Chapter 1544 1544. Evolution
Noah had acknowledged his powerlessness in those short exchanges. His best efforts couldn't even force Madame Canson to attack. He would only run out of darkness if he kept launching a pointless offensive.
His battle prowess was almost there. The fusion of his enhanced centers of power, companions, and abilities placed him near Madame Canson's level, but he needed to take another step forward.
Noah knew that his potential could bring him into the eighth rank, but his worries had held him back. The fear of the drawbacks had applied limits on his law.
Those limits mostly came from his survival instincts. Noah knew that his ambition would exact an immense price once his empowerment ran out. Still, he didn't know what else he could do to defeat Madame Canson.
Noah had three trump cards in his a.r.s.enal, but one of them was too dangerous, and the other required time to activate. Only his ambition could give him the chance to fight Madame Canson on an even field without ensuring his death.
Noah felt his mind, dantian, and body crossing a limit that he knew far too well. His ambition stopped empowering his many abilities to focus its entire influence on his centers of power, finally bringing them to a level that Noah had sought for millennia.
Of course, the ambition couldn't replicate the power that Noah would obtain after real breakthroughs. It could only guess what his strength would be according to the experience gained throughout his life.
His mind expanded, and his mental waves managed to seep into the matter of the world. Noah felt able to change the laws that ruled the sky at will. He could alter the environment as he wished.
A wave of power filled his body. Noah couldn't help but tighten his fist for fear of exploding due to the immense energy running through his tissues. He had never felt so powerful. Even his strongest attack couldn't match that incredible sensation.
His dantian emptied while his ambition pushed him into the eighth rank. His darkness vanished in an instant, but an unstable gas quickly replaced it.
That new energy began to fuel his ambition, which completed the empowerment without needing external power. Noah's law was improving his foundation so that it could continue to intensify.
Noah felt whole once his centers of power stepped into the eighth rank. His ambition shot in every direction and transformed the white light into dense trails of smoke. The sky couldn't fight him back anymore and let his influence taint its fabric.
Madame Canson wanted to stop that evolution, but Noah's companions promptly appeared on her path. They were also pa.s.sively benefitting from his ambition, so nothing managed to reach their Master.
The expert tried to launch waves of light that gave birth to purple crystals, but most of them ended inside Duanlong's mouth. Night also cut them into countless pieces to quicken their destruction, and Snore never stopped filling the area with its violent dark matter.
Noah's eyes fell on his opponent once his evolution ended. Madame Canson sensed an immense pressure landing on her mind and trying to suppress her consciousness.
Surprise finally appeared in her expression. Madame Canson had met rank 8 cultivators stronger than her throughout her life, but she had never seen a newly advanced existence capable of exerting such intense pressure.
The reports of her underlings were on point. Noah was a monster that didn't respect the power level of the three species. He was in a different league, far above magical beasts, humans, and hybrids.
"I must stop you!" Madame Canson shouted while pointing her hands at her opponent. "You embody the unbalance that fills the world. You can't be allowed to grow further!"
The lumps of black smoke surrounding Noah transformed into crystals before taking the shape of humanoid armors. Those puppets grew as Madame Canson sent more energy toward her technique, and they soon became as tall as the whole palace.
The roof began to crumble, but Madame Canson didn't care about the palace. The Crystal City could always rebuild them. Killing Noah before he became strong enough to threaten her organization was the priority.
"You should wait for the explosion," Noah said without minding the giants.
"The what?" Madame Canson asked while the giants tried to slam their ma.s.sive arms on Noah.
The s.p.a.ce around Noah suddenly twisted. The laws of the world stopped working as a dense aura covered his figure. Madame Canson could sense that Noah didn't activate any technique, but she didn't care about the matter enough to stop her offensive.
The puppets' arms stopped moving as soon as they landed on that dense aura. The crystals that made their limbs also shattered when the density of that energy increased.
Madame Canson didn't know what to think. She could even see that Noah was curious about that power as well. It seemed that they were both waiting for that technique to show its might.
Noah's black hole went out of control. The new darkness that filled his dantian flowed toward his fourth center of power and transformed the higher energy.
A blinding dark light seeped out of Noah's figure. The purple and white glow in the sky vanished in front of that radiance.
A black gas slowly flowed out of Noah's skin. It seemed on the verge of obtaining a liquid state, but it also appeared unable to reach that form. The higher energy expanded around Noah and created a series of raging currents that gave birth to a rotating sphere.
The abilities of the weaker underlings in the sky stopped working. Noah's black hole absorbed their energy before it could flow into their techniques.
The same happened to Madame Canson and Monsieur Evan. Their "Breath" escaped from their control and flowed toward the black hole that had enveloped Noah.
The black hole didn't directly absorb that energy. It shattered and rea.s.sembled it to create Noah's darkness before fusing it with its fabric.
The gas rotating inside its spherical shape slowly condensed and eventually transformed into a dense liquid that continued to churn inside the ma.s.sive black hole. Its gravitational pull began to affect the defenses outside of the palace at that point. Rivers of debris, ground, and energy flowed toward its raging waters and fused with its fabric.
Noah had no control over that process, but he did nothing to stop it. The evolution of the black hole was happening right in front of his eyes, and his desire to become stronger only intensified.
The black hole had catastrophic effects on the environment, and that wasn't its true form. The rank 8 darkness reached through Noah's ambition was a weaker version of what he would eventually obtain. His fourth center of power could become even stronger than that.
The sphere enlarged as energy continued to flow into its shape. Madame Canson tried to launch attacks for a while, but everything seemed pointless against those raging waters. Her crystals always ended up fueling the black hole rather than hurting it.
The black hole stabilized once all the energy in its insides had taken a liquid form. The organ began to shrink and took its place at the center of Noah's chest again.
Noah had to crouch to endure the wave of energy that had flowed through his tissues as soon as the black hole resumed its normal functions. Every inch of his body went through a second empowerment that brought his overall power to a superior level.
The same went for his companions, even if Snore and Duanlong obtained the greatest benefits. They were creatures made of dark matter, so their entire body transformed once the new higher energy flowed into their fabric.
Noah gave voice to a roar that made the whole area tremble. The damaged palace began to crumble, and soundwaves spread in every direction. His voice carried his ecstasy and his desire to defy the very rulers of the world.
Sparks began to acc.u.mulate high in the sky. No lightning bolt fell on the battlefield, but it was clear that Heaven and Earth were paying attention to that fight. They even seemed ready to intervene.