"He is angry," Divine Demon laughed.

"Better than bored," Noah added.

"Damn right!" Divine Demon exclaimed.

Both Noah and Divine Demon stood up and prepared for the incoming offensive. It seemed that Philto had finally decided to take the battle seriously, but they didn't know what kind of attacks would come at them.

Noah wielded his swords as he tried his best to hide his tiredness. His ethereal blackness was generating potential at an incredible pace, but it remained almost empty, so he couldn't use the entirety of his power.

Instead, Divine Demon was as lively as always. His world heavily relied on the energy around him, so his last attack didn't deplete his reserves. He actually couldn't wait to face what Philto had in store for him.

"Remove this blight from my world!" Philto shouted as a faint ringing noise came out of his figure.

"You should consider my heir's mark as an honor!" Divine Demon responded.

"You shouldn't have messed with powers that you don't understand," Philto threatened.

"Hmph, I understood the nature of your power even before learning about your existence," Divine Demon taunted.

"Be silent for a while," Noah whispered. "This noise isn't a technique. It's something deeper."

"It must come from where you left the mark," Divine Demon stated. "This guy must have mustered an unbelievable resolve to obtain his current immortality. You have probably awakened it."

Noah wanted to add something, but Divine Demon's explanation had already covered the most important details. Philto's resolve was probably coming back from the depths of his mark on the universe. As for the nature of his offensive, the two experts could only wait and see.

Philto pointed both hands toward Noah before launching a wave of white energy that gained silver shades during the flight. A dangerous aura accompanied the appearance of those new colors, and Noah's instincts promptly told him to escape.

"I'll take the snake with me," Noah declared before pushing the chrysalis downward and leaving the silver energy's trajectory.

The attack curved to follow Noah, but Divine Demon appeared on its path and launched different blood-red techniques to fight it. An explosion followed the impact, and an odd chiming noise resounded as the energy dispersed.

"Fool!" Philto shouted. "Do you realize what you have done?"

"Not really," Divine Demon shrugged his shoulders while he inspected his surroundings. "I'm pretty sure I've stopped your attack."

"My immortality is the result of multiple sacrifices," Philto announced. "I have shed away what pushed me until the final part of the cultivation journey to obtain this immense power. I can force other worlds to do the same."

'Taking away part of someone else's world?' Noah wondered in his mind. 'That can't be a permanent effect. Also, …'

Noah glanced at Divine Demon. The expert couldn't connect Philto's explanation to any specific effect. He even studied his world, but he didn't find anything missing.

"Well, you must have failed," Divine Demon guessed. "Or, maybe, you are too weak to affect my world."

"What?!" Philto gasped before launching another wave of silver energy.

Divine Demon didn't hesitate to respond through a series of blood-red techniques, and an explosion happened as soon as the two attacks clashed. The chiming noise filled the area again, but nothing special happened.

"You have failed again!" Divine Demon declared. "This demon is beyond your comprehension."

"What?!" Philto gasped again. "I clearly felt pieces of your world vanishing in the depths of your mind. How can you remain unaffected?"

"What are you even saying?" Divine Demon asked as he generated more techniques. "Can't you see? My world is working perfectly."

"You aren't using the same techniques as before," Philto pointed out. "You have lost the ability to summon them."

"Which techniques?" Divine Demon asked as the blood-red structures around him changed shape. "Do you mean these?"

"No, they were different before," Philto stated.

"Like this?" Divine Demon questioned as his techniques transformed again.

"No, no!" Philto shouted. "Can't you even remember your previous attack?"

"Why would I bother doing something so boring?" Divine Demon wondered. "A demon only remembers when he wants to remember."

"That doesn't make any sense," Philto complained.

"I told you," Divine Demon laughed as his techniques transformed again. "This demon is beyond your comprehension."

'And almost everyone else's comprehension,' Noah added in his mind as a cold smile appeared on his face.

Philto seemed to have a troublesome power even when he attacked, but Divine Demon was his perfect counter. Removing parts of someone's world, even temporarily, was a scary ability, but Divine Demon's existence had so many layers that he barely experienced any change.

Noah couldn't even study how intense the effects of Philto's attacks were in that situation. Inspecting Divine Demon's world had always been troublesome, so assessing the damage it suffered was almost impossible.

'I guess Philto can force his opponent to grow weaker during the battle,' Noah thought. 'I can overcome that through my potential, but the fight would only become a test of endurance. Divine Demon is a better opponent for him.'

Noah's conclusions didn't lead to a complete disinterest in the fight. He wanted to join the clash, but he found no reason to test Philto's power on himself.

It was better to guard the chrysalis and let Divine Demon attract most of Philto's attention while Noah waited for the right opportunity. His potential was still refilling the ethereal blackness in the end, so preserving his power sounded like the right approach.

Divine Demon and Philto stopped talking to exchange a series of attacks that didn't carry any specific feature. Philto continued to sever parts of Divine Demon's world, while the latter always generated new techniques that expressed his peak power.

Philto didn't take long to understand that Divine Demon wasn't an ordinary expert. He actually recalled Heaven and Earth's reports during the battle and found explanations for those strange events there.

Divine Demon wasn't losing parts of his world during the exchanges. The energy used in his attacks had only fallen under his control, but it didn't belong to his existence.

Philto never affected Divine Demon's world with his attacks. He only removed the external layers of energy that the world used to protect it. Moreover, those defenses fixed themselves in no time, so the exchanges could go on eternally as long as both experts had power.

Noah attacked when the silver halo left the battlefield. His offensives were nothing more than precise slashes that used the entirety of his sharpness and a bit of potential. They weren't as strong as his previous blow, and they failed to lead to valuable results.

The issue with Philto's world didn't disappear after his behavior changed. The core of his world remained deep into the universe, and both Noah and Divine Demon failed to touch it with their normal attacks.

Philto had also paid a steep price for that immortality. His offensive was relatively weak, especially against Divine Demon. Lesser experts would have eventually felt forced to escape due to the damage to their worlds, but Divine Demon didn't suffer from similar weaknesses.

Still, Divine Demon was in Noah's situation. He failed to damage Philto, which kept him locked in a pointless exchange that didn't lead anywhere. Both experts were simply launching attacks that couldn't hurt their opponent.

The situation changed when a hiss came out of the chrysalis and cracks appeared on its dark edges.. Noah, Divine Demon, and Philto diverged their attention to the battle and focused on the structure, which exploded before they could study its various fissures.

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