The Cursed Dragons were a species of magical beasts that Heaven and Earth had punished due to the limitless potential of their flames. Noah had inherited that ability when he fused with one of their specimens, but he didn't rely too much on his fire since he often had stronger attacks available.
It merely was a matter of energies. The primary energy contained inside Noah's lungs fueled the flames and made them a powerful tool that he could use repeatedly. Still, they didn't match the might of his martial arts.
Noah would use his "Breath", his inscribed weapons, and his physical strength when executing his forms. The sheer power of his lungs couldn't match the energy released when he made use of all the tools of a cultivator.
His fire wasn't weak. It merely appeared limited when compared to all the abilities that a hybrid could wield.
However, it was still an ability that could break the fairness imposed by Heaven and Earth, and, as such, Noah had always valued it a lot. Its power could even surpass the level of his body, but it still increased alongside it.
The requirements of his lungs weren't even harsh. Noah would autonomously absorb the light around him and redirect it to the organs that produced the flames. Yet, that didn't mean that there weren't ways to quicken their growth.
During the seven months spent underground, Noah had asked Daniel to radiate his light so that he could bathe inside it. That created a training area where his lungs could absorb one of the purest lights available in the world.
It was needless to say that his lungs had surpassed the level of his body in that period. They had become able to produce flames that only rank 5 magical beasts in the upper tier could create. Also, since they were only an isolated body part, Noah didn't need to go through the usual hibernation to claim that power.
Of course, that tilted the harmony that he had reached when he transformed in the other Mortal Lands, but his body was already nearing the upper tier, so that wasn't a significant issue. His long sleep would reestablish the synchrony that he had chosen to lose to obtain that increase of power.
Icy Stare's vision went dark for an instant, but she didn't lose her focus due to that sudden event. She could understand what was happening around her through her consciousness and connection to her spells.
The frozen figures between her and Noah melted, and even the area of the sky that she had turned into ice became nothing more than air during that short instant of blindness. An extreme danger filler her mind too at that moment, and she instinctively retreated to escape from the incoming mass of destruction that was nearing her position at high speed.
The light returned to her world soon, and her eyes could finally see the fiendish figure pouncing at her with his swords raised.
It didn't take her much to understand that she couldn't avoid a direct clash.
Icy Stare summoned all her power to freeze the area around her. She created a series of constructs that stood between her and her opponent in a defensive stance. Yet, Noah stopped, and four additional arms rose from his scaled armor to wield the copies of the Demonic Sword that he had generated during his charge.
The dangerous sensation inside Icy Stare's mind only intensified at that sight, and she promptly detonated her construct to weaken the power of the attack that was about to appear. She even used her remaining ice to build a protective wall that would block the shockwaves released during the explosion.
A loud noise echoed through the battlefield as shards of ice shot in every direction. The shockwaves that spread from the epicenter of the detonation also dispersed part of the black cloud, revealing Noah's figure.
Nevertheless, they didn't manage to stop his attack.
An empty space appeared between Noah and Icy Stare as he slashed downward. All the shards in that path vanished as if they had never been there in the first place.
The wall in front of the expert of the Empire couldn't block the attack either, and a large, vertical fissure divided it into two parts before reducing its structure to simple shards.
A long cut appeared on Icy Stare. The wound ran from her shoulder to her left foot, digging deep into her muscles.
A layer of ice soon appeared on her injury and stopped the massive amount of blood that was about to leave her body.
Icy Stare's gulped a mouthful of blood that had tried to climb her throat and retreated. She knew far too well that her last attack hadn't been enough to stop the monster on the other side of the shards.
As if answering to her reaction, Noah charged through the shards floating in the sky and flew toward her. The maws of his fiendish figure were wide open as he pressed forward, and a thin gray smoke came out of them before being consumed by the dark gas released by the Demonic Form.
Icy Stare's timing had been perfect. In normal circumstances, Noah wouldn't have been able to reach her, which would have given her time to prepare a countermeasure to his new attack.
However, Noah's flames now had the power of a rank 5 creature in the upper tier.
Icy Stare's vision became dark again before a burning sensation enveloped her skin. She felt her body burn in the middle of an intense fire that reopened her last injury too.
Ice quickly formed above her skin to defend against that heat, but even her defensive spell didn't seem able to block that heat. The protective layer of ice melted before her body returned to burn.
The light returned to the world once again, and Icy Stare could see that the faint shapes of white flames were burning on top of her skin, leaving hideous injuries in the process. She didn't have to analyze that fire to know that it was above her level.
Steam started to come out from Icy Stare's body at that point. Wrinkles appeared on her charred skin as her pores released that foggy gas that pushed the flames away.
At that moment, she realized that the flames weren't completely white. They were faint, almost ethereal, but they burned stronger than any other fire she had seen in her life.
The flames dispersed, but her body had paid a heavy price. Icy Stare had suddenly become an elderly woman.
Nevertheless, Noah hadn't stopped charging ahead while she was busy defending against his flames. Before she could even heave a sigh, Noah was already on top of her, slashing with the divided Demonic Sword.
Noah severed his opponent in two and stretched his hand to reach for her dantian. Yet, a red halo enveloped the two bloody halves before he could touch them.