System vs Rebirth

Scree!

The spider let out a loud screeching sound. Noel hurriedly put up the Spiritual Barrier Rune in front of them.

As expected, he felt the impact of the shock wave. He knew that the spider would release a bit of its spiritual energy in this way.

"Noel…" Anna was still shocked by Noel's power. She couldn't believe that Noel instantly surpassed her during this exchange.

At the same time, she slightly understood the concept of the new power that might lead to Spirit Transcendence.

Noel's expression turned grim because the spider was gathering the energy in its mouth again, making him think that he would be using the same attack as the first one.

Noel hurriedly prepared for the incoming attack, only to find the spider suddenly lifting its body up and shooting out the web from its spinneret.

"Kh." Noel gritted his teeth. He was so focused on the spider's most powerful attack that he would end up falling for the spider's trick.

When the spider shot its web, Noel didn't have a lot of time to prepare.

He thought about cutting the web, but he didn't know the reaction it would bring to the web. At the same time, utilizing his ice element would be a rather bad move since the web easily melted it and passed through it.

However, there was one thing that he could try after gaining the new power.

Instead of an ice mirror that was normally used for defense, Noel actually summoned an Ice Lotus above his head.

This huge ice lotus sent forth its petals.

Because this was an ice element technique, he couldn't do it the same way as Sword Transmutation.

However, there was something that could help him trigger a burst of energy from the petals. It was the Everchanging Emotion Sword Style.

That was right. Noel incorporated his emotions into each petal. He had to use different emotions in those five petals to create the disturbance. Hence, he chose Joy, Guilt, Distress, Surprise, and Fear.

He then let all these petals collide right before the web hit them.

Joy produced a blunt force that was used to protect. Surprise boosted the defensive power. Distress and Guilt created two opposite powers, as they represented desperation and hesitation.

Those two emotions were the ones causing the energy flow to change abruptly, hesitating to mix with them while desperately trying to enter.

And the one that acted as the catalyst was Fear emotion, which boosted the speed.

As a result, the process sped up, causing a burst of torrential energy that mixed with the ice petals.

When the web hit them, it was the same as pushing another variable into the system, which caused the ice petals to explode.

The explosion caused the ice to spread in the air, freezing the web in an instant. Even the corrosive power of that web wasn't enough if they were covered in thick ice in just a split second.

As if knowing what was going to happen, the Superior Demons and Peak Level Demons suddenly emerged from the woods to their right. The Ancient Demon Spider had expected Noel to block that attack, so it was just acting as bait.

Roar!

Roar!

Roar!

The beasts were approaching at a fast speed.

Anna turned around while holding her blade, ready to engage them. This way, Noel could focus on the spider.

However, Noel suddenly leaped toward these demons while saying, "Conserve your energy. And… sorry."

Anna was baffled. There was nothing to apologize for, so why would he do it?

Noel showed the reason in his next attack.

He gathered his spiritual energy from his sheathed sword.

Normally, the Sword Transmutation would create a powerful and thick strike. But Noel could finally change the Sword Transmutation's approach with this new method.

Since he'd got the power to back up the Sword Transmutation, all he needed to do was speed. And he based this attack on Anna's sword draw. It could be said that he stole it to perfect this technique.

Noel took a deep breath and clenched the sword handle as hard as possible.

When the demons were about to reach him, he unleashed everything in one go.

Roar!

Two Superior Demons noticed the attack and leaped into the air to avoid it. However, all Peak Level Demons and one Superior Demon acted one step too late.

Noel made a quick draw, unleashing the Sword Transmutation horizontally.

It created a crescent-shaped sword strike that flew for a good distance. But this time, the crescent shape became more elongated and disappeared right after a split-second spark of light.

But in that split second, the Sword Transmutation fused with Fear emotion and his ice element.

Ro—!

The demons wanted to let out a roar, but they abruptly stopped.

All Peak Level Demons were split in half along with all the trees and boulders within 50 meters in front of him.

The Superior Demon that failed to dodge managed to block it, but both of its arms were gone and there was a deep wound on its chest. It was so injured that one more attack should be enough to kill it.

Anna couldn't believe that it was so easy to kill a Superior Demon. They usually needed twenty or thirty percent of their total spiritual energy to kill them. But Noel didn't even use half of the usual amount.

