2190 2190. Panic

Everything inside the ethereal blackness was part of Noah's power. He could draw the abilities of all his companions and use them in one attack, but that wasn't the end to it.

Night, Snore, and the other assets inside the ethereal blackness could also benefit from that ability. They were part of Noah's world in the end, so they could use certain aspects of their companions' power.

Philto was a troublesome opponent that raw power couldn't overcome. His mark on the universe stood deeper than what Noah had to face against Cursed Realty and Caesar, and Divine Demon had shown how an all-out attack wouldn't work.

Noah's offensive had to be more specific to reach the depths needed to affect Philto, and Night was the perfect companion for the job. Its ability to seep into worlds and sever unique targets was unparalleled, and Noah had every intention to empower it with the entirety of his destructiveness.

Snore, the parasite, the Cursed Sword, the Demonic Sword, and some aspects of Noah's world carried destructive meanings that only a few experts in the entirety of the higher plane could match. Noah made everything flow into Night while adding potential, and the results were incredible.

Philto's instincts warned him that something massive was about to happen, but his general laziness prevented him from reacting in time. Noah's ambition surged to incredible heights before unleashing everything it had through the palm placed on the expert's forehead.

The attack had the shape of a mere black dot that left Noah's palm and seeped inside Philto's forehead. That spot was obviously Night, who quickly gained ethereal properties as it made its way toward the expert's world.

Night had to use the entirety of the ethereal blackness' potential to endure all the power that had flown into its body. The intense destruction running through its fabric threatened to make it explode, but Noah's world didn't allow that.

Night had the chance to dive deeper than the previous attacks due to all the destruction accumulated in its body. The effort made cracks appear on its lines, but the damage didn't faze it at all.

The Pterodactyl was beyond ecstatic to have the chance to destroy something so powerful and close to Heaven and Earth. Night was willing to reach the depths of Philto's world even if the effort forced it to recover for entire millennia, and its determination led to incredible results.

Philto's eyes widened at some point. Nothing happened in his surroundings. Noah didn't release a single strand of energy into the environment. However, the privileged cultivator knew that something had happened.

A shadow left Philto's figure and flew back inside Noah. The latter could sense Night's poor state and didn't hesitate to aid the healing process through dark matter. A wave of tiredness also filled him due to the potential consumed during the attack. Still, his senses remained on Philto.

<br/>Initially, Philto only experienced some uneasiness that didn't cause any consequence on his appearance. However, that changed after a few seconds passed.

A black spot appeared on Philto's white robe. The mark slowly expanded until it transformed into a line that reached the expert's head. Philto now had a shallow scar that ran through half of his body, and nothing he did seemed able to remove it.

"What have you done?" Philto asked as he wiped his hands over his face in a desperate attempt to remove the line.

Noah limited himself to reveal a cold smile. Meanwhile, Philto tried to use his methods to remove the black line that had marked half of his body.

The expert tried to release his white light to restore his original appearance, but that didn't lead anywhere. After a few attempts, Philto directly crushed the areas tainted by the black lines to heal them, but that also failed.

"What have you done to my world?!" Philto shouted as panic accumulated in his mind.

"Good job, my heir!" Divine Demon applauded in the distance while gulping his cup of wine.

Noah teleported back on the chrysalis and sat next to Divine Demon. The latter created a cup for him, and the two remained on their spot as they enjoyed the scene.

Philto's panic surpassed the duo's expectations. The expert continued to rip himself apart until he decided to blow himself up completely. The wave of energy that left his figure during the detonation was scary, but Noah and Divine Demon handled it easily.

Philto's self-destruction preceded his complete regeneration, but that didn't fulfill his desires. The black line that cut his chest and face in half had come back with him, and it had no intention to leave.

"What have you done?!" Philto repeated, but Noah didn't bother to address the matter.

"My heir left a nice gift for you," Divine Demon taunted. "A gift that you will have to wear forever."

Truth be told, the matter wasn't too hard to understand, especially for Philto. The expert was aware of his world's nature, so finding out what had happened would usually require nothing more than an inspection.

However, the panic that had filled Philto's mind prevented him from thinking straight. Moreover, Noah noticed how there seemed to be something else hindering the expert's inspection.

'How deep did you have to go to reach his mark on the universe?' Noah asked through his mental connection.

'It was hard to keep track of that during the dive,' Night weakly responded. 'Still, I can confirm that we have never reached such depths before.'

Night's statement didn't help, but Noah still came up with a hypothesis. Healing a world was a troublesome matter, but it was far from impossible.

The process usually required a long time and many efforts due to how powerful and complicated the worlds were, but every expert could recover. The matter would obviously be more difficult in case of a serious injury, but Noah knew that Night's attack had only left a harmless mark.

Still, Philto's panic and seemingly inability to remove that mark revealed something else. Noah didn't only believe that the expert had never suffered a similar injury since his arrival in the solid stage. He also felt sure that Philto couldn't reach similar depths anymore.

The hypothesis lacked clues, but Noah felt that it made a lot of sense. After all, Philto had reached depths that even Caesar and Cursed Reality couldn't match.

Philto had probably given up on everything to place his mark on the universe as deep as possible. Yet, now that he didn't have anything else to sacrifice, he couldn't reach his world anymore, leaving him unable to heal it or check its condition.

Noah felt a bit unsettled when he tried to imagine himself in Philto's situation. The sole idea of being unable to check his own world was scary, especially after someone had done something to it.

Philto's panic suddenly felt justified. He had changed in ways that he couldn't study. It didn't matter if that event was nothing more than a harmless mark. Philto couldn't understand what had happened, so a torrent of emotions filled his mind.

Of course, those emotions quickly found a target. Philto forgot about his panic and stopped trying to remove the mark as he fixed his gaze on Noah.