2263 2263. Sides

Great Builder was going all-out against the Rulers' Resolve. Their battle was massive and captured vast areas of the battlefield in explosions and incredible attacks.

It was impossible to predict who would win, but Great Builder appeared on the losing end. He was hurting his opponent, but the effort depleted his energy quickly, and it was unclear how long he could keep that up.

Steven's situation was even worse. The landmass' attack had interrupted his offensive, but he was still relying on all the energy inside his world to match Decumia's power. Moreover, he couldn't inflict serious injuries even while going all-out.

Emperor, Vesuvia, Pellio, Queen, Cursed Reality, and Supreme Thief were fine. The landmass' storms couldn't hurt them, and their opponents weren't their match.

Some experts among Heaven and Earth's army could cause trouble for those leaders, but the battles became even only when the former relied on their numerical advantage. Many fights involved more than a couple of assets, which prevented losses or victories on both sides.

Alexander and Noah were in a similar situation since they had attracted enough attention. Both of them had a group of privileged cultivators chasing them closely, but they were avoiding a direct battle for now.

Wilfred was having fun with a solid stage cultivator, while Sepunia, Maribel, and June had to use King Elbas' assets to avoid the dark storms. They didn't need those buildings to protect themselves, but saving energy was too crucial since they had already suffered injuries.

Instead, the winged pig was too proud or dumb to use King Elbas' assets. Steven had even asked it to be ready, which was quite confusing as an order.

That confusion forced the Foolery to remain in its position and endure the full might of the dark storms. Noah didn't know if the pig could deploy defensive abilities that didn't involve farts, but the latter didn't bother to try and let those attacks land on its body.

King Elbas appeared completely fine, especially since the castle had protected him. However, commanding the entire golden city and managing so many teleports at the same time had affected his mind, and he was sure that Divine Architect had noticed that.

Divine Demon was the only expert who had yet to meet a proper hindrance or someone who could slow him down. He was unstoppable even with multiple privileged cultivators attacking him at the same time.

No one seemed able to face Divine Demon's attacks, but Heaven and Earth's assets couldn't let him roam freely. They had to do their best to suppress and isolate his power so that the battlefield as a whole wouldn't suffer.

The underlings were also winning, but Noah couldn't find any happiness in that. King Elbas had saved many of them, but a lot had died, and Noah could only accept that as an inevitable outcome of the final battle.

Noah was ready for that outcome, but seeing it first-hand generated emotions too intense to suppress or ignore. Everything had moved quickly due to King Elbas' ploy, so many losses had happened earlier than Noah expected.

<br/>'Life is frail,' Noah couldn't help but think while his thoughts remained on the battlefield.

A few storms still raged in Noah's vision, but he could go through them easily. His body could endure that destruction, especially since part of it resonated with his world.

Multiple presences appeared in the range of Noah's consciousness. Many of them only paid attention to him without doing anything special, but others actively followed him in a desperate attempt to contain the expansion of the roots.

Noah acted almost on auto-pilot. He was faster than the experts behind him, and his understanding of destruction had reached depts that allowed him to predict where to fly to inflict more damage.

That understanding also involved the areas that were about to go through a vast storm or a powerful attack. Noah's predictions could be far off when it came to solid stage experts, but they became strangely on point whenever he focused only on the path ahead.

Noah knew that he was improving from that destruction. He was getting closer to the last stage of the ninth rank due to the many experts radiating his influence.

The landmass' forces were Noah's forces. He had created that organization and had allowed it to join the final battle. Even the losses could give him power.

Still, as much as Noah sensed his power deepening, he couldn't close his eyes before all the sad moments that the battlefield featured. Moreover, the threats his opponents had yet to show filled his thoughts and forced him to focus on more than his level.

Caesar had yet to do anything significant. The expert was watching every battle unfold and end without intervening or using his power. Yet, a smirk never left his face, even when the scenery mostly offered the many deaths of his underlings.

Noah even knew that Caesar was only another expert to overcome. The actual final battle wouldn't feature him or the other leaders. Everything would be decided once Heaven and Earth broke free of the old rulers' restrictions and descended on the battlefield.

'How long do we have?' Noah wondered while inspecting the dimming net that covered the sky.

It was clear that Heaven and Earth were slowly overcoming that restriction. It was actually incredible that the old rulers had managed to keep such mighty opponents away for so long.

Noah couldn't achieve such a feat, even if he summoned the help of his entire organization. Only the old rulers could have done that, and their sacrifice had opened a path to victory that would have been far bloodier otherwise.

'Maybe it's time to fight seriously,' Noah wondered as his attention moved toward the green lights that had appeared during the chaos generated by the dark storms.

Blocking the landmass' full might wasn't something that simple experts could accomplish. The old man had stopped two attacks, while the green barrier had blocked the third. Moreover, that green energy had also taken care of protecting a few core underlings in Heaven and Earth's army.

Finding the source of that green energy wasn't an issue. Only one expert on Heaven and Earth's side could wield such incredible power, and only one cultivator among the leaders had yet to show her abilities.

The middle-aged woman reappeared right before the sky once the black storms dispersed. She appeared curious about the landmass, but that expression was probably a pretense.

Noah could see evident understanding in the privileged cultivator's eyes. She had seen through the raw power of the landmass during the previous exchanges, which probably explained how she had managed to counter its last attack.

Taking that cultivator down seemed one of the keys to victory. The old man was busy with Sword Saint. Caesar wasn't fighting, and Great Builder and King Elbas were handling the Rulers' Resolve and Divine Architect. Keeping the last leader busy was mandatory, to say the least.

Noah stopped his flight and watched as the privileged cultivators flying after him interrupted the chase to launch massive abilities. Multiple solid stage auras fused to converge toward his figure, but those torrents of energy vanished as soon as Shafu made its move from inside his body.

'I'll kill her and achieve the solid stage,' Noah declared in his mind as he ignored his pursuers and performed a movement technique to shoot toward the privileged cultivator.

Nevertheless, Noah felt forced to interrupt his advance since a few figures appeared in front of the middle-aged woman before he could do anything.

June, Sepunia, Maribel, the odd dragon, and the space dragon teleported in front of the privileged cultivator and prepared themselves for the fight. June even glared at the incoming Noah to express that she wanted that opponent for herself.