Chapter 2019 2019. Negotiation

Noah's ethereal figure didn't show any reaction to the avatar's words, and his mental sea also remained silent. Part of his attention went on the dragon, but he quickly retracted it when he confirmed that everything was going fine. He could focus on Heaven and Earth, but his thoughts inevitably created taunts.

"Did you start to fear me?" Noah asked before landing in front of the crackling avatar.

"We fear no one," The avatar calmly replied.

"It would make sense," Noah added, without bothering to address Heaven and Earth's words. "You are getting too many enemies. The monster and the dragons were fine, but your old self must make you shake in fear. You might not have time to deal with me."

"Nonsense," Heaven and Earth said. "You are lucky your friend managed to summon the paths past our sky. You wouldn't have such freedom otherwise."

"That's the whole point, isn't it?" Noah laughed. "You can't control what my group will achieve. You are blind to our paths, which is why you want to absorb us."

"You can stop pretending that our offer doesn't interest you," The avatar stated, and Noah went silent.

Noah didn't move, but he used the mental energy that his mind wasn't deploying in the project to inspect the avatar. He couldn't understand anything from Heaven and Earth's current form, but his experience made him sure about the nature of the offer. The rulers needed help, but they were definitely adding a trap to the mission.

"Go on," Noah eventually gave in. "Speak."

"You don't have the power to survive in the sky," Heaven and Earth started the negotiations. "The dark metal can only give you a chance, but do you really want to risk everything for a friend? We thought demons only cared about themselves."

"Get to the point," Noah sighed. "I know that you are scared about my influence, but you should try to hide it a bit."

The avatar fell silent for a few seconds. Noah's words were as sharp as ever, even if it had mentioned an actual change in his character.

"We want you to take a detour before trying to get in the sky," Heaven and Earth soon continued. "The monster has managed to create something. We want you to seize it and give it to us."

"Why would I even do that?" Noah chuckled. "Send your underlings there. I believe you have finally upgraded them."

"Don't play dumb," The avatar uttered. "We have empowered those laws by throwing them away. We can't interact with them."

Noah called upon everything learnt about the monster past the sky. Heaven and Earth had given it power by mistake. Their simple act of throwing away laws had transformed them into flaws amassed into a giant structure.

Truth be told, Noah also feared the monster's power. His sharpness could hurt it since it reminded it of the severing from the sky, but it was a troublesome opponent. Moreover, the creature was massive, and it had probably grown after Sword Saint's breakthrough. Heaven and Earth had to throw away many laws to balance the loss of the true meanings related to the sword path, so the empty creature's power must have increased.

The monster's non-existence was something that even King Elbas had to give up studying. The issue was with the emptiness of that power. The creature had no features or other characteristics that the experts could inspect.

In theory, the monster had the power to unleash a mess in the higher plane, but it had an innate fear of the sky. Also, it had a deep attraction toward the existences that managed to oppose Heaven and Earth.

Noah planned to use the monster against Heaven and Earth at some point, but he had yet to come up with a proper idea. The creature's nature made it troublesome to exploit, and reaching it also was a big issue.

"You can interact with the monster," Noah guessed as his knowledge gave birth to an idea, "But you are afraid that your involvement might cause a shift in its nature."

Heaven and Earth fell silent again. They couldn't believe how Noah always managed to guess correctly, but they soon accepted that hiding the truth was pointless.

"You are correct," The avatar admitted. "The monster fears our light too much even to begin thinking about a possible attack. We want to keep things like this, which is why we came to you."

"You didn't come to me," Noah corrected. "I got in your way again, and you took that chance to talk to me. Don't try to make it sound like a plan."

"We did plan to contact you," Heaven and Earth repeated. "Sword Saint simply delayed our appearance."

"Or maybe he delayed your other plan," Noah responded. "Come on. You have already tried to do something similar. You'll probably leave me in the void if I try to work with you. I'd rather reach the part when we kill each other without falling for your schemes."

"Don't you want to know what the monster has created?" The avatar asked. "Don't you want to hear what we are willing to offer?"

Noah was ready to mock the rulers again, but their behavior suddenly gave him an idea. He realized that Heaven and Earth didn't need him to accept their offer. It was enough for them to mention that the monster had given birth to something valuable to arouse his curiosity.

"Tell me," Noah played dumb, but he felt that Heaven and Earth didn't miss the slight hesitation in his reply.

"The monster has given birth to a non-world," Heaven and Earth revealed. "It's gaining harmony at an incredible pace. It won't take much before it develops a proper consciousness and starts flying toward the sky."

"I see that as your problem," Noah chuckled. "Why would I even solve it for you?"

"Do you think that the monster will stop at the sky?" Heaven and Earth asked. "Its non-existence is an enemy of everything that lives. It will go after everything that exists."

"You will still be the first target," Noah uttered.

"Only if you are lucky," The avatar declared. "We can always make it pass through the sky and let it hunt you down first. Also, the situation won't improve even if it fights us first. A change in the rulers of this world won't help you."

"Let me worry about that," Noah quickly dismissed that silent threat. "What would I receive in exchange for the non-world?"

"We will let you use what we have developed to inspect the paths," Heaven and Earth revealed. "We are still far away from finding destruction and creation, but space and time are easy to inspect."

"I want to see them before going after the monster," Noah stated.

"Keep dreaming," The avatar replied.

"That ends the negotiation then," Noah decided before slashing his ethereal hands toward the avatar.

Slashes came out of his fingers and shattered the avatar into countless pieces. Heaven and Earth's will was still there, so they could struggle to survive a few more seconds. They could avoid falling prey to Noah's mental sea to make a new offer, but they didn't.

Noah wore a cold expression as he inspected his mental energy devouring that dust of tainted fuel. Heaven and Earth's silence confirmed his previous guess, but he didn't feel too happy about that. It seemed that another mission in the void had to follow the journey inside the sky.

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Author's notes: You'll get two more chapters to fill yesterday's release, but I'll take a one-day break afterward since I don't have time to write everything I failed to complete. I'd rather rest than force myself back into the cycle of sleeping every two days. I don't want to burn myself, and I need to preserve the story's quality, so I will slow down today to restore my schedule. Releases will go back to normal in 30 hours (which is tomorrow, but that doesn't describe much with our different timezones).