Chapter 2025 2025. Escape
The three prisms were rank 9 items in the upper tier, and Noah's group inevitably desired them. Yet, they had a platoon made of fifteen crackling avatars to overcome, and one of them was in the upper tier. Moreover, the experts couldn't forget their location. They were right in the middle of the sky.
'Can you deal with the powerful avatars?' Sepunia asked through her mental waves.
Sepunia had inspected Noah and King Elbas from the sky, and she had traveled with them in the last period. She had a deep knowledge of their power and potential, but their opponent remained an upper tier avatar. She couldn't know whether her companions had already managed to step on that realm.
Noah and King Elbas exchanged a long glance. They knew what was happening in their friend's mind. In theory, both of them had yet to touch the upper tier in terms of power, but they would be against an opponent that they knew far too well if they decided to steal the prisms. They had a chance to win as long as they worked together and took their enemies by surprise.
Noah and King Elbas didn't need to think much about the issue. They could understand each other with a mere glance after spending millennia together. Their mindsets were also similar, so they could accept that the sky wouldn't give them another valuable chance.
The experts didn't believe that they could keep their presence hidden for much longer. Heaven and Earth were in a dormant state, but the group had stolen many prisms already. The latter could probably change direction and try to find weaker empty areas to rob, but the mission would lose its purpose at that point.
Instead, they could score an incredible loot if they seized the three upper tier prisms and left the sky safely. The three items probably were the best that their current power would allow them to take, and they even sounded like a fitting last price for their mission. It was impossible to remain hidden, so the group decided to expose themselves with a blast.
'We'll have only one shot at this,' Noah explained through his consciousness. 'Unleash everything you have after the prisms disappear. Elbas and I will handle the stronger avatars.'
That simple order started a series of preparations. The group went under the empty area and dug a tunnel that led directly above the stormy regions. Stronger opponents would still be able to catch up with them, but they would have a clear escape path at least.
Once those preparations ended, King Elbas spent some time studying the insides of the empty area to find a rhythm in the avatars' lightning bolts. Those puppets attacked the prisms whenever the surfaces ordered that, and he couldn't let his group ending in the enemy offensive before they could reach the items.
King had to understand what the prisms needed to predict when the next lightning bolts would arrive, and that was impossible. However, he had a chance to succeed if he limited his study to the upper tier avatar. His whole being focused on inspecting the orders that involved that powerful creature until he uncovered a reliable rhythm.
'On my signal,' King Elbas ordered as Noah waited next to him, and the other two companions remained close behind.
The time to hold back was over. Heaven and Earth would discover them as soon as they threw themselves into the empty area, but everyone was ready, especially Noah. His target filled his vision, and no distraction managed to disturb his concentration. He let only a small part of his mind focus on King Elbas' raised arm as he waited for the signal to arrive.
King Elbas suddenly pointed forward, and Noah shot ahead. The thin layer of whiteness that divided the group from the empty area shattered as the fiendish armor touched that material. The avatars immediately noticed his presence and prepared themselves to alert the entirety of the sky, but darkness promptly enveloped their figures and suppressed their crackling noises.
Lightning bolts pierced the dark world. Some of them shattered entire chunks of the technique, and one even slammed on Noah. The attack came from a middle tier avatar, but those sparks didn't manage to hurt him.
The dark world and Noah's fiendish armor had used the dark metal, which naturally weakened Heaven and Earth's power. The avatars were almost perfect representations of the rulers' raw energy, so they suffered due to the substance contained in Noah's techniques. The pulling force generated by Shafu and Duanlong was enough to shatter the attack and absorb its energy after it crashed on his figure.
King Elbas' signal allowed Noah to take the upper tier avatar by surprise. The puppet had just released an attack, so it couldn't send anything after the expert. Noah could reach the three prisms in no time, and they disappeared as soon as he got close to them.
The sky inevitably sensed the event. The experts could remain hidden while they limited themselves to digging tunnels and seizing prisms that could fail to become complete cores on their own. However, their influence was impossible to miss after Noah filled the empty area with the dark world.
The white material around the empty area started to tremble as its glow brightened. The light tried to pierce the dark world, but the properties of the dark metal prevented it from affecting the technique.
The avatars could affect the dark world since they expressed Heaven and Earth's power differently. They carried destructive abilities that the mere light radiated by the sky lacked. The middle and upper tier puppets could even destroy entire chunks of the technique with simple lightning bolts, but the experts landed on them before they could cause too many problems.
Noah and King Elbas found themselves in the same spot of the dark world. The upper tier avatar was in front of them, with its arms raised toward the center of the empty area. The dark world prevented it from sensing its opponents, but it had every intention to destroy everything in its range.
King Elbas took out one of his best creations that relied on the dark metal. A spear that radiated a golden light tainted by black shades appeared in his hands and absorbed the dark matter in its surroundings to intensity its effects.
Noah frowned when he saw that King Elbas was taking his dark matter without his permission, but he didn't have time to focus on the issue. He pointed his swords forward and made their tips meet as he accumulated energy in their structures. His unstable substance and ambition empowered the attack as much as possible before a sharp wave of power flew forward.
King Elbas launched his spear after letting the sharp wave of power fly for a while. Noah's attack crashed on the avatar, and King Elbas' weapon followed, creating two explosions that fused I before releasing their shockwaves in the rest of the empty area.
"When did you learn to steal my higher energy?" Noah asked as he shot toward the tunnel.
"I was borrowing it!" King Elbas complained while following him.
"You have become a shameless thief," Noah sighed.
"Shut up and focus on running away!" King Elbas scoffed.
Sepunia and the dragon had relied on the dark world to suppress the other avatars, but they had shot after their companions after everything was over. The group had seized the prisms. They had no reason to remain in the sky anymore.
Nevertheless, three figures materialized inside the white areas around the tunnel as the group tried to escape the sky. Noah could only curse in his mind when he sensed that all of them were in the liquid stage.