Noah dreamt. The images that he saw in his sleep mostly concerned the life of the Cursed Dragon species, but there were also pictures originating from his connection with the Demonic Sword.
He saw his underground quarters through the senses of his weapon. He felt its hunger and the emotions that filled it when it stabbed its body inside the pile of magical beasts' corpses that Noah had left there.
In his erratic moments of awareness, Noah understood that his body was becoming used to the evolution of his existence. He wasn't just a hybrid anymore. He was an existence that was bound to become a law outside of Heaven and Earth's system if he kept on growing.
The memories of the Cursed Dragon species were not enough to represent the state that his body was reaching, especially after it had been in contact with his darkness and Demonic Sword for so long.
Among those images and sporadic awareness, Noah began to feel some eagerness for the sixth rank.
There was a pattern in the changes in his body. The breakthroughs between the various tiers would only bring slight modifications, other than a massive increase in his physical might.
Those were just attempts that his body made to harmonize itself with the rest of his centers of power, but the real changes happened when he advanced between the ranks.
His mental energy had changed during the breakthrough in the fifth rank, and the walls of his dantian had become far sturdier as his body improved. Something similar was bound to happen when he reached the sixth rank, but the changes wouldn't concern just his dragon part at that point.
Noah expected to see an actual harmonization with his evolving individuality, something that would sever his ties with the other hybrids and put him in a league of his own even from an anatomical perspective.
However, he knew even in his sleep that his breakthrough to the upper tier would increase the requirements of his body to unthinkable standards.
Noah woke up among the silence of his underground quarters, with the Demonic Sword releasing a happy roar as soon as it sensed that he had regained his awareness completely. His hunger though was so intense that he couldn't mind the affectionate gestures of his weapons.
A series of rank 5 corpses appeared in front of him, and Noah didn't hesitate to dive into them. The Demonic Sword began to fly around him protectively when it understood the state that he was in, and it didn't even try to take a bite of the food on the ground.
Noah devoured corpse after corpse, but his hunger didn't flinch. It continued to assail his mind as if it was an urge that he had to satisfy if he didn't want to go insane.
More corpses appeared on the ground in front of him, and Noah continued to take massive bites without even bothering to munch them. They would turn into primary energy as soon as they entered his stomach anyway, so any other action was just a waste of time.
His hunger calmed down only after he ate his tenth magical beast in the lower tier of the fifth rank, and he could finally relax to assess his gains at that point.
His attention went on his other centers of power first. He didn't have the chance to train his dantian during that period of hibernation. Still, his mind had improved thanks to the incredible quantity of spherical runes that applied constant internal pressure.
Noah's sea of consciousness had improved steadily and without any issue. Its walls had even regained some of the sturdiness lost when he abused the innate properties of his mental energy.
The runes worked well as an alternative method to the Kesier runes, even if they couldn't match their efficiency and safety.
'They can be the foundation for a new technique,' Noah thought. 'I need to review the basics of the Kesier runes with Thirty-seven. My expertise should have reached a point where I can create a weaker version, at least.'
Noah had initially created the spherical runes because he wanted to improve his control over the primary energy and see if he could fuse his inscription methods. However, after training in the technique of the natives, he had used them only to enlarge his mental sphere.
Yet, the Kesier runes were a pure expression of power according to the automaton, and he felt confident that he could turn his second success in the Will-consuming runes into something similar.
His attention eventually went on his body, and the first feature that he noticed was the immense quantity of energy that each of his body parts contained.
It was needless to say that he expected nothing less. After spending more than forty years eating rank 5 magical beasts and dantians, obtaining an insane amount of physical strength felt necessary.
Nevertheless, the features of his body didn't stop there.
His appearance had changed a bit during his hibernation. His black nails were a bit longer and slightly pointy, as if wanting to resemble actual claws, and his skin had become even rougher. His hair had become longer too, making it seem more as the mane of a beast.
Noah then blew softly toward his palm, and the azure light radiated by the underground walls of the new continent vanished for an instant before returning to the world. A small flame had appeared in Noah's hand during that instant, and he noticed how it was even more ethereal than the fire used in the last phases of the war.
His innate ability had improved as his body experienced the breakthrough. However, it remained inside the level of power of a beast in the upper tier, even if it still was stronger than the center of power.
Noah picked his inscribed notebook and began to send a series of mental messages at that point, but he didn't wait for answers. He directly called the Demonic Sword and started cultivating to make up for the time lost during his hibernation.
To his surprise, the intensity of his cultivation technique had improved even more after his breakthrough. It seemed that his body had harmonized with the rune on his low-waist, enhancing its properties thanks to its innate adaptability.
A series of messages resounded inside his mental sphere as Noah bathed in the feeling of sensing his dantian improving after so long. He soon learnt that he had spent almost eight years sleeping, and he also gained a general understanding of the changes that happened in the new continent during that period.
Those years had been peaceful and had seen every organization doing its best to recover from the losses suffered during the war. The Hive had also expanded in its new territories, but the most exciting piece of information came from Elder Julia and concerned the neutral city.
"Prince, we need a powerful ambassador there," Noah cultivated as Elder Julia's voice resounded in his mind. "Also, June Ballor is there already."