The battle between the old and new rulers had always felt inevitable. The siege at the orange city didn't even surprise Noah after everything that had happened during the apocalyptic event. Heaven and Earth could find and hunt down magical beasts, so it naturally had the power to use the new environment to find other hated enemies.

The new control that Heaven and Earth could have over the higher plane was the very reason behind Noah's decision to make his quasi-living workshops small and faint. He couldn't reduce the destructiveness of his influence, but the rulers would have a hard time finding his creations after they went dormant.

Moreover, Noah had always planned to plant many of them to make their complete annihilation impossible. The weak sky gave him a constant stream of energy that he could steal, so mass-producing his quasi-living workshops wasn't a problem.

The various lumps of clouds didn't hesitate to launch other lightning bolts toward the spot where the apes had disappeared. The fabric of space trembled and revealed the presence of a barrier as cracks spread on its surface. The orange city's iconic aura spread from the fissures into the environment, but everything stabilized quickly.

The old rulers didn't seem willing to fight, but Heaven and Earth didn't want to give up. Noah could guess that the current scene wasn't unusual in the new environment of the higher plane. He had woken up many years after the weak sky filled the world, so the battle between those two forces had probably happened multiple times already.

The clouds never stopped releasing lightning bolts. The weak sky continued to add energy to their structure so that they could launch a relentless offensive, which eventually led to results. A large hole opened in the fabric of space, and bright orange light came out of it. Noah could even see the faint shapes of familiar buildings past that barrier.

'Why aren't they fighting?' Noah wondered while inspecting the scene.

The lightning bolts carried the power of the upper tier, but they were attacks that the orange city could fend off. Even Noah could deal with them if he went all-out since they didn't carry any deeper meaning connected to a world. They were simple masses of power that had taken a destructive shape, so an equally strong technique could take care of them.

Still, the orange city didn't answer. It limited itself to cower behind the barrier as attacks continued to rain on that cracked defense. Cracks expanded from the hole, and new openings appeared as destruction unfolded.

Noah could see the orange city's attempts to seal the holes and close the fissures, but that was a passive approach that only slowed down the inevitable destruction of the barrier. Part of him felt the need to intervene to ruin Heaven and Earth's plans, but he held himself back to see where that situation led.

The old rulers had the power to fight back, but they didn't use it. Noah tried to find damages or clues in the holes to explain that behavior, but he didn't see anything unusual. The orange city shone brightly as usual, and he even noticed the array of lightning bolts protecting it.

Something deeper was happening there, but Noah couldn't see anything. Yet, an odd sound eventually reached his position, and a cold smirk appeared on his face as he deployed the dark world and made it replicate the apes' organ.

"What is it?" Noah asked, making sure that his voice spread past the dark world.

"Why aren't you helping us?" The old rulers' androgynous resounded inside the crystals of dark matter.

"Why aren't you fighting back?" Noah replied.

"Is this really the time for this?" The old rulers wondered. "We thought you trusted us by now."

"Saying that only makes you shadier," Noah chuckled. "Come on. This battle must have happened multiple times already. I want to understand what's going on."

"It's pretty simple," The old rulers announced. "Heaven and Earth are trying to deplete our reserves of energy. They probably want to take us out right before the final battle."

"With lightning bolts and clouds?" Noah asked. "They wouldn't be able to take me out with this little power."

"The real Tribulation will start after our city appears among the world," The old Heaven and Earth explained. "We are afraid we'll suffer losses even with your help at that point."

"I'd like to see that," Noah stated. "I'll help you if everything turns out to be too troublesome."

"Very well," The old rulers uttered before putting an end to the conversation.

Noah retracted the dark world in time to watch the whole area sieged by the clouds shatter. The fabric of space fell apart and transformed into energy that entered the immense city hidden behind that barrier.

The second layer of space stood under the orange city. The old rulers had used the same trick to hide traps and sources of energy in the past, but that didn't prevent Heaven and Earth from finding them now that they had seized a tighter control over the world.

The clouds continued to launch lightning bolts, but they couldn't do anything now that the crackling defensive array of the orange city showed its real might. The attacks fell on those defenses and shattered into waves of energy that the buildings absorbed in no time.

The area appeared too frail for the orange city. Noah couldn't help but feel that the overall weight of those buildings had increased since the last time he had seen them. It seemed that the structure had yet to show its real size and power, but its current state was enough to trigger a reaction in the Tribulation.

The clouds didn't waste energy anymore. They absorbed fuel from the weak sky before shrinking to condense their power. Then, they started to move slowly toward the orange city, and the defensive array of lightning bolts did nothing to stop them.

The various clouds were nothing more than chest-sized black masses by the time they reached the orange city, but they detonated as soon as they touched the array of lightning bolts. The power that they released felt immense, but Noah inspected it coldly. He would have a hard time against a similar attack, but he could endure it, so the old rulers could fare even better.

The old rulers didn't betray his confidence. The array of lightning bolts appeared unaffected when the waves of chaotic laws dispersed and allowed Noah to inspect the area. A few buildings now showed cracks, but that wasn't surprising. That damage didn't even lower the city's overall power.

Nevertheless, Heaven and Earth had launched that attack only to fill the area with chaotic laws. Not many of them had survived the clash with the lightning bolts and the absorption that followed, but the few currents still in the environment ended up flowing toward the nearest spots with weak sky and fusing with that fabric.

The sky morphed after absorbing those currents. Large chunks of that white material separated from the main structure to give birth to multiple giants that slowly condensed to obtain smooth surfaces. Different weapons also appeared on their hands, and a series of armors slowly grew from their pure-white skin.

****

Author's notes: The second chapter is almost done.

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