The most annoying aspect of the puppet's healing properties wasn't in its fixing speed. The main issue was that the golden flames relied on a source of energy that didn't have clear limits.
The golden halo capable of healing formations used "Breath" to replace and fix inscriptions, but the puppets had only one fuel. They consumed the blood of the Elbas Bloodline to activate their flames and obtain those annoying abilities.
That made the battle more troublesome. Noah and the others couldn't aim to slowly exhaust the reserves of energy connected to the puppets in that situation. They didn't know how their fuel behaved.
It would have been different if the Hive still had access to the Copying Technique. The damage that the leaders could inflict with that asset would be enough to make even those powerful puppets struggle.
Yet, the organizations were on their own now. The best they could do was creating inscribed weapons that countered the puppets' abilities, but they still needed to find a way to inflict consistent damages.
"Can you cut it from one side to another?" Great Elder Diana asked as she neared Noah.
God's Left Hand shook her head when she heard that, but her eyes widened when she saw that Noah was pondering about the matter. It was as if he was really considering whether he could do it or not.
"Does the Hive have another divine weapon stored somewhere?" God's Left Hand asked.
Noah scratched his head as calculation happened in his mind. The puppet was sturdy, and the materials that made it were quite hard, but it was only half a stage above him when it came to sheer power.
"I might be able to come close to that," Noah said as he continued to study the Three-headed Dog. "I need to land on it after preparing my attack for a while. Still, I think it's easier to cut the heads."
With enough preparations, Noah knew that his sharpness could overcome the red metal's sturdiness. The upper tier wasn't exactly on par with the solid stage, so he felt confident of reaching that level if he pushed his ambition to its peak.
Noah's answer didn't surprise Great Elder Diana. Her evaluation of the strongest cultivator in history was on point. Defying Demon was a monster among monsters.
"We only need to take care of the flames then," Great Elder Diana said as she turned toward God's Left Hand.
The Empire's Matriarch had her doubts, but her role in that strategy didn't appear to be too dangerous. It didn't hurt to try that approach with those conditions.
The Three-headed Dog charged another attack while the leaders conversed, but it lost its targets before it could create the rain of fireballs again. Noah and the two Matriarchs flew out of the puppet's range as soon as the golden star formed.
Noah crossed his legs and closed his eyes once the trio reached the edges of the battlefield. His consciousness expanded, and his aura became more intense as he relied on his ambition to enhance his abilities.
The two Matriarchs left to fly toward different teleportation matrices. They needed to take a few items from their organizations' temporary headquarters to succeed in their plan.
The air around Noah fell apart as his mental waves spread in the sky. Primary energy formed from the "Breath" that his destruction shattered.
The primary energy was volatile and would usually disperse in a few seconds, but Noah's consciousness kept it in its place. His mind had long since become able to affect the laws of the world, and the primary energy couldn't escape his influence.
Noah's aura grew as that process continued. His cultivation level surged, and white smoke came out of his skin as the black hole in his chest spun faster.
Red spots appeared on his skin. His body temperature went beyond what normal humans and magical beasts could endure as he pushed his cultivation level to its peak.
When the Matriarchs returned, Noah's cultivation level had reached the peak of the liquid stage, and its growth had yet to stop!
God's Left Hand and Great Elder Diana felt that something was off in the area, and surprised expressions appeared on their faces when they studied that phenomenon.
Some of the higher-ups had learnt about the secrets behind the magical beasts' evolution path. As the experiments with the hybrids continued, the world's experts had become aware of the existence of the primary energy.
However, they had soon discarded any project featuring the higher energy since they saw it as a weaker version of the "Breath". Only Noah still relied on it since it was an expression of his destruction.
The Matriarchs remained silent as they waited for Noah to complete his preparations. A tremor ran on their eyes when they sensed that his cultivation level stepped outside the limits of the liquid stage and began to reach the solid stage.
Noah was crossing the distance between the last two stages of the heroic ranks with his individuality!
"This-," God's Left Hand began to comment, but Great Elder Diana shot a warning glance at her. She could make her considerations after the battle was over. Now she had to leave Noah be.
Once Noah's cultivation reached the quasi-solid stage level, he opened his palm to create a small dark sphere that applied a gravitational pull on the primary energy acc.u.mulated in the sky.
The sphere absorbed everything it could. The primary energy converged inside its shape, but Noah's spell also captured "Breath" in its pulling force.
The Black Hole spell became bigger, and its surface started to show signs of instability after the power acc.u.mulated in its structure surpassed the liquid stage's limits.
It seemed that the spell was about to explode, but Noah promptly stabbed the Demonic Sword in its dark surface at that point.
The Black Hole spell shrunk as the Demonic Sword absorbed its power. Noah's living weapon trembled as that intense energy filled its structure, and growls came out of it as it struggled to contain that power.
Noah knew that he was pushing his living weapon to its limits, but the Demonic Sword could endure that for a bit. He would consider his creation a failure if it couldn't keep up with his individuality.
"Open the path," Noah ordered, and the Matriarchs deployed their offensive methods to take care of the golden flames.
Great Elder Diana took out an orange shard from her space-ring, and she crushed it in her palm to release the lightning bolts that it contained. A storm began to expand in her palm, but her individuality forced that energy to remain condensed.
God's Left Hand drew circles with her fan, and gales converged at their center. Whirlpools formed in the air as the Empire's leader created small versions of her tornadoes.
Great Elder Diana launched her spell when the other Matriarch nodded at her. Her storm flew toward the left head and expanded once it touched the golden flames that protected it.
Lightning bolts and orange light fought the flames to open a path for Noah. The storm then detonated when it couldn't progress any further and spread sparks through the golden fire.
God's Left Hand unleashed her spell at that point. Her tornadoes abandoned their condensed form to turn into gales that converged on the left head.
The golden flames still had sparks running through their structure, and they couldn't endure the violence of the gales. God's Left Hand destroyed them with a single attack, and the head of the puppet finally lost its defenses at that point.
The puppet wanted to roar at its opponents, but Noah appeared on top of its left neck. His Demonic Sword descended while carrying the momentum acc.u.mulated with his movement technique. His veins bulged as he focused that immense amount of energy into a single attack.
Laws manifested in Noah's vision as the blade descended. The Demonic Sword felt heavy, and his slash appeared slow to his senses. Yet, the Matriarchs saw everything happening in less than a second.
The sky broke right after Noah stepped on the puppet. A tall fissure replaced its left neck, and its severed head fell into the void.