Chapter 58 - 58. Not earth

Noah took the saber with two hands and pointed its tip to his chest.

He pushed firmly and the blade stabbed his skin.

The dark blood poured in the wound and mixed with Noah's body leaving a black mark.

'Again!'

He took out the saber and dipped it in the cask and then he stabbed his chest again.

As he repeated the process, a figure began to appear on his body.

Noah took two hours to complete the drawing and when it was over it covered his entire right chest area and a half of his shoulder, as for the pain he felt during the process, it didn't even make him tremble.

Noah had, by then, survived six treatments of the Forging of Seven Hells, some cuts on his skin were nothing to endure.

Next, he used the remaining dark liquid in the cask to add details to the snake figure which took him another hour.

When the blood was over, the drawing on his body began to feel heavy, like some sort of burden was added there.

Noah stared at his shoulder and nodded in satisfaction.

'The first part is complete, now the heart.'

The heart of the snake appeared in his hand and Noah closed his eyes to concentrate on refilling the "Breath" in his body and sharpening his mental energy.

After half an hour, he was ready.

The heart was three times bigger than his hand, there was no way that he could eat it in one bite.

Noah decisively took the first bite and gulped immediately, an awful taste invaded his mouth and a strong heat began to spread from the piece of foreign flesh in his body but was suddenly absorbed by the drawing.

Noah took another bite and the same thing happened.

When he took the last one and the heart had completely vanished the temperature of the drawing began to rise until Noah thought that his shoulder was on fire.

The snake figure started to move and a tremendous pressure hit Noah's sea of consciousness.

Inside his mental sphere, the half-transparent image of a Horned snake appeared and went berserk!

The snake directly head-butted on the sphere making it tremble, it seemed that it wanted to break out at any cost from that confinement.

Noah felt an incredible pain in his head and focused on his sea of consciousness ignoring the pain on his shoulder.

His figure inside the sphere opened his eyes and flew straight at the snake, two balls of water from the sea below him rose in the air and transformed in sabers that were caught firmly by his half-transparent hands.

Noah cut directly on the snake image making it hiss in pain, but it didn't care about him and continued to hit the sphere with all its body.

Another wave of pain came from his mind that forced Noah to slow his assault.

The snake attacked again and this time a small crack appeared on the sphere.

Noah felt his consciousness fading for an instant before he focused again.

'If I let it continue like this I will surely die!'

He focused on the Kesier rune at the center of the sea which released a loud hum as an answer to Noah's calling.

The snake this time shook in pain, it could not focus again on the wall as it trembled and fell in the sea.

Noah rapidly followed and dove in its direction.

The sea was a representation of its thoughts and mental energy, it could not hurt him at all.

With the rune humming continuously and Noah's relentless assault, the snake figure became less and less corporeal until it completely shattered and was absorbed by the sea.

The shards of the snake's previous image recomposed and appeared next to the space-ring projection, Noah relaxed when he felt the connection with it.

The Horned snake was coiled lazily over the sea and it was smaller than the previous one that Noah fought.

Noah went close to it and inspected it carefully.

The snake sensed his presence and opened its eyes, raising its head to stare at Noah's figure.

After a few seconds of them exchanging stares, the snake lowered its head and Noah felt that it had surrendered.

He patted its head satisfied and came out of his sea of consciousness.

Meanwhile, the snake drawing had stopped burning but was now moving freely along his body.

Noah felt his companion moving and tried to control it with his mental energy.

The snake followed his order and moved to the chest area but some of the "Breath" inside his body was expended and the crack in his sphere released a wave of pain due to the usage of mental energy.

'I'll experiment later with this guy, now I have to heal from the injuries. Luckily, I thought of using the rune at the last moment otherwise...'

Another wave of pain came from his mind, it seemed that the crack was pressuring his sphere.

Noah decided to stay in the cave as he consumed the sea in his mind to fill the crack and close it.

In this period, he would consume all the mental energy he had to secure the wound and then go to sleep to refill it.

It took him one week to completely heal his sphere.

'Wounds on the sea of consciousness sure are troublesome, I had to focus on the crack for the whole time incapable of doing anything else. Well, at least now I have succeeded.'

"Breath" from his body and mental energy were expended as a half-transparent snake twelve meters long appeared in front of him.

The snake seemed ethereal, with just its edges completely material, the insides were filled by black smoke.

Its tail was connected to Noah's body from his left foot.

'Attack me.'

Noah ordered as more mental energy was expended.

The snake raised its head and shot at Noah that unsheathed his saber and blocked the blow, he was pushed for a few meters before stopping.

A disappointed expression was on his face when he focused again on the snake.

'Rank 3 strength but of the initial stage, while that Horned snake was definitely a peak stage. Horned snakes belong to the earth element, so now I can be sure that I'm not of that one.'