The army of the invaders didn't lose much in that battle. Only the human troops had suffered due to the Swarming Piranha, but the heroic cultivators were mostly fine.
Also, the Empire only had one region left in its domain in the new continent. The three organizations were about to kick it out of the best territories in that world!
However, Noah didn't care about any of that.
The inscriptions of the Divine Deduction technique still shone inside his mind and consumed his mental energy to accelerate his thoughts. Countless ideas surged and vanished in fractions of instants as Noah reviewed his battles against Icy Stare.
He had already decided that his many projects would have to wait for him to create higher energy. Still, Icy Stare wanted to put him in a cage, and he wasn't going to let it happen.
The Empire was one step away from losing any claim over the new continent, but that didn't mean that the last battle would be easy. Instead, there was a high chance that the invading troops would have to struggle to conquer it.
The three organizations would take their time to prepare a thorough plan and gather more troops, and Noah guessed that they would need about six months.
That period was too short to increase his power substantially, and he would have to spend some years in hibernation if he forced the breakthrough of his body. Yet, Noah didn't need any extreme improvement. He just wanted to obtain something that could surprise his opponent.
Creating martial arts was an option, but their power would be underwhelming if he didn't fuse them with suitable spells. A living weapon could give him access to a new type of attack, but he knew that it would face the same rejections of the Blood Companions.
The truth was that cultivators wouldn't even think of creating something that made them capable of winning against an expert that was clearly above them. When they added only a few months to work with, such a project became even more unreasonable.
Being labeled as troublesome by an expert such as Icy Stare would even flatter them if they were in Noah's situation. After all, he had been a rank 5 cultivator for a little more than forty years, but he had already gained the recognition of the old monsters.
However, Noah was different. The sole idea that the Empire could think about caging him with a stronger opponent made his instincts scream in anger. His mind then turned those instincts in feelings that his aura expressed by radiating sharp destruction in the environment.
It was hard not to notice him. His mental waves were so dense that every heroic cultivator on the scene sensed them.
June stared at him with a cold expression, but she felt worried inside. She had already seen that expression on Noah's face many times in the past. It was the expression that he made when he was about to make something reckless to gain power faster.
The situation seemed even quite serious since Noah didn't try to sneak a peek at her when he turned toward the other Elders of the Hive. It was as if his whole being was set on an issue that he needed to solve.
Noah turned toward the Elders in the fifth rank and searched for a specific cultivator among them. He found Daniel in the back of a group led by Elder Justin, and he appeared fine except for the apparent tiredness that filled him.
Daniel saw Noah taking calm steps toward him, and a chill ran down his spine when he looked at his eyes. The sight of Noah's vertical pupils gave birth to an instinctive fear inside him.
Yet, when he reached him, Noah gave voice to words that Daniel would have never expected to hear. "I need your light."
.
.
.
The armies returned in the territory with the Divine Stele and prepared for the final battle in the new continent.
The Elbas family started to hand its ointment to the human troops of all factions and tried to improve the countermeasures for the defensive formations showed by the Empire. The Elders of the Council practiced with the battle formations and shared specific strategies with the allied forces to improve their cooperation on the battlefield.
As for the Hive, it just reviewed the equipment of its heroic assets and made changes whenever cultivators showed improvements in their control over the living weapons. There were many of them still restricted in the inventories in the separate dimension, and most of them had a conscious Beast Core since they were the hardest to submit.
However, the Elders in the fourth rank that had survived through those battles had steeled their will and were ready to handle more complex and powerful weapons. The only issue was that they had only a few months to tame them and change their combat style to make use of their new asset.
On the other hand, Noah and Daniel had disappeared somewhere underground and didn't resurface at all during those months of preparation.
Faith had initially wanted to visit Noah during that period, and she had even proposed plans to sneak June into his quarters when she went to her tent. Yet, June had refused her offers, explaining with vague words that Noah wouldn't have been available until after the final battle.
In the end, it took seven months for everything to be ready, and the army of the three factions set off at that point to march toward the last territory of the new continent controlled by the Empire.
Noah and Daniel had resurfaced only a week before, but their centers of power didn't show any difference after that seclusion. The only thing that had changed was that Daniel looked far thinner than before as if he had exhausted himself in that period.
One week of rest though had been enough to make him recover part of his healthy appearance, and he showed no hesitation as he flew toward the battlefield among the other Elders in the fifth rank.
The army soon reached a thick forest that spread for the entirety of that region and blocked the view of the ground. The Empire had probably added some features on those trees too since they were able to stop mental waves from inspecting the terrain.
The troops of the Empire were waiting for the invaders and didn't show any emotion when they saw them charging at them. Even those powerful battle cries weren't enough to make them take a step back.
Noah soon found himself surrounded by familiar ice constructs. Icy Stare hadn't even waited for him to reach the enemy lines before unleashing her offensive on him.
Noah activated his usual set of spells and the Divine Deduction technique. His shape morphed into a scaled fiendish figure, and a sea of saber-shaped runes came out of his palm to fly around him.
Icy Stare had long since become used to his combat style and began to fly around him to freeze multiple parts of the sky. Yet, when Noah opened his mouth, the world around her lost its light.