The remains of the army eventually decided to build an encampment around the stele.
It wasn't just a matter of studying the trace left by a divine entity. The cultivators with a water aptitude wanted to use that structure to improve their understanding of their element and solidify their individuality.
A large number of heroic cultivators moved from the domains of the three nations to join the army that had discovered that incredible structure. After all, water cultivators were quite ordinary in the world, and all of them requested to see the stele.
Meanwhile, the rank 5 cultivators made a point of their situation.
They hadn't expected the Empire to lay such a trap, and they paid the price for underestimating it. Only the Hive counted more than ten casualties among the assets in the fourth rank, which was quite depressing considering that it had deployed only twenty-five of them for that battle.
The rest of them were all injured, with some of them so severely that they had to return to the southwestern coast to receive specialized treatments.
The Elders in the fifth rank were relatively fine. Elder Austin, Elder Justin, Daniel, and Amos had touched the multicolored light, but it only caused a few burns on their skin.
As for the human assets, the losses were simply uncountable.
"Years of accumulation and growth wasted because of a paranoid god!" Elder Austin exclaimed as he gulped a cup of wine before smearing some Primordial Ice on the burns on his legs. "Who even sets a self-destruct mechanism that doesn't spoil the resource of a land? I could almost think that the Empire was expecting something like this to happen."
All the rank 5 Elders of the Hive had gathered in an inscribed tent to discuss their next move, but they had ended up expressing their annoyance toward that sly organization.
"The other forces lost far more than us," Daniel said as he swept his cup with his aura before drinking from it. "I guess we are lucky to have deployed fewer troops than them."
He was injured too. His right arm was completely charred, but a thick layer of Primordial Ice covered that limb and was already quickening its recovery. The Elbas family had provided that resource freely after the explosion, so all the injured were using it.
Elder Austin snorted before refilling his cup with some wine and drinking it all in one gulp. Then, he complained in a loud voice again. "The luck of the underdog! We have lost decades of progress in a single battle, and you talk about luck. There is no victory in losing less than your enemies. The real victory is in the gains that we manage to reap thanks to those losses."
Daniel could only nod at his words.
Casualties were inevitable, especially when facing a nation that had been at the peak of those Mortal Land for millennia. Yet, if the invaders managed to gain something that would boost their growth as organizations, they would see those losses as a fair price to pay.
Noah remained silent as they conversed. The Elders didn't treat Daniel or Amos coldly anymore, but they were starting to show some trust toward those two nobles.
It would take time for the Udye family to become a part of the Hive. However, the Elders had already changed their behavior toward them.
Daniel and Amos had fought together with them in the end. The world would label them as actual members of the Hive now that they had worn its robes in front of the other nations. There was no turning back from that.
"It was worth it," Noah said as he stood up from the couch where he was sitting. "With the stele and the lava lake, we will groom stronger heroic assets and increase the number of our elites. Also, we have the living weapons, and the hybrids should provide more assistance once their mental instabilities are fixed."
Then, he left the tent to return to a cave that he had previously dug to cultivate.
They had already discussed anything important, so there was no point for him to remain there. His free time had to be dedicated to his training and projects, and he didn't feel like wasting it to analyze the data of the last battle.
Their allies had lost more than them, and the Empire had surpassed all three of them in that field. Elder Julia had calculated that at least eight cultivators in the fifth rank had died on the defending side, and Noah had filled two of those spots.
The Empire had simply lost too much, and dozens of rank 4 cultivators couldn't make up for the deaths of its elites.
Elder Julia had warned Noah on that part. The fact that he could be a threat to cultivators on his level would force the Empire to deploy equal experts against him.
They wouldn't rely on tactics to beat him. Their only weapons would be their experience and individuality, which would give birth to battles a bit more complicated than his previous ones. If strategies didn't work, the Empire would just make him face its best existences in the gaseous stage of the fifth rank.
Noah didn't know how much it would take to the three factions to reorganize, but that break gave him the chance to start experimenting in one of his projects. He resumed forging living weapons in that period of peace. After all, there was an abundance of magical beasts' corpses due to the cleaning operations on the northeastern coast.
His choice wasn't random. He would need decades to complete his other projects, and he didn't want to be interrupted when he was preparing for his next series of experiments.
Seclusion and long periods of meditation were usually the best approaches for entities on his level, but gathering experiences had the priority since he could express his individuality freely. That was in line with the requirements to advance once reached the fifth rank, and Noah had long felt that his dantian was improving.
Noah began to forge living weapons again, even if there weren't rank 4 cultivators available for their purchase. The recent losses had left a lot of living weapons behind, but very few cultivators able to wield them.
It was finally his turn with the sixth Kesier rune at some point, and his days suddenly became hectic. He couldn't waste that opportunity to improve his mental sphere as much as he could, especially with the breakthrough of his body drawing close.
A bit more than a year passed in that situation.
The territory with the stele had become quite crowded in that short period. The arrival of the new troops helped their armies to reform, but they had to summon human cultivators personally since they couldn't travel alone through the new continent.
Also, the cultivators of the Elbas family were developing an item that could block eventual explosions of buildings in the future.
The war was about to start again, and the invaders wouldn't stop until the Empire didn't have any domain left in the new continent at that time.