2159 2159. Struggle
The scene didn't surprise those who knew how powerful Heaven and Earth were. The rulers had already filled the higher plane with their sky. Everything under the white layer was within their reach.
That was precisely what Emperor, Cursed Reality, and Queen had warned Noah about. Heaven and Earth were on the hunt, and Noah's army was a valuable target that deserved a real effort.
A rain of white shards fell from the avatar's edges as it left the sky and stretched its massive arms toward the army. Lightning bolts shot out of its fingers, and crackling spheres began to accumulate on its palms.
June stepped forward and expanded her influence to attract the incoming lightning bolts. Her figure retreated as the attacks began to crash on her body, but the excitement on her face never wavered.
Noah knew that June was suffering injuries. The avatar's attacks weren't simple lightning bolts generated by a Tribulation. They were blows that carried the power of the solid stage. June could absorb part of their power to temper her body only due to the peculiarities of her world.
The process obviously couldn't last forever, no matter how much June desired that. The army had to find a solution to the situation, and Noah instinctively glanced at Pellio while the dark matter around him continued to look for the old rulers' voice.
"I can't dream about our next move," Pellio declared when he sensed Noah's gaze on his figure, "But I've seen us making out alive. Sadly, that doesn't apply to all of us."
"It's always the same with you," Emperor snorted. "You claim to see everything, but you can't explain the simplest things."
"My beloved, maybe it's better if you charge me beforehand," Queen whispered, and the couple exchanged a long kiss.
Noah initially didn't understand what was happening, but clues eventually appeared. Emperor and Queen's worlds created a firm connection that hid its insides. Still, the fabric of space around them began to twist, which revealed the tremendous amount of energy moving during the kiss.
'Is he giving energy directly to her world?' Noah wondered, but the battlefield soon reclaimed most of his attention.
Some lightning bolts began to escape June's influence. She unfolded her aura to force them to converge toward her figure, but Heaven and Earth seemed to have found a way to counter her ability.
More and more lightning bolts started to go back into their initial trajectory and fly toward the army. None of them actually crashed on the experts since Vesuvia intervened, but Heaven and Earth had prepared counters to that power too.
Vesuvia had created an invisible shield that went beyond simple protections and defensive arrays. Her aura had seeped into the very fabric of the world, which made the immediate surroundings of the army impossible to reach.
The straight path didn't exist in the lightning bolts' future anymore, so they changed direction and avoided the army. However, some of them began to detonate right above the invisible shield, and that slowly pushed that defense back.<br/><script>ChapterMid();</script>
June moved closer to the army in an attempt to exploit Vesuvia's ability to her needs, but the explosions only worsened her injuries. She managed to apply her influence on more lightning bolts in her new position, but she wouldn't last long there.
Night shot forward and began to cut the lightning bolts before they could explode. June gained some room to breathe, but the assault remained too powerful for her. Her injuries were expanding too quickly, and Heaven and Earth's energy even started to seep into her world.
Snore unleashed its feathers at that point. A series of explosions unfolded and gave birth to a storm of destructive energy. Blackness took control of the area between the army and the giant avatar, but a hand promptly pierced it to refill everything with whiteness.
The effects of Snore's strongest attack vanished in a matter of seconds. Nothing could stop the avatar's advance, and its massive arms soon pointed at the army again.
June showed a wide smile when she saw lightning bolts coming in her direction, but everything suddenly disappeared. Snore's black gales replaced the avatar, and the latter returned next to the weak sky.
"I think Heaven and Earth are underestimating us a bit too much," Vesuvia chuckled.
"Can you bring the lightning bolts back?" June complained.
"Your lover sure is reckless," Emperor shouted while leaving Vesuvia's barrier and occupying a spot in front of June.
The scenes from before played out exactly in the same way. The avatar pierced the black currents with its hands and dispersed them as soon as its immense body arrived. It even pointed its arms at the army, and lightning bolts shot forward again.
June wanted to fly past Emperor, but her survival instincts told her that something was off. The whole area past the expert was a dead zone that she shouldn't approach no matter what.
The break in the absorption of lightning bolts forced June to step back and return to Noah's side. Her body was a mess of holes and burns, but she didn't move her eyes from Emperor, and most of the army did the same.
Noah had seen and launched powerful attacks throughout his life, but what happened after Emperor raised his hand surpassed even some of Heaven and Earth's greatest shows of power.
The area between Emperor and the avatar was a mess of cracked space, lingering destructive dark matter, and lightning bolts, but all of that disappeared. A mass of blue energy vaster than the battlefield filled the area in front of the expert and pushed everything back.
Only the avatar survived the massive discharge of energy. Everything else vanished under the sheer power that Emperor had unleashed. Even the battlefield transformed into a mere gorge connected to the void.
Noah could understand that solid stage cultivators had access to powers that went beyond his comprehension. That was only natural. However, the sheer amount of energy unleashed by Emperor surpassed even his wildest predictions.
Moreover, Emperor didn't appear tired after the attack. He had barely even focused on launching it. He acted as if that discharge of energy was nothing more than a casual blow thrown because he felt like it.
The avatar slammed on the weak sky, but the lack of damage on its surface became impossible to miss after the shards generated during the impact fell. It was still in one piece and at its full power after enduring such a powerful blow.
"I can launch hundreds of these," Emperor explained, "But Heaven and Earth will eventually find a way to counter them. Do you have any plan, Defying Demon?"
Noah had yet to join the battlefield. Snore had used its best attack, and Duanlong was in the same situation, but he could launch far more. Yet, he believed that nothing in his arsenal could destroy the avatar unless someone bought enough time to infect it with his destruction.
Two figures appeared next to the army before Noah could come up with a plan. Familiar auras expanded on the battlefield and reached Noah's consciousness. He recognized the time dragon and the space dragon right away, but a teleport activated before he could lay his eyes on them.
Noah instinctively expanded the dark world to cover the entirety of his army. He trusted the dragons, but he feared that Emperor and the others could oppose the technique. They could fight against the dark matter, but he decided to remain still since that energy came from Noah.
The environment changed before the avatar could stretch its arms forward. An orange glow also replaced the whiteness as tall buildings appeared around the army. Noah didn't need to inspect the area to know where he was. The dragons had brought him inside the orange city.
