Noah undressed his upper clothes to allow the blood of the previous Blood companions to be expelled.
The tattoos slowly vanished as the black blood abandoned Noah's body, only the deep cuts that made the pictures of the beasts remained for a few seconds before the healing proprieties of his body closed the wounds, leaving no traces of them.
Echo and Shadow were completely dead!
Shadow hadn't been of much use to Noah since his power was too high when he created it but Echo had played an important role in his adventures, it had stayed with him since he escaped Eccentric Thunder's Inheritance ground.
Yet, power came before everything, Noah didn't think twice to destroy its figure inside his mental sphere, he had to make space for a new beast.
A white saber appeared in his hands and he proceeded to stab the chest of the dragon to rip off its heart, Noah didn't use the Demonic swords because he was afraid that their innate corrosive proprieties would damage the core of the beast.
As for the dragon, what Noah had killed and successfully stored was an Abyssal dragon.
It was a kind of dragon that relied mostly on its body to fight and that had an innately strong defense due to the sturdy scales all over its body.
It was also quite big for its kind, nine meters long and a muscular body with a pair of wings and four huge legs, it was slow but its frame made up for that weakness.
Abyssal dragons would usually live in dark places where their vision was obstructed, that's why their defenses were so good: They had to protect themselves against beings able to see in those environments.
There were strongest kinds of dragons among the tide in the ninth trial but that was the only one of the darkness element that Noah had managed to find.
Also, it had large wings and was at the peak of the lower tier of the fourth rank, Noah wouldn't be too picky when he found such a good match for his needs.
'I'm not used to creating wills that enhance defense but it would be a waste to imbue it with other meanings.'
Noah thought as he held the dragon's heart in one hand while he drew a few sketches on the sandy terrain.
He was a rank 3 mage, it took him only a few attempts to draw a figure of the dragon that met the standards required by the Body-inscription spell.
Then, he closed his eyes to focus on the world inside his mental sphere.
Noah dispersed the solid "Breath" stored for the activation of the Shadow Sprint, his sea of consciousness seemed extremely empty, only the three Kesier runes and the non-refined solid "Breath" remained together with his half-transparent figure.
'Defense, defense.'
He repeated that word in his mind, sorting through the various memories that could help him in creating a strong will.
His first thought led him back inside the Royal Inheritance where he fought the rank 4 Cloud eagle, his level was too low at the time, his sabers couldn't even scratch the surface of its skin.
'Too shallow.'
Noah immediately disregarded that memory, the level of the beast was simply too high, it wasn't a matter of good defense.
It took a while but Noah eventually found a method to create the meaning that he needed.
His imagination played one of its first creations, a saber that flew undisputed in the skies, cutting through everything on its path.
Then, the saber changed its route and went upward, trying to reach for the space outside the world.
Yet, it was met with a seemingly endless wall that covered the entirety of the planet.
The wall seemed to have metallic proprieties and it was formed by countless black scales placed on top of each other.
No matter how many times the saber tried to pierce it, it wasn't able to even dent the first scale that it met.
Noah interrupted his dream at that moment and imbued those emotions in the solid "Breath" inside his mind.
The chunks of black crystals were immersed in the sea below them and came out in the form of a dense scaled shield.
The shield radiated the helplessness created due to its impenetrability, Noah had a cold expression when he looked at it.
That was because he had used the feelings that he felt toward the restrictions that the world applied on lone cultivators, no matter how strong one became, there would always be stronger powers ready to suppress it.
The strongest of all was Heaven and Earth which was represented by the wall around the planet in Noah's imagination.
'Such a good result from something that I hate so much, it seems that all my training in the creation of wills wasn't useless.'
Noah felt a deep hatred for any restriction that the world tried to apply to him.
He used that strong emotion to create a fantasy that reflected how he felt in his most helpless moments.
He felt like that saber, alone in the vastity of the sky, trying to break through an impenetrable wall.
His mood was about to turn sour but then he remembered where he was and what he was attempting to do.
'I can finally use this spell again.'
Noah quickly imbued the "Breath" just refined in the blood contained in the barrel and the heart in his hand.
Then, he proceeded to draw the figure of the Abyssal dragon on his chest and ate its heart when he was done.
The new tattoo seemed to become alive as its temperature rose but Noah had already closed his eyes, his complete focus was on the huge half-transparent figure of the dragon inside his sea of consciousness.
Noah was a bit surprised by its frame.
'It's at least three times bigger than my previous companions, I guess I can't compare the wills of rank 3 creatures with rank 4 ones.'
He concluded as he quickly acted to suppress the beast.
The three Kesier runes hummed and the connection created between Noah and the dragon thanks to the Elemental forging method further restrained its movements.
Two ethereal sabers appeared in his hands, Noah directly flew toward the restrained beast to suppress it.
The battle was long, the dragon didn't have a chance to win inside Noah's sea of consciousness but it still fought with all it had, its pride as a rank 4 beast wasn't something to underestimate.
Yet, its figure eventually crumbled, falling on the sea below it and reappearing near the center of the sphere.
The rank 4 dragon had been successfully tamed!