage to win, but they had stalled long enough to make Noah and Sword Saint return. Also, the pills helped their condition quickly. King Elbas had given to all of the drugs meant for their existence, so their effects ended up being quite incredible.

"We only need to kill the hydra before it-," King Elbas tried to explain, but his expression froze when his mind saw what was happening now behind him.

Noah's eyes widened when he saw the hydra finally managing to catch the upper tier cockroach unprepared and burning it with its flames. The surge of power that followed the event filled the sky with golden fire and forced Noah to bring everyone away with his dark world.

When the group came out of the darkness, they noticed how the army was no more. Only the fiery creature remained in the area, but its power had stepped into the upper tier.

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Author's notes: One hour or so for the second chapter.