Noah created a deep pit on the frozen region after the clash with the quasi-rank 7 Eternal Snake, but he straightened himself as soon as he completed his attack.
The leader roared in anger when it saw the death of its underlings. Its cries also carried pain since Noah's sharpness kept opening cuts inside the injury on its mouth.
The quasi-rank 7 creature was livid. It could barely contain its feelings, but Noah didn't remain still to watch how it would react.
He had completed his mission. His kill count amounted to forty-six underlings and three peak rank, and the continent contained less than twenty rank 6 specimens after that hunt.
Noah didn't know if the world could start healing now, but he couldn't prolong his hunt anymore. He had to get away from the Snakes' leader and let his centers of power recover.
Noah sprinted as soon as he straightened his position. The leader released another angry roar at that sight, and it spread its mouth to spit a torrent of silver liquid toward the sky.
A cloud soon formed, and silver rain began to fall from its surface. Trails of ice and frozen lands began to fill the environment, but the Snakes' leader wasn't satisfied with that outcome.
The quasi-rank 7 specimen didn't know where Noah had gone at that time. There wasn't any other target worth defending on the continent, so the creature felt no need to move from its position.
Yet, it still wanted to kill Noah. The massive rain was only the beginning of its outburst. The Snake wouldn't let that invader catch it unprepared again.
The Snake continued to spit its silver liquid in the sky. The cloud slowly enlarged, and it eventually grew past the edges of the continent. Its rain began to fall on the sea and enlarge the landmass.
The leader didn't stop there. It wasn't satisfied with a bigger lair. It wanted the whole world to become its home and radiate its aura.
The cloud kept growing since the Snakes' leader didn't stop pouring silver liquid in the sky. The creature continued to use its innate ability for entire days, and it halted only when its rain fell everywhere in the world.
The whole world transformed as the cloud released the silver rain. Layers of ice spread wherever the drops fell, and the entirety of the sea soon become nothing more than a frozen landmass.
The few regions that had yet to freeze didn't escape that transformation either. The leader's patience had ended. In a bit more than a week, the creature transformed the world into an endless frozen land.
The quasi-rank 7 creature stopped releasing silver liquid at that point and began a thorough inspection of the world. The leader couldn't find Noah, but it ended up eating the corpses that he had left behind when he escaped.
Then, the leader returned to the lands frozen by the divine silver liquid. The whole world was an extension of its mind now. Nothing could escape its eyes anymore.
Noah had watched the whole transformation. He had returned on the entrance to the separate dimension after escaping from the continent, and he had paid particular attention to the leader.
He didn't care if the world froze. Those changes couldn't affect him. Yet, he wanted to know if the leader could express that power without incurring any negative repercussions.
After all, the quasi-rank 7 Snake could have just transformed the world in the past centuries. There was no need to wait for an invader to decimate its underlings to deploy that strategy.
Noah's guess was on point. He had seen with his consciousness how the leader lost its scales during its long attack. Pieces of its body had fallen as it pushed the limits of its innate ability.
That kind of injury wasn't enough to weaken it permanently. The leader had just overworked itself, using a lot of energy in the process. Noah guessed that it would now enter a long hibernation to recover and wait for a new pack to form.
'This would be the perfect moment to attack,' Noah thought, but he soon threw that idea in the back of his mind.
His ambition had run off, and the drawbacks had arrived. Noah also needed to recover after going through such a long and dangerous hunt.
Moreover, the main problem was still there. The world was too frail. The events in the past days had even enlarged the cracks in the sky after the golden net crumbled.
Noah had failed to hold back a few times during the hunt, and he had also clashed with the quasi-rank 7 creature once. The Snakes' leader had done the same, and its actions had brought even more destruction to the world.
It was customary for the world to suffer when existences at the peak of the sixth rank expressed their power. Their basic aura was so intense that it could shatter the fabric of the sky.
However, Noah knew that too much had happened in those days. The world needed a long period of peace to understand if it could begin its restoration now that a lot of internal pressure was no more.
Noah returned inside the separate dimension and immersed himself in his training while waiting for the world to stabilize. He had confirmed that his current power was enough to face a creature on that level, and that had given birth to a constant craving for a good battle inside him.
The years passed quickly, but Noah didn't bother to check the situation in the outside world. He would have to make a hole in the frozen layers above the sea to inspect the changes thoroughly, and he didn't want to end up fighting the quasi-rank 7 Snake unless he had confirmed that the world could take it.
That required a long time. Noah guessed that even a few centuries wouldn't be enough to fix the damage acc.u.mulated since the divine leaders tried to destroy the world.
That was the reason behind Noah's lack of hurry. He had no reason to go outside and alert the Snakes' leader that he was still around.
Noah always lost track of time during his training sessions. Two hundred years had to pass before he understood that it was time to take a good look at the world.
Ice welcomed him once he came out of the separate dimension. The underwater area was the only zone above the seabed that hadn't fallen prey to the leader's innate ability, but pieces of the frozen landmass fell there from time to time.
Noah focused before sprinting toward the surface. His Demonic Sword couldn't cut through the frozen lands on its own. He had to rely on his ambition if he wanted to go past that blockage.
His individuality brought him near the peak of the sixth rank. The frozen layers crumbled under his attacks after he reached that level, but he still sprinted to leave as few tracks as possible.
The Snakes' leader noticed that something had come out of from an area near its home. It didn't hesitate to roar at the sky while ordering to mobilize the troops.
Noah could hear those cries, but he ignored them to focus on the world. The net of cracks had shrunk by a lot in the last two centuries. It seemed that the plane had finally started healing.