Birth of the Demonic Sword

Noah's initial worry about the forceful advancement of his mind vanished when he confirmed that he could still study laws. Yet, he couldn't help but lose interest in them. They were the source of energy that his body and dantian needed, but they appeared almost weak and meaningless in their single form.

The lack of interest didn't affect Noah too heavily. He could force his mind to focus on the laws and continue their study. It only required some effort now.

The benefits of his new state far surpassed those negative aspects. Noah was inside a training area suitable for rank 9 existences, but he felt able to see its structure as a whole. The various inscriptions and materials created an intricate array inside his mind that his mental waves could study in mere seconds.

The intense nature of his mental waves then quickly found ways to replicate and destroy that structure. It didn't matter if Noah's other centers of power couldn't even hope to keep up with his mind. The latter still managed to develop suitable plans that could make those weaker organs useful in affecting the world with Noah's laws.

Another sticking aspect of his new center of power came from the newfound intensity of his mental waves. The mental energy usually found it hard to be as effective as the other fuels when it came to spreading an influence. However, that wasn't true anymore in Noah's case.

The matter didn't only involve his mental energy. The dense mud-like ethereal energy was intense in its expression of Noah's existence, but it still couldn't match dantian and body. Yet, everything changed when it seeped past the mental walls to spread into the environment.

The blackness contained in his mind's fabric came from a fusion with the improved mental energy generated by the ethereal center of power, which was the best expression of Noah's existence even in its incomplete state. The thoughts that left his mind gained his influence inside the mental walls and spread it to the world.

Noah didn't need to do anything specific to spread his influence. In the past, unfolding his consciousness and adding darkness could create an environment where his ambition thrived. Now, a few thoughts were more than enough to generate similar effects. The intensity of his law would also be higher since that power came from a superior and deeper form of expression of his existence.

The benefits of the breakthroughs weren't over. Noah found his thinking speed, mental capability, and the various features connected to his study and understanding of laws improved far beyond his expectations. Still, those abilities felt like mere appetizers when he focused on the ethereal center of power.

The new organ basically didn't exist in the world. Noah could see and feel it only because he was part of the personal world that it created, but it wasn't a dimension accessible by others. Entering it would be akin to touching the insides of his dantian or mind. The ethereal center of power simply was a larger and more powerful version of those structures.

That personal space was mostly empty. It only contained a version of the mental energy that Noah's mind feared. That feeling didn't come from its destructive abilities. It was an innate reaction to the consequences that it would cause.

'I retain my original abilities then,' Noah concluded after that quick inspection.

The main effect of Noah's ambition consisted in its ability to make him ignore the gaps among stages and ranks through forced empowerments. His centers of power would pay the price for that sudden burst of might once its effects were over, and their dangerousness would depend on the level achieved during the temporary power-up.

Noah could still use his ambition in the old way, but the ethereal center of power had unlocked a new ability. It had given him the chance to apply the rank 9 version of his law, even if only to his mind.

'That's so tempting,' Noah thought as he inspected the energy inside the ethereal blackness.

His instincts screamed to warn him about the dangerousness of that fuel. He didn't need to think for too long about the matter to understand the cause of that reaction. The ethereal blackness was the strongest aspect of his existence now, and he had even built it to be far more powerful than his current existence. It was unclear how dangerous the drawbacks connected to an eventual use could be.

Noah even realized that the incomplete state of the ethereal blackness didn't allow it to reveal its true power. In theory, the fuel inside the center of power would be the result of the fusion of his energies. However, he could only fill it with his rank 9 mental energy, which restricted its effects to the mental sphere and gave it less than a quarter of its final power.

Still, Noah's instincts felt scared. It didn't matter how incomplete that energy was. They didn't care about how powerful it could become once the dark matter, the darkness, and the primary energy fused with that fuel. Everything was telling him not to use that ability.

'Why am I even trying?' Noah cursed in his mind before going over the matter and picking one of the four spheres inside his separate space.

Noah knew that holding back had never been in his style. Moreover, testing how dangerous that new power was felt necessary now that he was in a safe area surrounded by experts who could save him if something went wrong. He would never get a better chance to test that fuel.

Noah wouldn't test such a dangerous power only to see how severe its drawbacks were. He wanted to add some benefits to the experiment, and he obviously thought about the dragons' spheres. They were his main hope to improve his battle style and expand his law, so exploiting a temporary power-up of his mind to study them seemed proper, even mandatory.

The only hesitation was in the choice of the sphere to study during the temporary empowerment. Noah could pick one or all of them, but it seemed fair to aim for a vague balance since his latest project had probably brought the stability of his existence to its limits. He wanted to restore some harmony by improving the aspect of his law that had remained behind for obvious reasons.

'Time,' Noah sighed while inspecting the sphere in his palm.

His hesitation slowly vanished as determination filled his entire being. His companion retook their defensive positions, but their purpose would probably be to call for help in that situation.

Noah closed his eyes and focused the entirety of his consciousness on the time sphere in his hand. Understanding immediately started to flow toward his mind since his mental waves could study the material far faster now. However, that process felt like child's play once he activated his new ability.

It only took a mere thought to activate the ethereal center of power. Noah even limited its help to a small brim of its empowered fuel to make sure that the drawbacks wouldn't kill him.

The energy directly materialized at the center of his mental sea. The ethereal blackness was Noah's existence, so it didn't need connections to reach the insides of his centers of power. It was already there.

The arrival of that pitch-black brim of energy caused a chain reaction that made the entirety of his mental sea boil. Even his mental walls trembled and released waves of pain, but Noah barely felt them. His mind was too busy devouring the time sphere to mind those sensations.

The process seemed to last for an eternity, but it only kept Noah busy for an instant. He fell on the ground right afterward, and his eyes became empty when the drawbacks arrived.

Noah's thoughts didn't move at all. He had become a creature made of pure instincts, but he instinctively understood that that state would last until his mental sphere started generating mental energy again. Still, the maimed dragons' sphere entered his vision, and he could see how a quarter of it had vanished.