2335.Branches

Noah could understand what was happening even if his consciousness struggled to remain awake.

The pale-gold domain radiated meanings that spread into every corner of the higher plane and partially explained its purpose. Noah knew about King Elbas, the Foolery, and Divine Demon, so it didn't take him long to connect the dots.

'He matured a lot,' Noah couldn't help but think when he compared the current King Elbas to his version in the Mortal Lands. 'Maybe he only changed.'

The old King Elbas would have never allowed the existence of companions, but his current behavior went far beyond that. King Elbas had actively accepted that the Foolery and Divine Demon thrived in unreasonable fields, so he had developed a technique that could make use of those abilities.

The pale-gold domain wasn't only an expression of King Elbas' reality. It also helped him study and understand his companion's techniques. That inspection allowed him to empower those abilities and stuff them into a joint offensive.

Divine Demon and the Foolery were so unreasonable that their power often escaped King Elbas' technique, but the latter accepted that outcome anyway. Everything was fine as long as the overall offensive reached decent levels.

Noah almost laughed when he saw King Elbas compromising with his unreasonable companions. The three had spent entire millennia teasing each other, but that had probably helped in the grand scheme of things. Strangers and random friends couldn't achieve that teamwork. That joint offensive was possible only if the involved experts shared complete trust.

The scene was majestic, especially in Noah's vision, since he knew how deeply everyone had grown. Yet, Heaven and Earth didn't let that power faze them. Actually, a counterattack arrived before King Elbas' expectations.

Ethereal mouths, crimson beams, and a torrent of fiery golden light crashed on Heaven and Earth to keep them stuck on the white layer, but those attacks quickly lost power. The three experts weren't to blame for that. The rulers had simply found ways to counter them.

The ethereal mouths released clanging noises that pushed them back whenever they closed on the crystals. The scarlet beam forced Heaven and Earth to summon and half-spherical shield, while the golden pillar transformed into a vortex that converged in their hands.

King Elbas imposed his will on the pale-gold domain and made the half-spherical shield disappear, but a new one came out of Heaven and Earth to block Divine Demon's attack.

A wave of power came out of King Elbas to enhance his will and affect an even deeper part of the domain, but Heaven and Earth countered that with a simple soundwave that hindered that influence.

King Elbas moved his focus elsewhere at that point. His eyes shone as he pointed them at the crystal figure. A foreign force tried to pierce Heaven and Earth's body, but nothing King Elbas did seemed to work.

King Elbas changed his approach again. His will went back to the pale-gold domain to create an ethereal force that slammed on Heaven and Earth. His goal was to affect the structural stability of those crystals, but his attack fell way too short.

Heaven and Earth quickly stood up, and his opponents couldn't do anything to hinder the process. The rulers glanced at the pale-gold domain for a few seconds while multiple attacks failed to reach their crystals until a series of white roots came out of their body.

The roots expanded through the scarlet attack and fed off its energy to grow into a bright and tight array. The pale-gold domain started to suffer due to Heaven and Earth's pressure, but new opponents materialized around them during that counterattack.

June unleashed a massive and fearsome torrent of energy as soon as her figure materialized. The sheer violence released by her lightning bolts forced Heaven and Earth to bend forward and support themselves with their hands.

Sword Saint didn't hesitate to unleash a piercing attack aimed at the center of Heaven and Earth's back. His silver blade filled the domain with intense sharpness that threatened to cut his companions, but the crystals endured the blow.

Wilfred slammed his massive arms right next to the silver blade's landing spot. His body fell in the middle of Sword Saint's raging sharpness, but he disregarded all the injuries opening on his body to unleash his physical strength.

Sword Saint and Wilfred's joint offensive pushed Heaven and Earth on the sky. Supreme Thief arrived at that point, and he relied on the protection of King Elbas' armor to draw a massive amount of energy from the crystal figure before launching it above him.

Alexander caught the unstable mass of white energy and trapped it into a pitch-black barrier. His eyes shone with red light as he inspected that power, and a smile soon appeared on his face.

"Let's try this!" Alexander shouted before his entire body lit up with different colors that summoned multiple innate abilities.

Lightning bolts carrying various shades left Alexander's body and dived into the pitch-black barrier to absorb Heaven and Earth's energy. The attacks transformed into a dog-like silhouette, and Alexander didn't hesitate to slap it once the process ended.

The slap added insane momentum to the dog-like silhouette and made the many lightning bolts flying through its insides release thundering noises. Many of those sparks even clashed to generate explosions, but the entirety of their energy came out only when they entered Heaven and Earth's reach.

June and the others had retreated by then. The dog-like silhouette enveloped the crystal figure and unleashed its power, creating a multicolored explosion that expanded through the pale-gold domain.

Some of the energy in Alexander's attack came directly from Heaven and Earth, so a few lightning bolts managed to seep through the crystals. However, when the explosion dispersed, everyone saw that the rulers were completely fine.

"All of you are disappointing," Heaven and Earth announced while straightening their position, but a wave of corrosive energy enveloped the area and forced them on the sky again.

King Elbas and the others had to retreat to escape the attack's range, and Shafu used that chance to push the landmass closer to the sky. The latter slowly crumbled as it unleashed its power, but its angry growl expressed its lack of interest in that damage.

"Rearrange the battle formation, you idiots!" King Elbas shouted as he went back to the solid stage while creating a larger domain that could endure the corrosive energy at its center.

King Elbas, the Foolery, and Divine Demon remained side by side to unleash a joint offensive. Divine Demon and the Foolery weren't really bothering about that teamwork, but King Elbas made sure to alter reality in their favor.

June, Supreme Thief, Sword Saint, and Wilfred occupied distant areas of King Elbas' domain to launch massive attacks converged on Heaven and Earth. Their offensive would usually clash and fail to achieve its full power, but King Elbas handled that part and turned it into a joint technique.

Alexander was the only one who didn't take King Elbas' help for granted. He used multiple innate techniques to study the scene before activating other abilities to fill the gaps in the offensive.

The pale-gold domain lost its natural shades and even shattered at some point due to the immense power accumulated in its insides. King Elbas couldn't preserve its integrity, but he could summon a new one once the offensive dispersed.

Nevertheless, a series of ethereal attacks ran through the waves of energy before converging toward the experts. Even Shafu saw those branches-like structures stretching toward it and piercing the landmass in the process.

Everyone silently decided to retreat, but the incoming attacks were too fast. The ethereal branches pierced the experts in multiple spots before the evasive techniques brought them away.