Noah almost found it hilarious. The leaders of both armies had pushed the limits until they were almost about to fall apart.
Skully had traded her sanity, body, and dantian for more years of survival in which she could train new generations of rebels. Her efforts had been praiseworthy, but their execution ended up being relatively poor due to her flawed memory.
On the other hand, the Ape God had given up on its divine status to build a world for its species. Still, the origin of its divine power was flawed and imperfect, which eventually led to the fall of the Seventh Kesier rune.
The Ape then had tried to reach the divine ranks on its own, but it had failed, falling trap of a constant weakening process that made its power regress back into the heroic ranks.
That wasn't everything. The Kesier species' leader still had to restore the mental brands and perform the summoning, which were tasks that required a divine power.
Noah could guess how the creature had resorted to any possible method to stall the dispersion of its divine power and continue its unmatched rule of the hidden world.
Nevertheless, those methods had their limits, and Noah's arrival forced it to break its routine and perform a summoning far sooner than the previous ones. Its mind had endured that feat, and now its after-effects were appearing on its body.
"I don't need anything from the humans," The Ape God said as it restored its composure. "I only want more power. My desire is the most natural feeling in the world."
Noah sensed a faint tension in its voice, and its words had become even more similar to ape's cries now. Also, the fact that it wasn't questioning him about his moving of items made him even surer about his hypothesis.
The spirit automaton of Divine Demon's ring made the calculations in his place. Noah only needed to tell him what he needed, and the program executed the orders.
All the resources that Noah had accumulated through the years went into his second ring. Its width was slightly inferior to the first one, but it was meant to store strong prey, so it performed its task quite well.
Noah left the Obsidian Credits and anything useless in his old ring while moving everything else in his new one. That was true even for the two divine and quasi-divine items retrieved in Shandal's separate dimension.
He had to throw away many corpses and runes to make room for them, but he felt sure that he'd have more space soon.
The Ape God didn't flinch when it saw the divine scroll, but its body convulsed when the stuffed quasi-rank 7 winged beast appeared for an instant in the outside world before entering the other ring.
The Kesier species' leader began to droll, and its mental waves shot toward Noah once again. He lost control of its body for the second time, but his long speech with the Ape had given him the chance to seize as much as he could from the Sixth Kesier rune.
Now he could only proceed with his plan and hope that he won't suffer any lasting injury.
The Ape's mental energy touched Noah's mind, but a minute part of those faint thoughts suddenly disappeared. The quantity was so little that the God didn't even notice it, but it was a massive amount for a rank 5 mage.
Noah felt a sudden surge of power coming from the center of his mind and slamming on its walls. It was as if a series of angry wills had taken form and were attacking his mental sphere at the same time.
The process was excruciating, and Noah staggered inside the empty area at the center of the mountain. However, the energy dispersed when he devoured the God's thoughts freed him of its control.
Noah heard the sound of glass shattering as the pressure continued to expand his sphere. A series of cracks spread on the ethereal walls of his mind, sending waves of pain that made him feel like puking.
Noah had eaten the smallest amount of thoughts that his mind could divide. Yet, even that grain of divine power had been enough to crack his mental sphere.
Still, the injury wasn't severe. The cracks weren't deep and only spread in the walls' interior parts, which were the easiest to heal. Noah knew that it would take a long period of nurturing to fix them, but he could only think about their expansion now.
Noah's sphere seemed to surpass some natural limits as it kept spreading. He felt profound thoughts concerning the world of the laws invading his mind and enlightening more about his path, but he also sensed that he had to review his plan's details.
During the breakthrough, the feeling obtained suppressed the pain caused by the injuries on his mind and made him battle-ready. Yet, the Ape God didn't care about any of that.
"This is a useless act," The God said, without showing the slightest amount of worry in its tone. The fact that Noah had become a rank 6 mage could barely scare him.
Its mental waves moved once again to take control of its body, but Noah's new awareness made him ready for that threat and allowed him to react in time.
Noah snapped his fingers to fling Divine Demon's ring toward the rocky throne before his figure disappeared. Cracks spread between his previous position and Skully, and the rebels' powerhouse flew backward as Noah flung her away.
He then shot toward the rocky walls of the mountain, uncaring of the fact that he had to dig his path for a few kilometers to return to the outside world.
The Ape God had initially wanted to put an end to that mess. Noah's new power made him fast, but it was still a god. Moreover, he had stopped to help Skully, which had slowed down his escape.
However, Noah had perfectly evaluated the power of his assets. The God's mental waves could only stop chasing after the rebels and focus on the black ring flying in its direction since its instincts told it to activate some defensive measures.
Noah flew for his life. The scaled armor formed around him, but its shape morphed as the black branches spread on the Sixth Kesier rune that had condensed at the center of his sea of consciousness.
The black smoke radiated by his form became violent and raged in every direction as he shattered the rocky walls of the mountain and opened a path for the outside world.
Skully was still under the God's control, but the latter didn't have time to give her orders, so she slammed on the mountainside and cracked the rocky layers with her bare body. Noah's physical strength had given her enough momentum to leave that place.
Then, a deafening roar spread in the area, followed by a silence that preceded an earth-shattering explosion.