Chapter 963: 963. World

The flame trembled violently in Noah's palm. It radiated destruction that wanted to affect the entirety of the world and the same fuel that was creating it.

Of course, Noah was restraining its destructive effects and letting it affect only the air around it. The flame was a copy of Ravaging Demon's individuality, so it shouldn't create primary energy with its aura. Yet, the fact that the dark matter was an evolution of Noah's darkness made primary energy appear nonetheless.

The output of primary energy was inferior to his other abilities though. The fire was different from his lightning bolts. Its destruction spread even on the primary energy that it created, diminishing its quantity in the air.

'What a troublesome individuality,' Noah thought as a small spark appeared next to the flame. Seeing the product of Ravaging Demon's existence up close gave him ideas on why the powerhouse had taken so much to reach the sixth rank.

Noah didn't know about the Elbas family's pool, so his first guess was that Ravaging Demon had needed a lot of time to overcome the natural flaw of his individuality. His flames were a power that couldn't go along with any form of life, and his destruction was too pure to belong to someone that wanted to grow.

There was destruction in Noah's individuality, but that aspect of himself came from Heaven and Earth's mistake and his magical beast side. It wasn't something that could hurt him. The primary energy that it created was the main nutrient of his body!

Instead, Ravaging Demon's individuality could only lead to one outcome. It could only burn everything.

The black spark became bigger and started to interact with the flame. To Noah's surprise, the two elements didn't attack each other. Instead, they began to exchange part of the dark matter that made their form as if they were trying to fuse.

Countless ideas surged inside Noah's mind. He had expected the two elements to destroy each other due to their conflicting individualities, but they appeared attracted to each other. Their structures even started to merge in some spots!

The flame and the spark managed to fuse only a small part of their dark matter but continued to interact without hurting their respective structures. Noah felt that something was missing when looking at them. That seemed to be the reason why the merging stopped.

Noah activated the Divine Deduction technique at that point, which made him consider an exciting option.

'I've initially thought about the dark matter as the material to create a personal world,' Noah thought as countless options appeared in his mind. 'What if I need to replicate all the elements to reach that result?'

That reasoning seemed to lead him in the direction of the first spell that made use of his higher energy. That ability would be different from Snore since Noah wouldn't have to build anything beforehand.

For now, it was mostly speculation in his mind. However, Noah could imagine how he would eventually become able to deploy his world whenever he wanted once he managed to copy all the elements.

As for its effects, Noah couldn't predict them. It was all in his head anyway, so he quickly put the matter aside to focus on other pressing issues.

A rank 6 cultivator was hunting him. Every second had to be used to improve his battle prowess. He couldn't waste time daydreaming about the potential of his abilities.

His body was still recovering, and it would take a few months to return to his peak. Even Divine Demon's drug couldn't hasten the healing process too much due to the immense requirements of a hybrid.

Still, the same would apply to Ravaging Demon due to his high cultivation level. The powerhouse was bound to need a few years to heal from his injuries completely.

Also, Noah had no intention to stay put in that period because of his injuries. One of the perks of being a hybrid was that he could focus on many projects, even in his poor state.

Noah couldn't resume the creation of martial arts because he had a few missing limbs, but he could analyze them with the Divine Deduction technique to complete the theoretical work. Meanwhile, he could apply his new flames to his battle style and handle the growth of the hybrids.

Those beings would suffer a lot in the next period because the Hive desperately needed powerful assets to replace the losses sustained during the war. Starving the hybrids to focus on improving their mental capabilities would make many of them go mad, but that was the fastest approach to obtain valuable warriors.

As for his new flames, the fact that he lacked an arm didn't hinder his ability to forge. He could implement them into Snore's body and improve its overall strength.

Months quickly passed while Noah remained in his mansion inside the separate dimension. Elder Julia would contact him from time to time to update him on the political situation of the outside world. Still, she only reported a tense atmosphere, without any actual fight among the organizations.

It seemed that every force was dealing with their losses and preparing for the inevitable clash that would happen in the future.

There was no news about Ravaging Demon, but the Hive held many meetings with the higher-ups of the Council to seal a lasting alliance.

Among the three invading forces, the Council had suffered the most from the powerhouse's actions. Ravaging Demon didn't only kill many powerful assets during his sudden attack. The sects under his banner had even revolted and claimed a part of the Papral nation, undermining a large part of the Council's foundation.

A third of all the sects under the Council had abandoned its rule. They had created independent regions inside the Papral nation, creating a force similar to the Coral Archipelago in the days after its independence. The only difference was that it had far more assets since they belonged to sects that had thrived for a long time inside one of the strongest organizations.

Also, it had the backing of the Elbas family, which provided that new force with inscribed items meant to defend its borders.

As for the Shandal Empire, it delivered the resources promised during the negotiations for its surrender. They covered many battle formations and some inscription methods that had disappeared from the world for millennia.

However, the Empire didn't give the Second Life formation, and the invaders had limited leverage since the blue dome would make the Empire survive for many years anyway.

A few spells of the darkness element arrived at Noah too, but he didn't analyze them while he was busy recovering and improving Snore. Even his Demonic Sword needed to heal, so he didn't manage to cultivate much in those months.

Yet, Noah started to leave the separate dimension often once his body and sword returned to their peak. Improving Snore was something that he could do in his spare time, but he needed to complete his fusion of martial arts and spells, other than refilling his stash of magical beasts' corpses.