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The disorientation of spatial displacement lasted only a moment.
Noah steadied himself and looked around.
The Principality of Veronica was as eerily silent as before, but the sky above it was no longer its familiar blue. It had become an endlessly churning expanse of crimson mist.
The thick, blood-like fog carried a nauseating smell of rust and deep decay, poisoning even the air itself. Noah could feel it with every breath: a dense, invasive negative energy pressing into him. For anyone with an unstable mind, a single breath of the Black Abyss's air would likely be enough to drive them mad.
This was the demons' stronghold. The Black Abyss.
Like the Celestial Spirit World, it was a self-contained realm, separate and independent from Earth Land. But where the Celestial Spirit World was a place of breathtaking beauty, the Black Abyss was a pit overflowing with negative energy. The difference between them was the difference between heaven and hell.
Through his perception, Noah could feel this world teeming with the auras of powerful demons. Their malice burned like lighthouses in the dark. And among them, two auras stood apart from the rest, bottomless and blinding, like abysses that could not be looked at directly. Both were locked firmly onto him.
Noah let out a low, contemptuous laugh. There was no fear on his face, only a sharp, bloodthirsty smile. "You actually invited me into your own home. Are you really that eager to die?"
"The one who dies will be you, Noah!"
A roar saturated with malice and madness tore through the air ahead.
The crimson mist surged and parted, and three demons of immense, suffocating pressure tore through it, revealing themselves.
It was Soul Scale, the Thunder Demon, and the Wind Demon, the three who had previously detonated their own clones and used a pre-arranged demon magic array to drag the entire Principality of Veronica into the Black Abyss.
Forcibly pulling Noah and that land into this realm had cost them dearly, even beyond the loss of their clones. But inside the Black Abyss, the endless supply of negative energy could repair a demon's wounds with ease.
Soul Scale stared at Noah with deep, festering hatred, and beneath it, buried so far down that even he had not noticed it, a flicker of fear.
"Here, our power is endlessly replenished," he snarled. "While you will only be eroded and weakened by the Black Abyss's aura, little by little, until there is nothing left of you. We will scrape your flesh clean, piece by piece!"
As if trying to reclaim his pride, Soul Scale pressed forward with a flood of threats. Countless twisted vengeful spirits poured from his body, coalescing into a roaring river of undead that surged toward Noah. Among them were the souls of Veronica's citizens, the very people he had used as sacrifices.
The other two demons moved the moment Soul Scale did.
The Thunder Demon raised both arms and drew upon the violent thunder power running through the Black Abyss. Crimson lightning cascaded down like a waterfall. The Wind Demon released a sharp, piercing shriek and transformed into a black storm that devoured everything in its path. Space itself sizzled and cracked wherever it passed, the swirling vortex driving straight toward Noah.
The three demons in their true forms, working in concert, carried power that far surpassed their projected clones. The force they unleashed was enough to overturn an entire corner of the Black Abyss.
Faced with an assault that would have made even ancient gods step back, Noah simply scoffed. He tilted his head back, spread his arms wide, and let the world-ending attack swallow him whole.
A deafening explosion rocked the Black Abyss.
When the dust settled, the Principality of Veronica, already stripped of all life, had been razed completely to the ground.
"Hmph. To underestimate us so thoroughly. He's dead now. Not even dust remains, right?"
Soul Scale's triumph lasted less than two seconds.
The Wind Demon's arm shot out, pointing toward the center of the ruins. His voice broke with disbelief. "That's impossible. He's still standing!"
Above the rubble of the Principality of Veronica stood a lone figure. It was Noah, completely unguarded, having just taken the full force of all three demons' attacks head-on. The only thing destroyed was his clothing.
The Thunder Demon swallowed hard. Three of them had struck with everything they had, and all they had managed was to shred a human's clothes. That kind of body was simply monstrous.
"So this is the power of the Eighteen Demon War Gods."
"How ridiculous."
Noah slowly lowered his head. In the same breath, his Magnetic Field Power materialized a fresh set of clothes, identical to the ones that had been destroyed, onto his body.
A mocking smile played at his lips as he took a step forward, murmuring almost to himself. "Ever since I mastered Magnetic Field Power, I have always held myself back. Afraid that I might accidentally shatter my own fragile world with too much force."
"My power has grown beyond what it once was, yet no one has ever been worthy of making me go all out. Do you have any idea how hard it has been to keep myself in check?"
"Now I can finally let loose. So make sure you give me a good time."
"Magnetic Field... Rotation!"
The rotating Magnetic Field Power sent tremors running through the entire ruin of Veronica.
The three demons, shaken but unwilling to concede, launched another combined assault.
This time, however, Noah was not interested in standing still as a target.
A force field, built from the fusion of Magic Power and Magnetic Field Power, expanded outward from Noah to its absolute limit, repelling Soul Scale's river of undead in an instant. The vengeful spirits crashed against it as though striking a wall of iron, letting out shrill, fractured screams before scattering apart.
Watching Soul Scale's strongest attack neutralized so effortlessly, the Wind Demon and Thunder Demon immediately moved to combine their power. The crimson lightning storm swelled rapidly and came crashing down toward Noah.
Noah was unhurried. With a flick of his wrist, the Magnetic Field Heaven Blade, crackling with wild lightning, struck first, cutting straight into the heart of the crimson lightning storm with a clean, sweeping slash.
Magnetic Field Rotation! Three hundred thousand units of power!
Demonic Martial Arts: Thunder Heaven Blade!
The explosion that followed shook the Black Abyss to its core.
Lightning and wind clashed in a violent, screaming collision. But the Heaven Blade, driven by Noah's Magnetic Field Power, was stronger, sharper, and far more lethal. The crimson storm disintegrated in a single strike, and the blade force, fully unspent, drove straight toward the Wind Demon and Thunder Demon.
The sudden threat of death jolted the Thunder Demon into action. He grabbed the Wind Demon, who was still reeling, and shoved him forward as a shield.
"Argh!"
The Wind Demon screamed as his instinctive defensive storm was ripped apart. He was sent tumbling backward through the air, his aura cut to less than half in an instant.
In nearly the same moment, Noah's figure appeared before the Thunder Demon like a ghost.
"That defensive move of yours was fairly clever," Noah said calmly. "Can you do it again?"
The Thunder Demon's blood ran cold. There was only one foolish Wind Demon. Where would he find another brother willing to be sacrificed? He poured everything into his Magic Power and tried to retreat.
But Noah's fist was faster.
Magnetic Field Rotation! Three hundred thousand units of power!
Demonic Martial Arts: Storm Kill Punch!
There was no earth-shattering impact. Only a faint, wet sound. The Thunder Demon's head simply ceased to exist. Every desperate defense he had erected crumbled like paper before that single punch.
It had all happened in the span of two or three breaths. From the combined assault of the Wind Demon and Thunder Demon, to the Wind Demon being gravely wounded and the Thunder Demon being killed outright.
Soul Scale, who had only just steadied himself, stared in absolute horror. Every last trace of his will to fight drained away. He turned and began to dissolve into the blood-colored mist of the Black Abyss, reaching for escape.
Then a quiet voice reached his ear, as calm and final as a sentence passed by death itself.
"You came all this way. Why leaving."