Chapter 2043 2043. Burning

"Hey, don't affect my battle," King Elbas snorted at the sight of the pinkish shades.

"We can't waste time over your amusement," Sepunia chucked as her influence intensified.

"I'm actually testing something," King Elbas continued while glancing at Noah, but the latter only shrugged his shoulders without bothering to hide his interest in that conversation.

"I also have to test something," Sepunia replied.

"I also have-," The dragon tried to shout, but three pairs of eyes fell on its figure and made it go silent before it could finish its line.

Dinia couldn't help but snort after seeing how deeply his opponents were underestimating him. King Elbas could match his power, but that wasn't enough to make him fall prey to fear. He simply accepted that the battle would be relatively even.

Truth be told, the odds were still against Noah's group. King Elbas was clearly exceptional, but the core part of Heaven and Earth's group remained firm and powerful. The four privileged cultivators were assets that no one could take lightly.

Dinia didn't know what was Sepunia wanted to do. He could barely sense her energy while the pinkish spots spread on his figure, and the white lines that ran over his skin seemed unable to stop them.

The expert had to let go of those thoughts to avoid giving King Elbas even more time to create weapons. Moreover, the improved cultivators weren't faring too well. The five gaseous stage experts who had survived the golden light were basically useless in their current state, while those in the liquid stage could still show their value. Yet, the pinkish shades had almost covered their figures, so Dinia had to act immediately if he wanted to stop that trend.

Dinia exchanged a glance with his privileged companions, and they seemed to share his silent intentions. They raised their arms, spread them, placed hands in front of their eyes, or injured themselves to summon their abilities, but part of their power suddenly vanished, interrupting those actions.

The privileged cultivators immediately thought about Noah's companions, but Shafu and Duanlong had nothing to do with that. Yet, they could connect the event to Sepunia when they saw that some of the pieces of their bodies affected by the pinkish aura directly disappeared.

The disappearance only affected small chunks of skin, but the injuries spread toward their worlds and messed with their techniques. Sepunia wasn't strong enough to severely hurt the privileged cultivators, but her abilities' lasting effects ended up marking her as a worrying opponent.

Noah and King Elbas could only nod at that sight, even if the latter made that gesture happen in his mind. The duo had created Sepunia's current world, so they felt slightly proud to see it grow to that level. The expert had finally started to affect the very fabric a reality.

The effects were obviously stronger on the improved cultivators, but their resilient structure made Sepunia unable to do much. She successfully killed the gaseous stage experts since they had already suffered severe injuries, but those in the liquid stage only saw their condition worsening.

It was clear that both King Elbas and Sepunia would grow more troublesome as time passed, so the privileged cultivators jointly decided to go on the offensive. They had located the effects of the pinkish aura now, so deploying attacks while avoiding the missing parts of their worlds wasn't an issue.

The four privileged cultivators repeated their previous gestures, and the remaining improved experts also prepared themselves to launch attacks. However, only the former managed to release abilities since the army of puppets went on the offensive at the same time and overwhelmed the other liquid stage worlds.

Dinia and the others realized that something had changed in the puppets only after attacks started flying inside the cage. A series of golden beams flew toward them, but they ended up losing against a direct clash with their techniques. However, the energy that converged on the improved cultivators turned out to have unique features that countered those worlds.

Noah remained speechless when he noticed how the improved cultivators tried to summon energy, only to see it dispersing when golden waves enveloped them. Five types of attacks had converged toward those experts, and they had fused perfectly to create a single technique capable of countering those worlds. Some of the features expressed by the offensive felt too opposite to be part of the same mass of power, but King Elbas made them work together anyway.

The flexibility of the energy released by the puppets wasn't something that the dark world could achieve. Noah could make his technique gain many effects and apply different features to various areas affected by his dark matter, but King Elbas had proven himself superior in that field.

King Elbas could alter the very nature of certain features to make them cooperate without weakening each other. The outcome of that ability was stunning, especially since it managed to overwhelm the five improved cultivators without giving them the chance to respond to the attack.

The short amount of time required by King Elbas to reach that level of understanding of the cultivators' worlds was also stunning. He only had to watch them fight against the parasite and survive one of his attacks to come up with counters. He had even applied his knowledge to his puppets in mere seconds, stating how his flexibility had reached insane levels.

Dinia and the other privileged cultivators could only watch as the improved experts burned under the golden energy. Nothing of their worlds remained inside the cage, and Heaven and Earth didn't dare to resurrect them either due to Noah's presence.

"I must admit that Heaven and Earth did a good job," King Elbas commented. "I almost couldn't believe when those improved puppets survived my first attack."

King Elbas' mocking tone didn't manage to faze the privileged cultivators. Even the improved experts couldn't do much against his power after the breakthrough. That was the very reason why Noah's group was so exceptional in the first place.

"We can see right through your arrogant statements," Dinia announced. "Understanding worlds that have become part of Heaven and Earth must be incredibly easy for you. Let me see how you deal with ours."

King Elbas didn't show any reaction, but he knew that Dinia's statement was correct. He had managed to preserve his puppets during the previous exchange by putting his strongest assets against the privileged cultivators' offensive. Yet, that tactic didn't trick his opponents.

Dinia raised his hand, and his companions prepared themselves to launch attacks, but he gestured them to stop. Grand gestures and morale-shattering actions were Noah's specialty, but he could also perform something similar.

The inscriptions on Dinia's body shone with blinding light until they halted the advance of Sepunia's illusions. A white beam soon shot out of his hand, and the puppets launched a joint offensive to stop it. However, the attacks turned out to be equally matched.

The storms of energy that spread after the impact between the two attacks pushed many puppets away, but Dinia didn't stop. He immediately launched another beam that King Elbas' assets felt forced to handle with another discharge of golden light.

Dinia didn't stop even after the second exchange led to a draw. He launched attack after attack, and the reality of the situation eventually became clear. The puppets slowly struggled to keep up with that relentless offensive since their join ability required more time.

Sparse shards of white light began to fall on the puppets. The events initially didn't lead anywhere, but cracks slowly started to appear on those disposable weapons, culminating in the explosion of some of them.

"Why don't you counter me?" Dinia shouted without halting his offensive.

King Elbas remained silent as Dinia's energy claimed most of his attention. He wanted to counter that complicated world, but the issue was challenging when he couldn't rely on the familiar flaws that afflicted Heaven and Earth's system. Still, he already had suitable weapons ready. He was only using that chance to gather more information.

King Elbas had every intention to fight Dinia properly, but a strange noise that resembled a roar suddenly came out of the blackness past the cage. The monster began to move, and the golden inscriptions quickly started to fall prey to its destructiveness.