Chapter 1168: 1168. Preparations

Noah didn't give other orders, but the Elders didn't need more directives. His call for war was enough to activate all the parts of the Hive that could help in battle.

Chasing Demon had taught Elder Julia how to handle the Copying Technique, so she set off to hunt more magical beasts. She even relied on Noah to make use of his expertise in the magical beasts' field.

Since they knew King Elbas' abilities, they could pick creatures that countered him.

Of course, that wouldn't be enough to stop the Royals' leader. A powerhouse in the solid stage who used only higher energy couldn't lose against an army of weaker beasts.

Still, King Elbas needed to consume himself to set fire to his higher energy. Slowing him down might tire him enough to defeat him.

Flying Demon had learnt how to create doors in the separate dimension, so he handled the creation of specific tunnels that could give the allied forces an edge over King Elbas.

The Hive didn't care about the secrecy of the separate dimension anymore. It preferred to reveal its functioning if that gave it an advantage over its enemy.

The world already knew that the Hive had a method to teleport troops secretly, but the other organizations didn't know how exactly it worked. Still, the Hive was willing to reveal everything to solidify its position as the strongest force in those Mortal Lands.

Skully instructed the hybrids. She taught them battle formations and created different platoons according to their abilities.

The hybrids would be nothing more than cannon fodder if the Hive deployed them in a frontal assault against King Elbas. So, Skully decided to prepare a strategy with Flying Demon to make them rely on the separate dimension.

Dreaming Demon couldn't do anything specific, but the hybrids were in desperate need of a proper teacher. Skully could control them, but they needed someone that could teach them how to fight.

Noah would be perfect for that role, but he had other plans. Dreaming Demon took that position, and she filled the hybrids with spells that could match their innate gifts.

The Hive couldn't live in fear of a revolt from the hybrids' side. It preferred to bring their power to their peak so that they could help against its threatening enemy.

The rest of the Hive worked around the powerhouses. Many helped Flying Demon digging new paths in the separate dimension, while others joined hunts to capture magical beasts useful for the Copying Technique.

The entire Hive began to work toward the same goal: Creating an array of defenses that could block King Elbas!

Noah's schedule was different. He had just advanced to the middle tier, and his dantian had reached the liquid stage only recently. He couldn't hope in any breakthrough, and his current power couldn't do anything against King Elbas.

Yet, he had projects that could help the Hive as a whole. The creation of living weapons and his inscribed items could improve his domain's defenses by a lot.

Noah didn't waste time. He immediately contacted Thirty-seven and reviewed the situation with him. The automaton wasn't a strategist, but he knew how powerful solid stage powerhouses could be.

Thirty-seven couldn't help too much in the matter. His expertise was incredible, but the heroic ranks were his limit. He couldn't create inscriptions capable of stopping an existence that bordered the divine ranks.

Still, he could advise Noah. The mass production of living weapons resumed immediately, and the automaton ideated formations that relied on Noah's disposable items.

Noah didn't mind using his time to focus on his inscription methods. The creation of living weapons was something that he had avoided for many years, but King Elbas' threat made it his priority.

Noah and Thirty-seven worked with Elder Julia to refill their stash of magical beasts' corpses, and they soon gathered enough materials to resume their project.

Hundreds of living weapons came out of the separate dimension to arm the Elders. Noah took care of the weaker cultivators before focusing on items that required his complete concentration.

Equipping rank 5 Elders at his current level wasn't a problem, but the Hive needed far more to fend off King Elbas. The entire world was against a solid stage powerhouse who used higher energy. Having weapons in the fifth rank wasn't nearly enough.

Noah created living weapons for each powerhouse and for the rank 5 cultivators that deserved special treatment.

June obtained a spear capable of enhancing lightning bolts. Noah had used the best materials that he could gather to create the most durable quasi-rank 6 weapon in the world.

Daniel obtained a living weapon too. Noah used a peculiar species of frog-type magical beasts to create a cauldron capable of improving the purification process with every material.

That was another quasi-rank 6 item. Noah had chosen to restrain his ability again so that rank 5 cultivators could use it.

The same went for other promising Elders in the fifth rank. Noah armed every expert in the Hive before moving to other projects.

The second part of his strategy against King Elbas was preparing traps that could keep him away from the Hive's domain.

Noah worked with Thirty-seven to create formations that could enhance the destructive properties of the Instabilities. Those disposable items weren't cheap, especially their rank 6 version, but Noah didn't care as long as they could stop King Elbas.

The last phase of his strategy was something that he had to handle alone.

The alliance had assaulted the regions under the Elbas family's control after Noah's achievements in Divine Market city. Still, both the Council and the Hive had chosen to attack the Royal Academy rather than the paradisal territory built by King Elbas.

The southeastern corner of the new continent was King Elbas' new home, and no one in the alliance had dared to attack it for fear of the defenses in the area.

The powerhouses wanted to leave that region as the last target of their assault. They feared King Elbas' expertise too much to siege his home.

However, Noah had learnt to understand King Elbas after their interactions. He knew that the Royal couldn't possibly create too many defenses in a region that he had restructured in a few years.

There was a limit to how much a powerhouse could build in less than a decade. Even the best inscription master in the world would need his fair share of years to deploy an array of defensive formations capable of stopping the assault of rank 6 cultivators.

Noah flew toward the corner of the southeastern coast once he completed all his projects with Thirty-seven. There was something that only he could do in that region, and he didn't hesitate to step forward since his opponent was King Elbas.

The Royal had brought the Ape God back from the sea of magma, and he had also restored part of its power before resurfacing.

The Ape God was the strongest being in those Mortal Lands, but no one had heard about it after King Elbas took over the snowy plain. The creature was still somewhere on the surface, and the only place capable of containing it was King Elbas' home.

Noah inspected the paradisiac region thoroughly before deciding to land in front of the palace built at its center. His instincts didn't sense any threat, and that confirmed his hypothesis.

King Elbas didn't set any defense in the region. He had used his name to keep everyone away, but that wasn't enough to fend Noah off.