Still, these demons were yet another distraction. After that attack, the demons suddenly leaped away, bringing their injured friend away before Noel could kill it.

"!!!" Noel widened his eyes as he noticed a powerful fluctuation from the spider. His gaze immediately shifted back to the spider.

It turned out the spider wasn't faking the attack from its mouth with the web. It had been gathering the energy in its mouth the whole time.

Now that the spider had bought enough time to gather the necessary amount, it was time to shoot it.

"This is it for me," said Noel while raising his sword. It was a signal to Anna, implying that he would be empty after this attack.

Anna was perplexed, considering Noel only used ten percent of his power inside the airport, twenty percent to block the spider's first attack, and another twenty percent for the last two slashes and ice lotus. He should have half of his total power yet.

However, what she didn't know was that Noel planned to use the remaining energy for this one attack to create an opportunity for them to escape.

Noel chose Divine Slash as his last attack.

Just like the spider, this slash contained an enormous amount of energy.

Noel took a deep breath, looking at the spider's mouth.

Scree!

The spider spewed the same ray of light that was used to corrode everything in its path until there was nothing left.

On the other hand, Noel swung his sword downward.

Divine Slash!

The ray of light produced a green color while the Divine Slash ran through the ground and expanded, releasing a burst of blue light that reflected the ice element in the air.

When the two collided for the first time, the sky turned into two colors as if it were being split.

The Divine Slash mixed with the ice element tried to freeze the light itself, while the latter was corroding the ice and shattering it into pieces the next instant.

The spiritual energy from both attacks clashed, producing an earth-shattering shock wave that obliterated anything around the area.

However, the conclusion was reached soon.

After all, this was not Sword Transmutation but Divine Slash.

The Divine Slash actually left behind a sword trail on the ground that reached ten meters deep underground.

The ray of light ended up getting split into two, the residual light was still flowing but not in Noel and Anna's direction, reducing everything in its way to nothing.

"!!!" The spider looked shocked when the Divine Slash managed to slash its ray apart. The Sword Strike continued on its path toward the spider.

The spider knew that if an attack of that caliber were to hit him, it would definitely pierce through its skin and cut deep into its body. Once the Divine Slash hit his head, it had the chance of killing him.

At the same time, it just released too much energy in that attack, so it didn't have enough energy to jump into the air.

The only thing that the spider could do was drag its body to the side.

When the Divine Slash slashed through the spider's poison ray, it continued moving forward, albeit missing the spider's head due to the spider's exceptional prediction.

The Divine Slash ended up hitting the spider's leg. The ice element froze it for a split second and weakened the tough skin before the residual energy from the Divine Slash cut down the entire leg.

Scree!

The spider wailed in pain, but surprisingly, the attack didn't end yet. The Divine Slash still had enough energy to reach the second leg behind.

Once again, the ice froze the leg and the Divine Slash cut it down.

The spider didn't expect that it would suffer so many injuries when fighting against two Spirit Grandmasters.

The Divine Slash's size had been reduced significantly. Even when it hit the third leg, it only managed to cut the leg slightly before exhausting all its energy.

Anna sucked a cold breath. Noel actually managed to injure two of its legs and cut down another two when she struggled just to hurt one. This was the strength of the Spirit Transcendence.

However, she didn't have time to think.

After that attack, Noel collapsed to his knees and spat a mouthful of blood.

"Gueeh!" Noel placed his hand on his chest. He exerted a power that surpassed what a Spirit Grandmaster could utilize, so it caused heavy injury internally. In addition, he didn't have any more power left as his True Spirit Body was undone. Due to the side effects of the True Spirit Body, his injury became even more severe.

The spiders were still focusing on its injury, but the Superior Demons tried to use this chance to kill Noel, treating him as the highest threat as he was able to injure the Ancient Demon to that degree.

The two Superior Demons rushed toward him and the Grass Demon even summoned all the grass to create a prison for both him and Anna.

'This is not the time to be surprised. Noel's aim wasn't the spider, but its legs. With that injury, it shouldn't be able to follow us. This is our only chance to escape.'

Anna realized why Noel told her to conserve her energy. She hurriedly grabbed Noel from behind and carried him on her back.

She enveloped their bodies in lightning, using her fastest speed to escape from here.