The group explored every inch of the empty area contained inside the stormy regions. Shafu ate all the giants on the path and used their energy to fuel the creation of perfect lairs inside its separate dimension.
Noah met and subdued many different magical beasts' packs. They were rare in that environment, but their previous domain was so vast that enough of them had survived the apocalypse and remained in those areas.
Shafu's separate dimension grew crowded as Noah kept promising salvation and food to the various packs on his way. His companions even limited themselves during eventual battles to make sure that he gathered enough specimens.
The high consumption of energy of the magical beasts inside Shafu forced the group to move quickly. The giants were a limited resource that would soon vanish, so Noah had to bring everyone back to the black landmass before the creatures inside the separate dimension started requiring the dragon's power.
That hurry didn't make Noah grow careless or superficial. He made Shafu explore everything thoroughly. His approach even led the group in areas that would have marked the entrance to the other side of the Immortal Lands before the apocalypse.
The long journey forced Steven to accept that the members of his cells had disappeared. Noah couldn't find any trace of those cultivators. They had probably died during the catastrophe, but the old leader wanted to believe that some had survived by escaping toward the stormy regions.
It didn't matter if the group explored the depths of the emptiness or its vastity. The environment remained virtually the same. They found giants, pieces of black ground, a few packs of magical beasts, and unexpected sources of energy that had managed to survive the apocalypse.
A white river would appear every once in a while. Noah even found a giant that contained a lake, but those strange scenes were rarer than the pack of magical beasts. Still, he threw them inside Shafu anyway since he prioritized the creature's state.
Noah didn't find any trace of the human organizations on the other side of the Immortal Lands. His group had escaped back then, so that area had theoretically fallen in the hands of Heaven and Earth's followers.
However, the rulers didn't spare those areas with their destruction, and Noah could only guess that the cultivators had found their way toward the sky. The actual size of that structure's insides was unclear, but he felt pretty sure that Heaven and Earth had enough space for all those experts.
A doubt that Noah didn't consider before appeared in his mind during the exploration. The higher plane would take all the existences ascended from the Mortal Lands, but it didn't have ground anymore now.
Noah wondered how the ascension worked now that Heaven and Earth had destroyed the destination, and he could only find a reasonable answer. The rulers were probably forcing those new divine existences to live inside the sky.
The mission ended after the group flew across the entirety of that empty space. Their travel quickened the dispersion of energy, but Noah didn't mind that since the fuel didn't go to Heaven and Earth.
Moreover, he planned to solve the issue with the next mission. The very survival of those who opposed Heaven and Earth depended on the success of that journey.
Noah and the others decided to return to their home once the mission was over. Shafu was full, and countless magical beasts filled its insides. Yet, the outside world didn't have available energy sources anymore, so the dragon had to free itself of its heavy load as soon as possible.
Returning to the black landmass didn't take much. The experts on Shafu's back barely felt the passage of the years required for the travel after they spent centuries exploring the destroyed higher plane.
Noah made sure to send a few mental messages as soon as the black landmass appeared in his vision. He needed Robert and the Foolery to make sure that the release of the magical beasts happened properly.
Golden lights lit up on the regions at the edges of the landmass right before Shafu could fly over them. King Elbas, Robert, the Foolery, and a few other experts materialized there and glanced at the giant dragon halting its body above them.
"I'll send them in batches," Noah announced while peeking from the dragon's back. "Make sure to fuse the new lands to the landmass quickly. They are getting excited."
King Elbas promptly snapped his fingers, and another layer of golden lines materialized above the regions. Defenses and other mechanisms activated while he modified some of those inscriptions to prepare everything for the arrival of the new creatures.
Robert and the Foolery moved to the edges of the landmass and expanded their aura. The ground began to mutate, but their power didn't do much there. Yet, they had understood that their role was to create harmony between the original regions and the other incoming territories.
Noah nodded at that sight before patting Shafu's back. A wave of dark matter expanded from its belly at that point, and a dense sea soon covered a large area next to the landmass' edges.
The black sea suddenly retracted and revealed that a new large area had appeared where there was only a void before. A huge frozen region began to float next to the landmass and clashed with its edges while trying to fuse with its fabric.
King Elbas' inscriptions immediately covered the region and reduced the clashes caused by its unstable state. Then, Robert and the Foolery focused their auras on those spots, and huge mountains appeared on the landmass' edges as the two lands fused.
The process didn't take much, but Noah had yet to complete the migration. He patted Shafu's back again, and its dark matter expanded to send all the Eternal Snakes into that frozen lair.
Multiple rank 8 auras spread through the environment as the snakes occupied the frozen region and raised their massive bodies to inspect their new home. The immense landmass made their instincts tingle in hunger, but the many rank 8 experts watching the scene reminded them about their situation.
"Next!" Noah shouted while Shafu sent another wave of dark matter to teleport a large bushland next to the frozen region.
King Elbas, the Foolery, and Robert immediately activated their abilities to fuse that new area to the landmass and the frozen region. New mountains appeared as their mutations forced the cracked and frail edges to evolve, but the second lair successfully joined their home at some point.
Noah sent a pack of flying hyenas into the bushland before moving to the next lair. Shafu contained hundreds of different environments in his body, so the migration would still take a long time.
King Elbas and the others worked together with Noah to quicken the whole process, but they still ended up remaining at it for entire days. There didn't seem to be an end to the packs gathered during the mission, and the black landmass eventually gained enough new lands to become twice as big.
Countless roars, cries, and different noises resounded from the side of the black landmass divided by mountains. The different packs announced their happiness at the sight of the new home. They weren't in a hopeless environment anymore, and their feelings inevitably burst out of their figures.
The black landmass even benefitted from the addition of so many regions. The various packs involved a higher consumption of energy. Still, the lairs contained all the power gathered from the remaining giants, and part of it flowed into the original domain after the fusion.