Chapter 1080: 1080. Shining thing

Noah advanced toward the defensive formations without minding his surroundings. The cloud of corrosive smoke spread from his fiendish form and soon landed on the golden shields.

The smoke didn't manage to piece those defenses, but tremors sparkled from time to time on their surface as Noah's spell continued to attack it.

It was a constant siege. The Demonic Form forced the golden shields to waste more energy since it remained on top of them.

"We can't avoid the arrows," Chasing Demon said as he neared him. A metallic layer had appeared on top of his skin, and a humming sound came out of it to keep the corrosive smoke away.

"Someone always needs to block them," Great Elder Diana said while reaching Noah too. An array of minute lightning bolts covered her figure and destroyed every particle of corrosive smoke that tried to touch her skin.

Both powerhouses had defensive methods that countered Noah's Demonic Form. The event didn't surprise him since his spell's features had become common knowledge since he escaped the Utra nation.

It was only normal for powerhouses to develop countermeasures to such a threatening spell. Even Chasing Demon had created one in case enemies managed to reproduce it.

"The Royals will probably start to attack now that you have arrived," Great Elder Diana continued. "We can't breach them in only one battle. This is a slow siege."

Great Elder Diana's words made sense, but Noah wanted to see if Night could open a different path. His horned helmet turned toward Chasing Demon as he spoke to his Patriarch. "Let me try something."

On that battlefield, Great Elder Diana was clearly in charge. Her cultivation level in the liquid stage put her one step above both Noah and Chasing Demon.

However, they both came from organizations at the top of those Mortal Lands. The number of powerful items and assets in their possession transcended what a single powerhouse could accomplish.

The alliance didn't have a leader for that exact reason. If the Hive and the Council were to base their prowess purely on items, the Copying Formation would be enough to place the Hive on top.

The problem there was that no one wanted to waste valuable items on a simple battlefield. The alliance didn't want to reveal its cards, but it didn't want to lose troops either, which was why Diana pressed for a slow and safe approach.

Nevertheless, Noah was different.

Chasing Demon nodded, and Noah shot forward. The Patriarch of the Hive followed him across the corrosive smoke, and Great Elder Diana snorted before imitating him.

She didn't care that Noah had ignored her proposal. She had always known how he acted. She was only annoyed that they would have to waste more time because Noah wanted to test himself.

Two arrows flew across the darkness, aiming directly at the three of them. Both attacks went toward Noah, but Great Elder Diana stepped forward to block them.

Diana joined her palms, and crackling sounds spread through the black cloud. It was as if that simple gesture had given birth to a lightning storm even if the two cultivators from the Hive didn't see a single lightning bolt.

The arrows reached her only to find her palms in their trajectory. Both Noah and Chasing Demon thought that her limbs would shatter, but two massive lightning bolts came out of her hands and turned the disposable weapons into ashes.

A series of fiery snakes made their way through the darkness at that point. They had followed the arrows, so they didn't come in contact with the corrosive smoke, which left them virtually intact.

Chasing Demon stepped forward, and rocks began to form on top of his skin. The Patriarch transformed as more "Breath" of the earth element turned his figure into a massive golem that started to fight with the snakes.

Great Elder Diana quickly went to help Chasing Demon. He was alone against the spells of two powerhouses, and she knew that the defensive formations had yet to unleash everything.

Multicolored beams assaulted the corrosive cloud. Without the weaker heroic cultivators as targets, they could focus all their power on the powerhouses.

Noah saw his area of destruction becoming smaller as hundreds of shining beams with power at the peak of the fifth rank assaulted the cloud. Even with three powerhouses against them, the Royals could hold their ground without suffering any loss!

'Are you ready?' Noah asked while he let the two rank 6 cultivators block the attacks for him.

'Just give me a target,' Night conveyed in an annoyed tone. Those types of battles appeared unworthy of its status, but it had to admit that it felt good to fight without worrying about the sunlight.

Noah gave it an order and shot toward the golden shields. A loud shockwave expanded from his landing spot, but the light radiated by the defenses didn't even flicker at his arrival.

That was a formation with rank 6 power. Noah would have to do far more than that only to make a crack appear on its surface. Moreover, there was the chance that those lines could fix themselves like the inscriptions in the Royal Academy.

Being so close to the shields exposed Noah, but his goal was to distract the two Royals from his main offensive.

Snore launched its elemental attacks on the shields while the Demonic Sword became smaller than a knife. Arrays of laws appeared in his vision as Noah focused, and his slow slashes severed them.

An intense tremor spread on the shields, and the light on a large area dimmed. The dark zone had the shape of a massive fissure, and the defensive formations took a few minutes to restore their radiance.

However, no crack appeared on their surface. Even one of Noah's most powerful slashes couldn't do anything against those shields.

Bright beams and spells of the fire element flew toward him right after he launched his attack. His body covered by the spiked armor could endure the cores' blows on its own, but Noah couldn't underestimate the Royals' offensive.

A human-shaped crack appeared in his spot right before the attacks could converge on him. The explosion that their crash caused engulfed Noah when he came out of his dimension and flung him back toward his allies.

Chasing Demon couldn't stop smiling. Noah's prowess was off the scale for an existence that had lived a little more than five hundred years. He could already imagine how Noah would have no rivals in the lower planes once his centers of powers reached the last part of the heroic ranks.

Great Elder Diana had similar thoughts, but she wasn't as optimistic as her ally. The stronger a cultivator was, the harsher Heaven and Earth's restrictions would be.

A broader individuality made the cultivation journey harsher too. Noah's growth inside the fifth rank matched and even slightly surpassed the best geniuses, but it wasn't monster-like for that exact reason.

Moreover, she was still a bit annoyed that Noah didn't listen to her. Even monsters should respect experience and power, especially when they came from allies.

"Can we use my strategy now?" Great Elder Diana asked, and Chasing Demon shrugged his shoulders. Two more arrows were coming, so he had to deploy some defenses.

Great Elder Diana prioritized blocking the arrows too and almost failed to notice how Noah was barely listening to their conversation. She believed that he was disappointed due to the outcome of his attacks, but what she saw after she blocked the bolts made her think otherwise.

Chasing Demon and Diana destroyed the arrows and were about to regroup with Noah to organize themselves when a series of explosions resounded from the defensive formations.

The shining lines' cores began to explode, destabilizing the entire array and removing annoying attacks from the Royals' defenses.

More cores continued to explode. No one except Noah knew how such an event was possible, but even he found it hard to believe it. In his mind, he could hear Night repeat the same line over and over again. 'Die, you shining thing!'