2220 2220. Nature

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"What's the meaning of this?!" King Elbas shouted, but an orange halo suddenly filled his communication device and cut him out from the outside world.

A few other leaders tried to complain, but their communication devices also stopped working. Those items could only receive messages now.

Noah was among those who had remained silent. Destructive thoughts had filled his mind as soon as the orange inscriptions blocked his path. He was ready to go all-out and destroy that barrier to enter the battlefield as quickly as possible.

The quick inspection told Noah that the old rulers had been thorough. The barrier partially countered his power, and his destructive thoughts stated that it would take him at least three attacks to pierce them. He could lower that number to two if he relied on his potential, but that would still give orange avatars enough time to cause a mess on the battlefield.

The Demonic Sword and the Cursed Sword materialized in Noah's hands, but he remained still. His aura intensified as black lines appeared everywhere in the training hall. He had to preserve his power, so he planned to accumulate as much destruction as possible before triggering everything with a single attack.

As much as Noah hated the situation, he didn't forget the main goal. He had to defeat Heaven and Earth, and the effort would probably force him to go far beyond his limits. That prediction only worsened if he added the old rulers to his opponents, so he had to save energy, even if that led to the death of his underlings.

"Do not waste your power," The old rulers' voice resounded throughout the landmass. "The barriers will go down in no time."

An orange glow flashed in the corner of Noah's vision. He suddenly noticed that the lines acting as communication devices had started to work again. Still, the other leaders didn't speak, which told him that he was the only one with functioning inscriptions.

"What are you doing?" Noah growled.

"It took us some real work to plant those traps inside the array of inscriptions without alerting all of you," The old rulers commented. "We are a being with immense knowledge and experience, but you have come so close to us in only a fraction of our life. You deserve all-out praises."

"I don't want praises," Noah scoffed. "I want to know what you are up to."

The old rulers went silent as a new orange teleport opened in the middle of the battlefield. The various avatars shot toward that structure and fused with it. Then, the light condensed to create a giant orange puppet that radiated peak solid stage power.

"Why are you bringing your true body to the battlefield?" Noah continued. "That's not the plan."

"We wanted to thank you," The old rulers stated as their body stabilized. "We didn't think we could have retrieved such levels of individuality. It's a pity we found this different path so late in our cultivation journey."

<br/>"Don't you dare," Noah cursed when he understood what the old rulers wanted to do. "I thought you shared my ambition."

"We do," The old rulers sighed as their power unfolded throughout the battlefield before condensing back into their figure. "We have reached the peak, developed a new character, and done our best to defeat our counterparts. However, we can't escape our flaws."

"I can fix those," Noah pointed out.

"Maybe," The old rulers admitted, "But that would turn us into something different, something unaware of the struggles of our journey, something that doesn't know what the world had to suffer because of us."

Noah's destruction continued to spread, but he slowly retracted it. He couldn't go against the wishes of his companions. It was too late for that anyway.

"You have never trusted us fully," The old rulers stated.

"Do you blame me?" Noah wondered.

"No," The old rulers laughed. "Actually, we think it speaks for your character. We would have directly destroyed us if we were in your position."

"You think like Heaven and Earth," Noah mocked.

"We do," The old rulers continued to laugh. "No matter what we do, we'll always remain Heaven and Earth. We are just a different version."

The old rulers went silent, and Noah also shut up. The former and the various leaders focused on the sky as they sensed massive waves of energy converging toward the ten pairs of hands.

"Heaven and Earth won't play nice," The old rulers eventually revealed. "They can force all of you to waste your energy without depleting their reserves of power. The final battle would end right away if that happens."

"We have the landmass for that," Noah declared.

"We have run countless simulations," The old rulers explained. "Even if the landmass ends up going far above our expectations, it won't be enough to stop Heaven and Earth. They will find a way to weaken you all before the arrival of their main force."

"That's why we have you to come up with a solution," Noah stated.

"We have come up with a solution," The old rulers announced.

"I don't like it," Noah commented.

"You did well not trusting us then," The old rulers joked.

Noah remained silent as the hands became ready to launch their attack. He knew that most of the battlefield and a large chunk of the landmass' defenses would crumble once the quasi-rank 10 white light fell. It would take the efforts of all the leaders to stop that offensive.

"I trust you now," Noah sighed.

"Better late than ever," The old rulers laughed. "So, what are your orders?"

Noah fell silent again, but resolve eventually took over his face. He had to say those words. He had to respect the old rulers' wish.

"Go and give us a chance to win," Noah ordered.

"It would be our pleasure, Defying Demon," The old rulers exclaimed before their auras exploded outward.

The orange halo that accompanied that event transformed into dense rays of light that shot toward the various giant hands and crashed at the center of their palms. That radiance then spread until it enveloped the entirety of those limbs.

Heaven and Earth didn't seem to care about the event. The hands released the massive energy accumulated in their fabric, but the orange barriers prevented it from reaching the battlefield. The attack ended up backfiring and exploding inside the giant limbs.

An angry roar came out of the sky as the hands crumbled under the power of their own energy. The attack also hurt the white layer behind them, and Heaven and Earth couldn't ignore that matter.

A series of wide spots on the sky lit up and focused their radiance on the old rulers' figure. They didn't carry any destructive power, but their light seemed able to dig deep into the orange fabric to destabilize its structure.

The old rulers had prepared for a direct battle against Heaven and Earth, but the opposite had also happened. Those two existences knew far too much about each other, so they could counter themselves almost freely.

"It's time," The old rulers exclaimed as pieces of their body turned into dust that began to flow through the white light. "We excepted you to absorb us. This dumb greed is in your nature, well, our nature."