"Nothing?" Noah asked as he executed the second form of his martial art, targeting the cave seen outside of the formation. His voice came out as a guttural growl due to the Demonic Form and his beast's features.
"Nothing!" Daniel exclaimed as he stored his inscribed notebook back in his space-ring and resumed fueling his white halo. "No mental message seems able to escape the area."
The group had faced six more series of spells already by then, but their situation was about to become critical.
The Ghostly Sakes were still doing their job as meat shields, but injuries filled their bodies, and some wounds even reached for their internal organs. Also, their instincts were starting to take control of their bodies and making them ignore Noah's orders.
Noah was using his pride to force the hybrids to maintain their sanity. Yet, their survival instinct was becoming more intense as the state of their bodies worsened.
It was only a matter of time before the Snakes stopped using their reason and escaped the formation with their innate ability, leaving the rest of the group alone in the siege.
Their sacrifice though had allowed the cultivators to block all the attacks and give Noah enough room to continue targeting the control center.
The water around the group trembled again after Noah's last attack, and the same series of shining lines appeared in that part of the sea. Some of them even fell apart during the tremors, but the formation was still mostly intact.
'They did this in less than a day!' Noah cursed in his mind as he released another roar to suppress the instincts of the snakes. 'We would have already exposed some secret if it wasn't for the hybrids.'
It was clear that their assailant had come prepared. They had deployed manpower stronger than Noah's group, and they were even making use of an annoying formation.
If Noah hadn't submitted the three hybrids, they would have been forced to use all their assets to survive, which meant revealing June's higher energy and the separate dimension. However, there was hope to keep their secrets hidden thanks to the sacrifice of the Snakes.
After all, that was the whole point of their lie. Revealing the divine items would protect June and Faith's status in their organizations and make their story more believable.
The women's cover would be exposed if the Hive was to reveal their divine items in the next years, and the organizations behind them would still think about creating raiding parties if they didn't have a decoy. Instead, knowing that such precious objects were in the hands of the Hive would move their attention away from the separate dimension and give Flying Demon enough time to inherit Shandal's individuality.
Also, the other organizations would start to fear the Hive more if they knew that it owned those powerful tools.
Fame and reputation could be the end of a lone cultivator, but they were an armor when it came to organizations. The copying formation already discouraged anyone from attacking the Hive, and the knowledge that it owned divine items would only strengthen that feeling.
The only issue now was to make those items reach the safety of the Hive.
Daniel had his emblem hung on his neck, and the fact that his robe covered it didn't prevent its powerful aura from leaking in the environment. Meanwhile, Noah had both the stuffed beast and the diagram in his space-ring, which hid their presence.
That was the reason why all the spells kept on aiming for Daniel. It seemed that the assailants weren't trying to take down the entire group, but force them to give up on that divine asset before someone noticed that they were late.
Noah's eyes became cold when he saw the shining lines disappear again in the water. At that sight, it became clear in his mind that the Ghostly Snakes would die before he could destroy the entirety of the formation.
It would be up to the group to face the full power of the spells once the protection of the hybrids vanished, and targeting the control center while defending could be a problem.
Noah's mind worked at full speed as he analyzed the situation. The Divine Deduction technique consumed his mental energy to evaluate how much the formation could endure, and if the group could destroy it without revealing anything.
The answer was negative. Noah and the others would still need to use some of their hidden assets even if the Snakes gave their lives to defend them.
Noah made his mind at that point. Daniel saw the fiendish figure nodding at him, and he didn't hesitate to take the emblem in his grasp.
If they had to reveal something anyway, they might as well use the divine items before the hybrids died. After all, the world already knew about them.
Also, the effects of Daniel's emblem were straightforward. The item gathered light and unleashed it to eliminate any threat attempting at the life of its wielder.
Shandal had kept it charged, which allowed Daniel to activate it straight away and without the need of any "Breath". He only had to use a minute part of his mental energy to trigger its effects.
The tenth series of spells formed and shot toward the group, but a blinding light soon filled the entire underwater area.
The effects of the divine item were the exact opposite of Noah's flames, even if they both turned the witnesses blind for a few seconds. Noah saw his world become completely white, and he couldn't help but spread his mouth at that sight.
Dense "Breath" entered his body and nourished his lungs. Still, the ability of the Curse Dragon species wasn't able to create the usual black halo around him at that time.
There was too much light, and its might even stretched outside of the formation.
Noah sensed that his Demonic Form fell apart as the light swept him. It seemed that the defensive item saw the unruly properties of the black smoke as a threat to its wielder.
However, it didn't affect any living being. Both Noah and the Demonic Sword didn't suffer at all inside that halo.
The same went for his companions, and only some of June's orange spheres vanished due to the effects of the emblem. The other defensive spells remained in place instead.
When the halo vanished, Noah and the others discovered that they could breathe again. The emblem had destroyed the entirety of the formation, creating an empty sphere right in the middle of the sea.
The water soon filled that gap, and the cultivators could sense that the sea had changed once they were submerged again. However, they didn't waste time analyzing it since they weren't safe yet.
A roar ran under the sea, and black smoke began to spread once again since Noah quickly reactivated the Demonic Form. June and the others prepared their offensive spells too at that signal, and the Snakes became immaterial to prepare for the imminent clash.
They could finally charge ahead now that the formation was gone.