2233 2233. Blades

Euclio couldn't see the shape of the immense torrent of silver energy from his position, and he couldn't unfold his consciousness either since his mental waves shattered soon after leaving his body. Yet, he could imagine what Sword Saint had created.

The situation was different for the rest of the battlefield, especially for Daniel and Faith, since they could inspect everything from the safety of the landmass. A massive silver blade had appeared in the middle of the void, and its sharpness resonated with the dark ground standing under the couple.

The landmass began to tremble, and Daniel and Faith witnessed multiple inscriptions lighting up to prevent its awakening. Vast energy reserves vanished to quell the immense creature's desire to understand what that distant calling was.

Daniel and Faith dropped their previous conversation to get back into battle positions. Daniel shot toward one of the formations' cores, while Faith reached a different significant point in the defensive array to spread her aura.

Daniel knew something about inscriptions, especially when it came to the landmass since he had overseen it for many years. However, his expertise didn't allow him to improve the defenses at work there. He could only use the little energy he had regained to push the formations to express the peak of their power.

Faith found herself in a similar situation. She wasn't June. She couldn't come up with vast waves of energy capable of helping the defenses planted to halt the landmass' awakening.

Nevertheless, Faith's aura carried heavy appeasing properties, and those effects reached their peak when her life was in danger. She put herself in a location that could hurt her deeply if the landmass woke up to call upon those empowered abilities, so her influence expanded farther than usual.

The efforts of the two experts and the defenses prepared by the various inscription masters slowly interrupted the landmass' awakening. The ground stopped trembling, and everything went back to normal, except for Daniel and Faith.

The two found themselves exhausted after the recent struggle. Daniel was even worse off since he had emptied his world twice in such a short time. The couple reunited on the surface to sit on the ground and fall in each other's arms.

Daniel and Faith were too tired to be of any use to the battlefield. They didn't know how long the final battle would last, but they felt sure that their fight was over, at least for now.

Meanwhile, the battlefield continued to rage. Only a few key experts sensed that the landmass had come close to awakening since the massive silver blade had claimed almost everyone's attention.

The chaos on the battlefield also prevented most experts from focusing too much on events outside of their individual fights. The silver blade was impossible to miss, and its magnificence hid the dangerous sensations that the landmass had radiated for a short time.

<br/>Sword Saint obviously didn't miss that the landmass had reacted to his return, but he didn't care either. He was busy laughing and bathing in the new connection to the sword path developed during his trip inside Euclio's void.

As for Euclio, he managed to keep himself in one piece inside the silver storm, but he still failed to summon his new power. In theory, he had a chance to defeat Sword Saint even after the breakthrough due to Daniel's actions, but he couldn't get access to his abilities. They felt impossible to reach even if they stood inside his world.

"Performance issues?" Sword Saint mocked when he managed to bring his attention back to Euclio.

Euclio was no idiot, and Sword Saint's behavior only proved his silent guess right. Sword Saint wasn't the type to indulge in jokes on his own unless they involved special situations or King Elbas. There had to be a reason behind his words, and the excitement caused by the breakthrough only covered part of it.

"What did you cut while you were in my world?" Euclio asked in a calm tone. "I don't contain anything. You couldn't have cut anything."

"I told you that I learnt how to cut the void," Sword Saint announced. "You might think to be empty, but emptiness is also something you contain."

"Your friend purified my existence until I could fuse with the void itself," Euclio revealed. "Don't try to lecture me about my power. You know nothing about it."

"That's both true and false," Sword Saint exclaimed. "I don't necessarily have to know something to cut through it, but the void is quite special in that regard."

"What?" Euclio snorted. "Are you an expert in the void now?"

"Your understanding is shallower than I thought," Sword Saint sighed while raising his hand. "Do you know what this is?"

Euclio inspected that gesture thoroughly. He couldn't use his consciousness, but his eyes were more than enough to reveal the truth behind Sword Saint's hand. He didn't do anything.

"This isn't the situation to talk about our paths," Euclio sneered. "I thought your side was short on time."

"I guess you can't see it," Sword Saint sighed again.

"See what?" Euclio angrily reprimanded. "You fill the whole area with your energy, and then you ask me to look through it. Are you having fun mocking me?"

"You should be able to see it through my energy," Sword Saint claimed. "After all, this is something necessary to your power."

"Do you expect your tricks to keep me busy?" Euclio wondered. "You didn't do anything. Even your energy stayed still during your gesture."

"That's both true and false," Sword Saint repeated. "I didn't do anything, but I still did something. I did nothing."

"Did you forget how to use words?" Euclio joked, but the silver energy above his silver shoulder suddenly disappeared, and part of his body vanished with it.

Euclio didn't know how to describe what had just happened. He could only watch his left arm leaving his body and disappearing from his world. He became unable to protect the limb with his energy, so the silver fuel destroyed it.

"Your path is formidable," Sword Saint stated, "But it's not omnipotent. It couldn't cut away my connection to the sword path, so I could study a new power."

Heaven and Earth had done extensive studies on all the experts in Noah's organization. Still, Sword Saint was so unique that the privileged cultivators knew about his power even without their leaders' help.

Euclio knew that Sword Saint had created a connection with the sword path. He had actually turned into an avatar that expressed its essence, so it wasn't surprising that he could talk with it even inside someone else's world.

However, the issue remained. Sword Saint had cut something that technically didn't exist. In theory, that was impossible even after acquiring the knowledge of a superior entity. Heaven and Earth would also struggle to find ways around that.

"What new power?" Euclio asked.

"I needed a blade that could cut the void," Sword Saint explained. "The sword path gave me nothing, so I understood. The only blade that could cut the void is the blade that doesn't exist."

"No one can achieve something like that," Euclio declared. "Summoning a power that doesn't exist simply goes beyond common reason."

"You don't summon it," Sword Saint stated. "You create it by destroying. I sacrifice a blade to create a blade that doesn't exist."

Something connected in Euclio's mind. He finally understood what Sword Saint meant, but the implications of that power were too insane even to consider them.

"You said that I could never cut you," Sword Saint continued. "That's terribly wrong. I'm the only one who can cut you. I can destroy parts of my world to create blades that don't exist freely since the sword path will always refill those missing parts."

"You!" Euclio cursed. "Wait!"

"Too late," Sword Saint announced. "I've already destroyed enough to kill you."

Euclio's eyes widened, but the whole silver torrent vanished before he could speak. He only had the time to glance at the sky in anger before disappearing and leaving no trace of his existence.