Noah didn't need to think to know how that battle would end. The presence of a defensive item in the divine ranks could only lead to one outcome.
A quasi-rank 7 creature was an opponent that Noah could overcome due to his ambition and the many advantages connected to his centers of power. However, the presence of a divine item changed everything.
The Snake's weakest feature had just become its strongest. The divine armor covered its entire body. Its assaults were now unstoppable.
The dark beam had incredible destructive properties, but it couldn't overcome such a difference in power. The dark matter had to evolve before it could make a dent in that armor.
The same went for the rest of Noah's abilities. Nothing he had could make up for that difference in power. He had been able to fight the Snake until now because most of his attacks carried might that defied logic. Still, the armor marked a point that he couldn't cross at his current level.
Noah didn't retreat in front of that threat. His ambition became more intense as he analyzed the Snake and its divine item.
The Snake's power hinted at an important detail. The creature wasn't a complete divine beast, so that armor was the best it could do. Noah even guessed that it couldn't keep it active for a long time.
Yet, the Snake had used only a quarter of the ice in the world to create that protection. Logic said that it could perform that technique three more times before it depleted its core material.
Also, the actual power of the Snake didn't change after it created its armor. The creature was still a beast that Noah could suppress even if there were an abyss of difference between their levels.
The Snake would end up in a sorry state as long as Noah managed to cross the armor. That defensive item was troublesome, but he still had a chance to defeat his opponent.
The divine armor had only three openings. The ice didn't cover the Snake's eyes and insides of its mouth, which left them exposed to the same attacks that had managed to suppress it before.
Noah only had to prevent the Snake from summoning the storms again while aiming for a quick kill. If he succeeded, he could even test if his theory was on point.
He didn't believe that the Snake could rely on those techniques often. The armor and the reconstruction of its head were skills that went beyond lower realms, so there had to be a limit to how many of them it could perform.
It was a simple matter of logic. The Snake wasn't a divine being, so its divine techniques usually had drawbacks and limitations that Noah could exploit.
The Snake lost its patience when it saw that Noah didn't attack. The sudden blow from before left it slightly confused, but it was too angry at Noah to let him do as he pleased.
The creature jumped forward, and massive cracks opened in the sky at its passage. Noah had prepared his arsenal beforehand, which gave him a good advantage against the beast. The only problem now was to use his weapons smartly.
The Snake reached Noah's position in an instant, but he was ready. The creature's speed didn't increase after the storms, so he knew exactly how fast it was.
Noah could dodge and escape until he wielded enough power to defeat the creature without relying on strategies. However, he didn't plan to leave the battlefield just yet. The sight of something in the divine ranks had ignited his desire to test himself.
Noah raised his free hand, and the six fiendish giants flew next to him to help him in the task. The Snake arrived in an instant, but it found six pairs of clawed hands waiting for it.
An immense force landed on Noah and shattered the armors protecting his right arm. Still, he didn't suffer any injury at that time. The fiendish giants had eased the impact with the creature.
Noah didn't waste time. He pointed the Demonic Sword toward one of the eyes and lunged while unleashing all his accumulated power.
The Snake didn't have the time to dodge. It was still trying to fling Noah's away when a torrent of dark matter pierced its eye and ravaged its insides.
Noah's assets didn't let the other eye go. Snore bit the other side of the Snake's head and released its dark beam. Night also moved and fused with the insides of the creature to unleash its destruction.
The Snake screamed in pain, but Noah didn't waste the moment when the creature opened its mouth. Two of his fiendish giants entered it and exploded to fill the creature's body with a cloud of poisonous, corrosive smoke.
The sea of saber-shaped runes followed the fiendish giants. They entered the Snake's mouth and began to ravage everything they could.
In an instant, Noah had unleashed the entirety of his arsenal on the creature. He did not doubt that his abilities would kill the Snake on the spot, but he was more interested in what happened afterward.
The Snake began to fall toward the ground after that series of attacks. Yet, one of the fiendish giants grabbed it, and Snore coiled itself around it to restrain it.
There was nothing but dark matter, corrosive smoke, and floating pieces of flesh inside the divine armor. Noah's attacks had reduced its body into a messy pulp of blood and skin that were about to disappear due to the sharpness still lingering inside the divine item.
However, the silver armor lit up before the last of the Snake's tissues could disappear. A blinding light came out of it, and angry roars soon echoed through the sky.
When the silver light disappeared, Noah could see that the Snakes' leader had wholly reformed. All its injuries had disappeared, but the armor had paid the price for that restoration.
The ice of the armor had become thinner after that round of healing. Noah could sense that it even expressed less power than before.
Noah's eyes lit up when he saw that. He now knew how to defeat the Snake. It could take a while, but he had a strategy, at least.
The Snake leaped away and destroyed two fiendish giants with its charge. Then, it made a sharp turn to charge toward Noah again.
Noah didn't fear that attack. He could inflict more damage than the creature did, so he didn't mind playing the target in that battle. Moreover, he felt too excited in that situation that he didn't mind taking those blows head-on.
The two remaining fiendish giants and Snore stepped forward to intercept the charge, and Noah raised his hand again to help in the task. However, his cultivation level suddenly dropped and reminded him that he didn't own that power yet.
'Not now!' Noah cursed in his mind as he threw every disposable attack at the creature.
The Black Hole spell flew toward the Snake together with the two fiendish giants. Snore even helped them, but Night reappeared next to Noah and flew inside his space-ring.
The giant uneven sphere exploded, but its power wasn't suitable for that type of battle. Hitting the holes in the armor required precise and condensed attacks, and the Black Hole spell was the opposite of that.
The fiendish giants and Snore did their best to stop the Snake. The copies even detonated when they saw that they couldn't stop the creature anymore.
When the Snakes' leader managed to cross those hindrances, it saw only a human-shaped crack. It couldn't sense Noah anywhere.