2196. Injuries
The effects of June's attack echoed past the gory structure that had trapped her team. Noah and Divine Demon could hear her energy crackle and create soundwaves that expanded throughout the empty area in the middle of the sky.
Noah knew June's power really well. He was probably aware of her limits better than her. A quick inspection of the soundwaves told him that June had gone all-out with the last attack. Her body had to be on the verge of collapsing right now.
The urge to jump forward and sever the gory structure in half was strong inside Noah, but he didn't move. Divine Demon summoned his blood-red energy to protect himself from the incoming soundwave, but Noah remained still.
Divine Demon glanced at Noah before retracting the blood-red energy flowing toward him. He understood from Noah's expression that he wanted to experience that event, and he wouldn't dare to go against his wishes.
The soundwave made Noah's insides shake when it hit him. Some blood accumulated in his mouth, but he gulped it. His eyes turned red due to the damage they suffered, but he kept them open. If June were to die, the least he could do was witness the event.
Noah's healing properties were monstrous, and the soundwaves were only part of the aftermath. The injuries that he suffered vanished in a matter of seconds, and his eyes remained open during the whole process.
Noah waited for something to change inside the gory structure. A faint aura would be enough to make him unleash the entirety of his power, but everything remained silent. The wait became suffocating, but he continued to stay still.
Inside the gory structure, June, Steven, Maribel, and the odd dragon were doing their best to stabilize their senses. They had suffered injuries, but June's condition was far worse than her companions.
Entire chunks of skin fell from June's body and shattered in sparks that dispersed in the air. She had become a bloody mess, but her face showed satisfaction. She actually wanted to fight more, but she needed an opponent for that.
The center of the gory prison had a lump of dark smoke that seemed to have no intention to disperse. That gas carried June's aura, so it preferred to continue to assault its target instead of vanishing among the sky.
Steven was the first to stabilize his consciousness and send mental waves forward. A ringing noise filled his ears, but that didn't hinder his inspection. The smoke tried to stop him, but he condensed his thoughts to
Steven's eyes widened in worry before his expression transformed into a frown. He could sense that June had failed to destroy the old woman's world, but what remained of it was nothing more than scattered laws and energy.
It was hard to understand whether the expert was alive or dead. The cultivators in the solid stage were highly peculiar, and those who had lived with Heaven and Earth for countless years also had access to an incredible number of methods.
Steven studied and studied until a conclusion became undeniable. Part of the old woman's world had survived the attack, but that energy didn't move. June had probably killed her for good.
Maribel eventually stabilized her condition and left the gory walls to reach the odd dragon. She helped the creature get out of that disgusting structure, but the latter remained confused even as she carried it toward June.
June didn't try to leave the wall, but the skin on her back shattered and allowed her to fall. She felt exhausted, but her desire to fight generated tendrils of energy that ran through her maimed body and made her float.
Maribel and the odd dragon didn't say anything when they reached June. Maribel was worried for her, but not due to typical reasons. June would have no problem recovering from that condition, but the situation would change if the old woman turned out to be alive.
"We should try to get out of here," Maribel eventually suggested.
"Is she dead?" June asked, disregarding that suggestion.
"I think Steven is looking into it," Maribel revealed.
"Let's reach Steven then," June ordered.
Steven's body was far from okay, but the injury didn't stretch to his world. Only half of his torso, an arm, and head had survived the battle, but he could easily regrow the rest. Still, his inspection was preventing him from thinking about the issue.
"She should be dead," Steven announced when June, Maribel, and the dragon reached him. "Something about her survived, but that shouldn't be enough to start a reconstruction."
"We should destroy what remains now," June exclaimed as thick sparks began to run inside her body.
"Would you enjoy launching attacks on a corpse?" Steven questioned when he noticed June's poor state.
June didn't want to answer, but her world spoke for her. The sparks inside her body lost power as they focused on fixing the various injuries.
"I'll handle it," Steven declared as a dark patch of energy expanded behind him and separated him from the gory wall. "It's only fitting for me to deliver the final blow."
"You are lucky she can't defend herself," June snorted before falling silent and focusing on the lump of smoke in the distance.
Steven took a deep breath, and dark energy came out of his injuries. The fuel condensed until flesh took form. In a few seconds, the expert's figure returned whole.
A series of ethereal dark spheres appeared on Steven's palms and began to expand. He stepped forward, and his figure instantly materialized above the smoke.
His movement made part of the smoke reveal the maimed world in its insides. Steven pointed both hands at that energy, but everything began to tremble before he could unleash the attack.
The gory structure shook and released waves of blood that matched the tremors' rhythm. Steven promptly transformed his spheres into a defensive barrier meant to weaken the incoming attack, but the impact left him confused.
The blood fell on the barrier, but nothing happened. No clash of energy and techniques unfolded. That pale-red liquid simply slid over the defensive ability before descending toward the bottom of the structure.
June and the others experienced something similar. Maribel and the dragon had prepared defenses, but the blood didn't try to pierce them. That liquid seemed to have lost its threatening power.
The gory structure slowly began to fall apart. The organ shrunk as large chunks of its fabric separated from the main body and shattered into puddles of blood. The prison was crumbling, which confirmed Steven's guess.
June, Maribel, the dragon, and Steven couldn't help but smile in satisfaction as the structure crumbled all around them. They had done it. They had killed a privileged cultivator in the solid stage. Heaven and Earth had lost one of their best assets.
Nevertheless, white pillars shot from the sky in the distance a flew inside the holes on the structure. Noah almost intervened, but he remained still when he saw that the attacks didn't aim for any of his companions.
Steven retreated when the pillars converged on the lump of smoke before him.. The light radiated by those attacks instantly destroyed the gas and enveloped what remained of the old woman's world.