Chương 1055

A sharp pressure starts to manifest deep in the center of this silver-cored demon's chest.

"You think I waited here all this time to be defeated by two humans?! I refuse to accept this fate! This is merely my final tribulation. That dragon attempting to push another veil of falsehoods upon me! I will not give in!" The invisible pressure ripples throughout the purple gel we float in, but doesn't affect its movements or physical makeup at all. The only force that reacts to this shockwave is the half-shattered soul array that surrounds us like a bubble.

When it does, many of the complete, unbroken glyphs on its surface start spinning and waking from their eternal slumber; sending waves of energy deep into the void. In the many memories I've already absorbed from this demon's past, I can tell many of the bursts of aura sent out are potent waves of consciousness, mostly used to contact demons still within the Upper Realm. Or, at other times, a way to activate arrays left behind to contain and trigger Realm Waves.

Noctus looks at both of us with a crazed look, with wide eyes and a smile that won't falter. All of his wounds seem to be healed, and when he steps through the atmosphere, his speed has increased many times over.

"This is my domain! I have tempered a consciousness far too strong for you to truly grasp! Pure power is all that matters! Make cheap copies of my skills all you want, summon false immortal threads from the void if you can, but you are still cursed with the lifespan of lesser beings! This is but a minor setback, my final test before breaking out of this membrane!" He flies past us far faster than either Maria or I can turn.

The thin mirror of ice and wave of metallic fire we manage to send through the void collide with each other right where the demon was moments ago. It takes an immense amount of mental strain to move the manifested sword copies around me when they get far out of range, so much so that the explosion of our main sword slashes colliding disrupts the stability of one of my blades. It detonates too, before it can hit a target. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

The blade copy closest to me, however, I manage to position just in time to nick the forearm of the passing demon as he laughs and mocks us for being too slow. I let my sword copy release all of its pressure upon a simple touch, and watch the demon's entire arm, shoulder, and half of his face be blown apart; sending waves of silver threads out into the void. The damage such a simple attack managed did over five times more damage than before...

Noctus is blasted backward even further, and I watch his face and limb grow back while other portions of his body grow weaker. A smile creeps onto my face as I watch him twist out of the way before a thin crystalline line of icy mirrors slices through the void where he just was. Residue from the sword slash lingers and touches Noctus' back while he runs away, thrusting himself to the furthest part of this sea of consciousness where none of us have traveled yet.

Trailing behind him, there are countless silver threads that flicker and fall off of his demonic form, many of them appearing to be stuck in a blue gel residue that was left behind by Maria's slash. As he sheds silver threads to get rid of this poison-like aura, this too makes his overall body less and less filled. I swing next, predicting the position he's escaping to, but the distance becomes too vast. By the time my strikes reach him, they've slowed down to the point where he can weave through them with ease.

Two explosions of red and silver light attempt to catch him off guard, but the shockwaves do not pulse outward with infinite momentum. They merely explode to create bright orbs of energy upon their initial detonation, then are suppressed by the vast sea of consciousness once they lose their strong mental link with me. There is still some residual energy that lingers and burns through the outside of his energy form, but there are no large-scale attacks that land.

He flies past us again, reaching another portion of this sea, so far that when we turn toward it, it's hard to see much more than a silver shadow on the other side. Red and blue attacks are still sent his way, but they're far too slow to be lethal by the time they arrive near his location. His silver threads may be depleting, but the vast sea of consciousness we swim through still holds a massive amount of this dark purple gel.

Although large portions of it are constantly being absorbed into my energy bodies, at this rate, it still feels like an endless sea. Something doesn't add up. Noctus is far too agile for us to easily attack him now, but the longer we chip away at him, the less of a chance he'll have. I quickly turn my inner active mind toward the spectate feeds Ember shares within me, and watch the pulses of white and invisible aura he released moments ago all flowing through the void.

It shatters far more of the soul array surrounding us, allowing for much larger portions of the real-time battle to glitch through in reflections from Ember to see. Yet, the bubble around this portion of space still holds strong to create the eerie image of us frozen in time. This is not what catches my full focus. Instead, it is where the waves of his soul tie remnants travel; back toward the construct holding the Upper and Lower Realm.