Chapter 2102: Time
The life dragon had to interrupt its ability to focus on its darkening scales. The event felt off, especially due to the conflicting shades that followed it. The tree was white, the fruits grey, the strange liquid white again, but it created dark spots that even an upper tier creature was unable to block.
Noah experienced similar confusion. He had noticed that strange event, but his peculiar position at the center of the rectangular dark layer had kept him safe from the white liquid. Still, the effects of that substance claimed most of his attention, and his offensive slowed down due to his thorough inspection.
The dragons that had fallen prey to the white substance turned dark rather quickly. Their power fell as their scales became frail and started to break due to the pressure in the area.
Instead, the darkening process was slower on the life dragon. The leader"s body was strong enough to resist the infection, but it couldn"t block it completely. Its scales turned black and began to shatter, and no amount of energy seemed able to heal them.
Noah didn"t know what to do. He didn"t want to get involved with that threatening infection, but preserving the leaders was mandatory. It took him only an instant to decide to leave the tree"s center and reach the life dragon.
A scary spectacle unfolded in Noah"s mind after he teleported above the life dragon and began to inspect it with his consciousness. He could see the true nature of the white liquid from that position. The infection was part of the tree"s reproductive process. It was turning the leader into the perfect terrain where to plant seeds and give birth to clones.
The weaker dragons experienced the beginning of the reproductive process while Noah was busy studying the infection. White branches began to grow among the cracked scales, and a series of leaves also appeared as those magical plants continued to feed on the creatures.
A mere minute was enough to turn dragons in the middle tier into hovering ma.s.ses of broken scales that acted as a fertilized ground for the young trees. Clones of that threatening being grew while Noah remained busy finding a way to kill the infection. His mind worked at full speed, and a solution eventually appeared.
Noah voiced a deafening roar that carried no human meanings. Except for June, everyone on the scene understood what he wanted, but only one creature moved. The death dragon pierced the trunk and flew toward him while leaving behind its deadly aura.
"We need to combine our destruction to get rid of the infection," Noah stated.
"Won"t that kill her?" The death dragon growled.
"She is already dying," Noah explained through a roar. "This is beyond her level."
"Fine then!" The death dragon announced while condensing flames in its mouth.
"Stop there," The time dragon suddenly growled to interrupt the death dragon and Noah.
A strange aura enveloped the life dragon. Noah felt able to see the s.p.a.ce-time array, and he noticed how something was affecting it. Tremors ran through the faint lines hidden among the void. Some of them began to move around the leader, which saw its scales whitening.
The life dragon wasn"t healing. The time dragon was bringing its companion back by a few minutes. The time dragon couldn"t restore the energy already spent, but it could make the infection disappear.
Noah remained stunned in front of that scene. In theory, turning back the time was impossible, but the time dragon had pulled off something extremely similar. The leader didn"t create anything. It only removed things from the timeline.
After the infection vanished, the time dragon heaved a deep growl and interrupted the technique. Its face grew paler, declaring how hard that ability had been to execute.
Noah could understand how unnatural that event had been. His understanding of time wasn"t bad, but he couldn"t achieve something similar. He even felt that no cultivation journey could lead to that power unless the universe decided to help out.
The time dragon didn"t affect the universe. It only reverted the infection. The life dragon"s scales remained frail and broken, but the leader could now heal them properly. Only a few seconds had to pa.s.s before the creature returned to its previous intact state.
The process had left both leaders tired. The time dragon appeared exhausted, but it did its best to hide its state. Yet, Noah noticed everything, and a crazy idea inevitably appeared in his mind.
The ethereal blackness stopped sending potential to his companions and focused everything it had on the parasite. Noah sprinted forward, and the dark world expanded from his figure. A spherical ma.s.s of black crystals filled the void, but roots soon came out of its edges.
Screeching noises spread among the void as dark-purple and dark-red shades illuminated the blackness. The roots expanded and gave birth to flowers that generated a rain of seeds. It didn"t take long before an army of branches of the parasite filled the battlefield and shot after the white magical plants growing from the dead dragons.
The various branches revealed features that the parasite didn"t usually carry. Black lines ran inside and over them, and a faint dark-red glow covered them as they released their corrosive liquid.
Noah had used the short moments inside the dark world to modify the seeds. The potential from the ethereal blackness had given the parasite the chance to perform a temporary evolution and gain access to some of Noah"s iconic techniques.
The branches were feeding off Noah"s unstable substance, and they had even gained the Cursed Sword"s bloodl.u.s.t. Intense hunger also came out of their pointy roots, which only intensified their destructiveness.
Noah didn"t forget to add his anger to the parasite either. The branches shot through the void and reached every white root they found before fighting to devour each other. His companion won most fights, and more flowers appeared due to the energy absorbed by its opponents.
The improved branches began to multiply at high speed until all the white clones vanished from the void. Those corrosive a.s.sets decided to shoot toward the tree at that point, and the few surviving dragons decided to retreat after their instincts screamed in fear. Only June and the s.p.a.ce dragon remained near the magical plant.
The death dragon roared before shooting toward the tree, and the time dragon didn"t hesitate to approach that threatening opponent to support its companions. Even the life dragon eventually decided to get closer and restore some white connections. Everyone did their best to defeat the magical plant, but many didn"t enter its range out of fear of the grey fruits.
Noah ignored the possible threats and sprinted back inside the rectangular dark layer. The tree had started to absorb it, but his dark matter made sure to refill it with energy. His instincts screamed in fear due to the approaching branches, but he didn"t mind them and focused on the power inside the trunk.
The parasite"s branches were getting too strong for his mind. Noah needed to balance that pressure with nutrients, and he also had to gather enough energy for his drawbacks. He prepared himself to unleash Duanlong and his hunger, but the tree didn"t remain still in front of that incoming threat.
The white flowers transformed into fruits again, but the tree didn"t make them explode at that time. It let them grow and transform into chest-sized items before forcing all of them to unleash their power.
The fruits shrunk, releasing torrents of white liquid that shot upward and began to disperse in the void. However, the tree"s pulling forces made them fall back and created a proper rain in the middle of that blackness. Even the time dragon ended up infected by that attack.