2152 2152. Hole

Noah's respect for Cursed Reality only increased as he reviewed the explanation. The expert had piled on various environments with different rules to make sure that the Labyrinth remained hidden, but his efforts didn't stop there.

According to the explanation, Cursed Reality had preserved the state of his world through his creations' rules. Still, he had also made sure not to ruin Pellio's power in the process. It seemed that he had some plans for the tea-brewing maniac, and Noah decided to use that point to his advantage.

"Why did you preserve Pellio's world?" Noah asked. "I'm sure you would have obtained a far stronger effect if you just sacrificed it."

"I don't need to explain my reasons anymore," Cursed Reality snorted. "You are hopeless if you still fail to understand my magnificence."

"I do understand it," Noah corrected. "That's the issue. You could have avoided the trouble of creating two to three additional separate realities if you gave up on Pellio's world. Yet, you didn't."

"So?" Cursed Reality asked.

"So, you want him to retrieve his world at some point," Noah answered. "You want Pellio to join the final battle."

Silence fell in the area, but the interest of the army intensified. Vesuvia also felt curious about the matter. After all, she knew that the relationship between Pellio and the other creators was complicated.

"My goals are noble," Cursed Reality eventually announced. "Petty grudges have no place in the final battle. We must go past them to win against Heaven and Earth."

"There is nothing noble in imprisoning entire armies of experts," Noah contradicted.

"My Labyrinth isn't a prison," Cursed Reality repeated. "It's pointless to go out in your current state anyway. You would only become cannon fodder for Heaven and Earth's forces right now."

"That's not up to you to decide," Noah coldly replied.

"And what can you do about it?" Cursed Reality asked. "You are stuck here now. I suggest you start thinking about how to use the next years. The final battle is upon us, so I wouldn't waste time complaining."

Noah obviously didn't like the situation. He studied his surroundings and relied on the entirety of his superior senses to find flaws. He even called upon his violent thoughts to find openings to exploit, but his inspection led nowhere.

The starry sky wasn't only seamless. It was also firm, resilient, and boundless. Its power didn't come from defensive arrays or special formations. Noah was simply in front of a higher plane, and he lacked the strength to pierce it.

"Don't appear so lost, Defying Demon," Cursed Reality sighed. "This is for your own good. I'm sure you have the potential to reach our level and maybe even go past it. Yet, the higher plane is too dangerous right now. Heaven and Earth would stop at nothing to kill you."

"I'm not lost," Noah stated as he scratched his head with the handle of the Cursed Sword. "You have spent a lot of time creating this environment, and its power is also incredible. I can't destroy it with a single attack, but I can probably create a hole."<br/><script>ChapterMid();</script>

"No, that's impossible at your current level," Cursed Reality declared. "This is my masterpiece. It's the creation of a solid stage expert who has broken past the limits of his level. You can't affect it right now."

Noah didn't need Cursed Reality's explanation to understand the power of the ninth floor. He had already faced a similar strength. The expert was like the privileged cultivators, and his state in the solid stage put him outside Noah's reach.

"Let's make a bet then," Noah suggested. "You let everyone out if I can affect your creation. How does it sound?"

"Why would I even make a bet with you?" Cursed Reality asked.

"Well, I will make a hole in this starry sky," Noah announced. "Yet, this environment is too big to crumble with that little damage. I would need to dig holes for entire millennia to pierce the ninth floor, and I don't want to remain stuck here for so long."

"You are talking as if you could affect my creation," Cursed Reality sneered.

"I definitely can," Noah declared, "Which is why it would be pointless to keep me here after proving it."

Cursed Reality fell silent, but a whisper eventually came out of his hidden figure. "That makes sense."

"I would also do you a favor," Noah continued, "You have no idea what those pigs can do to this floor. I can even force them to have their conversations in the starry sky. You wouldn't last a single year."

"I have endured that bickering couple for far longer," Cursed Reality responded.

"You are greatly underestimating the Foolery," Noah sighed. "Anyway, that's only the plan B, which I won't need as long as you accept my bet."

Cursed Reality fell silent again, but an answer arrived quite soon. "If you can cut a hole in this starry sky, it means that your power can touch solid stage cultivators. Forcing you to remain here would have no meaning in that case."

"I hope you are as noble as you claim to be," Noah laughed as he raised his swords.

"The greatest genius in the higher plane can't be a lying fraud," Cursed Reality declared.

"About that," Noah commented while potential started to flow toward his centers of powers and companions. "You, me, and a few others need to have a proper challenge for the title of the greatest genius, but that can wait for when you become my underling."

"Such arrogant words from a hybrid who has yet to prove his worth," Cursed Reality said, but Noah had stopped listening to him. The time for words was over.

Noah summoned the entirety of his power and let his ambition run freely. His companions also unleashed everything they were capable of and let the potential from the ethereal blackness fill their bodies.

The battle against Artamo had just ended, so Noah wasn't exactly at his peak. He would typically need to rest and let the drawbacks disperse to be ready for another long fight, but he had no intention to prolong that trial.

The adverse effects of the drawbacks dispersed as potential filled every corner of Noah's body and companions. He was forcing himself to ignore his limits, and the punishment for that would be heavy, but he didn't care about that now.

Noah knew his limits better than anyone else. He was aware that his world had yet to reach the weight needed to affect the universe. He was close to that level, but he remained one step short.

Waiting a few millennia would bring Noah to the realm that only privileged cultivators in the solid stage could touch. Still, a safe path to the peak had never been in his plans. Noah wanted to get out now, so he disregarded his current and future drawbacks to explode with his full power.

Noah didn't need a series of attacks. He didn't even want to wear down the ninth floor slowly. He knew that his destruction would eventually accumulate to a critical point powerful enough to affect the Labyrinth. However, that wouldn't prove anything.

Noah had to dig a hole in a single attack to prove that he could fight at the same level as the privileged cultivators in the solid stage. He couldn't achieve that result through the weight of his world, but he had something else that similar experts lacked.

Night, Duanlong, Snore, the parasite, and even Shafu came out of his figure as their ambition resonated with his potential. Their power increased and intensified, bringing all of them to the utmost limits of their current level. The fabric of space around them bent and twisted due to the immense might unleashed during the process, but that wasn't enough for Noah.

Noah called upon the entirety of the potential stored inside the ethereal blackness and sent it to all his assets. His centers of power and companions grew beyond their structural limits without reaching the weight necessary to affect the universe.

Noah and his companions couldn't turn themselves into privileged cultivators in the solid stage. Even his incredible potential couldn't achieve that feat since the ethereal blackness had yet to reach those levels.

However, the gap before that level was short, and Noah planned to break through it forcefully. His world contained far more than a single hybrid. The ethereal blackness was the home of fearful creatures that had no match inside the higher plane.

"Such a brutish method won't work against my creation," Cursed Reality commented, but his words ended up claiming the attention of the rank 9 Foolery.

"Brutish?" The Foolery exclaimed while munching one of Pellio's cups. "You have a long way to go, my future underling. Even Xavier had to acknowledge brutes, and he is the most boring cultivator in the world."

"What would that even mean?" Cursed Reality asked, but a massive wave of power suddenly filled the starry sky and forced him to divert his attention.

Noah didn't do anything special. He had simply brought the power of everything he had beyond their limits and unleashed it toward a single spot of the starry sky. A slash, feathers, cuts, and much more had fused into a single attack that created a darker area in the starry sky.