Everything trembled inside Noah's mind, but he managed to make out Skully's words before the world around him disappeared. His consciousness pressed on his walls to stop the tremors, but the violent pressure continued to make a mess of his sea of thoughts.
The sea under his half-transparent figure raged, and waves surged. They slammed on the floating runes and Snore's ethereal shape, flinging them away toward the walls.
The impact gave birth to more tremors, which slowed down the stabilization of the sea of consciousness. Noah feared that cracks would form soon, but the walls' sturdiness managed to suppress the shaking before any injury happened.
Luckily for him, he didn't resort to the innate ability of his mental energy yet. His mind was at the peak of its sturdiness after it underwent a long training period with the spherical rune and the Kesier Ape in the sixth rank.
Noah took a while to stand up, but Skully waited patiently. She didn't speak, and the cultivators at some distance didn't even mock him for his poor performance.
There was only a helpless understanding in their expressions. It was as if they knew what it was to be in Noah's condition.
Noah stood up and coughed a couple of times before all his functions returned to normal. His face was a mixture of disbelief and greed, and Skully's words echoed in his mind as if they were a perpetual mental message.
'The Seventh Kesier rune!' Noah shouted in his mind. What Skully had revealed didn't concern only the most desired item in the lower planes. It also opened the chance for a real victory against the Ape God!
"What do you mean by a piece of fur?" Noah asked in a hurry. "Don't tell me that this is the actual Seventh rune of the Ape God."
"It sure is!" Skully said with her childish voice. "I was there when that monkey took away its fur and fused it with the magma to create the black sky! It's almost poetic that it would be the first piece to fall!"
"It's not even close to its full power then," Noah replied as calculations appeared in his mind. He recalled every piece of information and legend concerning the Kesier species in a few seconds, and they all led to the same conclusion.
The Kesier Apes' power depended on the number of runes on their fur. If the Seventh rune was there, then the God should have a rank 6 battle prowess!
"Don't let your mind run so fast," Skully said in her ancient voice. "I was here when the first trail of magma gave light to this world. I saw the Seventh rune fall, but the God touching everything with its mental waves anyway. I think that its peculiar ascension has eliminated some of the known weaknesses of the species."
Skully's speech made sense, and Noah understood it almost immediately. The Ape God wasn't a normal divine entity. It had ascended through the sacrifice of multiple beings, shifting its evolution process on a different path compared to ordinary beasts of that species.
The Ape God might have retained some of its original power even after losing the Seventh rune.
Noah felt that he understood the rebel's hopes now. As long as the rune remained away from its original owner, the God would keep on losing power, and destroying the black sky quickened that process.
"I'll perform the procedure if you help bring it back to my organization," Noah said after thinking about it for a moment. "I need to warn you. The mortality of the fusion is quite high, and I can reach a positive percentage only when it's on myself."
"I turned myself into a skull to stay alive," Skully said. "I sacrificed my dantian and gave up to any feeling or ability to move only to remain alive and guide the new generations. I know the price of power. What I need is a chance to fight. You can take the damned rune if you give me my revenge."
It seemed that Skully's condition was far worse than Noah had predicted. However, he respected that such an old monster still had the will to fight. Only really talented cultivators would last for so long in that condition without giving up on their ambitions.
Noah activated the Divine Deduction technique as he neared the throne. A pale light came out of his vertical pupil as he analyzed the old bones to inspect how much of the original cultivator had remained after many millennia.
The rank 5 experts in the distance felt the need to intervene at that sudden act of disrespect, but Skully's aura stopped them from moving further. She knew how an expert worked. Noah was treating her as nothing more than a material now.
'She has sat on this throne for so long that her bones have gained part of its properties,' Noah thought as countless ideas filled his mind. 'I might be able to fuse some of the metal in her to improve her foundation before the fusion.'
"Is it possible in my condition?" Skully asked in her mature tone, but her voice carried a hint of worry. She feared that the only hope found in so many years would fall apart so soon.
"It's not impossible," Noah said while continuing his inspection. "Hard, dangerous, suicidal if you will, but possible. I would probably need to perform multiple procedures before approaching the actual fusion, but I should be able to try at least."
Noah was speaking the truth. There was hope for the ancient powerhouse. However, he still needed more data.
"I need a list with your preferences, tastes, and various details about your personality," Noah said, "You must be honest about everything. The slightest discrepancy between you and the specimen can cause the failure of the procedure."
"There is no need for that!" Skully said. "I've spent so much time studying the Kesier Apes that I've learnt to behave like them! I've lost my old personality, my name, and most of my memories, but I've created a new one by living in this slavery! Only those Apes can be my match."
Noah thought about it for a while before agreeing with her. She even lacked a dantian and focused everything on her mental sphere. Both she and the Apes had a wind aptitude too.
There was only one problem, and Noah had to request something from the native forces to solve it.
"Your body is a rank 6 material," Noah said. "Even in this destroyed state, it still retains the qualities of that level due to the unorthodox techniques applied over the years. I can't fuse you with a magical beast on a lower rank."
Skully remained silent for a few seconds before answering in her childish voice. "I guess you need to hunt a rank 6 Kesier Ape then."