The copies of the Demonic Sword appeared once again next to Noah, and four fuming arms quickly rose from his scaled armor to wield them.
The fake weapons and arms dissolved as soon as Noah performed a vertical slash. Yet, he didn't wait to see the outcome of his attack. He directly activated the Warp spell and released the living weapon from his grasp.
The Demonic Sword began to send black lines through the black flames on its own, and Noah created a series of Ghostly Sabers that he launched toward the center of the wind-wave. Then, he roared, releasing a series of white flames toward the enemy spells.
In the end, he launched the Black Hole spell that was still hovering above him and summoned the Lazy Whale.
The massive figure of his Blood Companion covered him and the Demonic Sword, which kept on sending slashes through the Warp spell even from inside the puppet. Noah had aimed all his attacks toward a specific spot in the barrage of spells to create an opening that would allow him to survive, and now he was simply waiting for the storm to reach him.
The explosions echoing in the outside world sounded muffled from inside the Blood Companion, but Noah could sense how powerful they were through his consciousness. Also, his connection with the Black Hole spell was still active, and it gave him a general understanding of the amount of energy that it was absorbing.
Nutrients slowly reached for his body. The Black Hole spell was sending part of the accumulated primary energy toward him, but Noah was too distant from his attack, and the transfer proceeded slowly. Yet, just a few strands of power that arrived filled him.
Noah felt that his injuries were starting to heal as he bathed in that intense power, but the connection with the Black Hole spell suddenly broke, and a loud explosion followed that event.
The insides of the Lazy Whale trembled as the shockwave engulfed the Blood Companion, but the storm reached him at that point, and everything became too chaotic to keep track of the outside world.
The Blood Companion fell apart and reconstructed countless times in just a few seconds. Noah went from being full of energy to exhausted as soon as he clashed with Peaceful Storm's attack.
Cracks appeared on the ethereal figure of the whale inside his sea of consciousness as the cycle of destruction and reconstruction kept going until its half-transparent image crumbled entirely and fell on the sea below.
Noah felt the death of his Blood Companion, but the strong offensive of his opponent didn't give him time to focus on anything that wasn't surviving.
The scaled armor tried its best to destroy as much wind as it could, but it eventually fell apart, leaving Noah's body exposed to the storm created by his opponent. Noah instincts took over him when his skin started to crack, and he released a roar accompanied by his flames to answer the furious attacks that had engulfed him.
The Demonic Sword had stopped attacking and had reached him when the storm hit, and Noah held it tightly in his grasp as he waited for the storm to end.
He didn't feel hopeless. Peaceful Storm's barrage of talismans had created a wild wave of spells, but they weren't all aimed at him. Even such an experienced cultivator couldn't control so many powerful attacks at once.
So, Noah had calculated that he would have been able to survive if he destroyed enough spells in the area of the wave on his path. The only uncertainty was in how injured he would be after that.
Noah spent minutes filled with pain and with the hot sensation generated by his flames. However, his calculations were on point, and he eventually opened his eyes only to find himself in an underground area.
There was debris all over him, and he felt as if his body was in pieces. Yet, the connection with the Demonic Sword was still active, and his centers of power were fine, except for his body.
He couldn't help but release a laugh at that point. Even the accumulation of talismans of an old monster wasn't able to kill him!
The battles had temporarily stopped in the sky. Peaceful Storm had launched something so massive that he affected the even fights of the other heroic cultivators. The shockwaves that the storm released as it marched through the sky had also caused countless casualties in the city, which was nothing more than a pile of ruins after his attack.
The Empire had suffered more though since its troops were surprised to see such a massive barrage of spells suddenly appearing above them. On the contrary, most of the cultivators of the Hive could notice the storm in time and hide.
Of course, all the human assets of both sides had died, but Empire suffered far more losses for what concerned the cultivators in the fourth rank. As for those in the fifth rank, they were all alive, even if some of them were wounded.
The anger of all the surviving heroic assets went on Peaceful Storm, who appeared utterly exhausted. Trying to control so many spells had drained his reserves of mental energy, but he needed to make sure that most of his firepower went after his opponent.
He had failed to do that, but he felt still satisfied by the number of attacks that had concentrated in Noah's position.
In his mind, no cultivator in the gaseous stage of the fifth rank would be able to survive that offensive. After all, he had used only his most potent talismans, which had taken him more than decades to create.
He didn't mind the angry gazes of his enemies and companions. Killing the Demon Prince of the Hive was a great achievement, and sacrificing some cultivators in the fourth rank was just a small price to pay for that feat.
Peaceful Storm even straightened his back to assume a proud stance now that the attention of all the heroic assets on the battlefield was on him. He wanted to make them think that he could launch another one of those attacks whenever he wanted.
Nevertheless, debris began to move in the distance and claimed the attention of the cultivators from both sides.
Noah's bloodied figure climbed out of that rubble and slowly set foot on the cracked ground. He was holding the severed head of a rank 5 wolf-type beast in one hand, while his other arm covered the Demonic Sword that rested on his chest.
The storm had injured his weapon too, which couldn't fly anymore in that state. However, Noah wasn't worried since he knew that its life wasn't in danger.
Peaceful Storm stared at him with wide eyes. He couldn't believe that Noah had survived that attack!
Noah ignored his reaction and took a bite from the wolf's head before shouting something to Elder Julia. "You might want to gather the weapons."