Beirut and Bluefire, at almost the same instant, arrived as well. Beirut said, delighted, “Your wind Sovereign clone returned? Does this mean that you have essentially completed your four-way fusion of the Laws?” Previously, after Linley completed his establishment of his divine plane of wind, he had continued to train. If he hadn’t succeeded in his training, why would he have returned?
“Essentially.” Linley laughed calmly and nodded. “I’ve already reached the final bottleneck in fusing the four Laws.”
“With one final step, I will have completely, perfectly fused the four profound mysteries of the four Laws into a whole. However, taking this step is even harder than reaching the level of Paragon.” Linley let out a sigh.
Beirut and Bluefire both understood.
How hard was it to become a Paragon?
Because Linley had three Sovereign clones, his rate of advancement was astonishing, which was why he was able to constantly advance until reaching the final bottleneck. However… to break through the bottleneck had nothing to do with analytical ability. There were many Sovereigns who were at the final bottleneck before becoming a Paragon, but after trillions of years, they still had yet to make that breakthrough.
As for Linley?
Who knew if Linley would be able to break through this final bottleneck. This four-way Law fusion was, after all, ten times more powerful than becoming a Paragon in a Law. Naturally, the difficulty was greater as well.
“I’m at a bottleneck, but my power is still nearly ten times stronger than it was during my last fight against Augusta,” Linley said with a smile.
“Ten times!” Bluefire and Beirut were both overjoyed.
“Hmph. Augusta, that bastard.” Beirut couldn’t refrain from starting to laugh. “Last time, he was lucky enough to survive. But now, Linley, you have grown ten times more powerful. Haha… Augusta’s only chance is to reach the Paragon level. But the chances of that are far too slim.” Augusta hadn’t been able to break through despite countless years having passed.
Actually, this all but guaranteed that Augusta had no hope of becoming a Paragon.
“Killing Augusta isn’t just our dream. It is also the dream of the Four Divine Beasts clan.” Beirut laughed as he looked at Linley.
“Beirut, don’t be impatient.” The nearby Bluefire smiled. “The Planar War is in its final century now. Augusta is most likely with the Chief Sovereign of Fate. After this period of time passes, Linley will be able to make his move.”
“Perhaps, within the next century, I’ll make another breakthrough.” Linley laughed loudly.
“Stop daydreaming!” Beirut couldn’t help but start to laugh. “Making the final breakthrough is very difficult. However, once you do make that breakthrough, your power in terms of the profound mysteries will instantly increase tenfold. And… perhaps you will be endowed with another portion of Will. Linley. Once that truly happens, you won’t even have to fear the four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts.”
“Grandpa Beirut, breakthroughs are difficult, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I won’t be able to break through in the next hundred years or so,” Linley jested.
In truth, the fusion of four different Laws was simply too difficult. By the 999th year of the Planar War, Linley still had yet to make a breakthrough.
The sky was completely dark.
“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!”
Seven figures shot out from the Bloodridge Continent, flying shoulder-to-shoulder in the air above the Infernal Realm. After flying for some time, the seven figures suddenly transformed into eleven figures. But once the squad flew deep into the air above the Chaotic Sea, they suddenly once more expanded into a group of seventeen figures!
“Chief Sovereign!” The many figures all bowed respectfully.
“Everyone, the final battle to this Planar War will come in two days. Let us go there together.” The Chief Sovereign of Destruction, Wodred, covered by that black aura, swept the people with his gaze. His gaze paused momentarily on Linley. “Let’s go. We will head out right now!”
As he spoke, the Chief Sovereign of Destruction waved his hand, tearing a rift in space, then charged into it.
The sixteen Sovereigns behind him also charged inside.
“Linley. This Planar War will be viewed by, most likely, even more Sovereigns than the ones that came to your earlier trial,” Beirut sent mentally to Linley. Every single Sovereign in the Infernal Realm, Bluefire and Beirut included, was heading out to watch the Planar War.
Linley smiled calmly. “The Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, won once before. The seven Sovereigns of Fate were all bestowed with an additional portion of Will. The vast majority of the other Sovereigns are unwilling to see them grow even more powerful.”
Since this involved their interests, they naturally came to watch.
“Linley,” suddenly, the voice of the Chief Sovereign of Destruction rang out.
Linley’s flying speed increased slightly as he moved forward to stand next to the Chief Sovereign of Destruction’s shoulders.
“Lord Wodred,” Linley sent.
The Chief Sovereign of Destruction, Wodred, swept Linley’s face with his deep, dark gray gaze. A hint of a smile was on his face. “You offered six Emissaries this time. Thank you.”
The Chief Sovereign of Destruction just said ‘thank you’ to him?
“Your Excellency, you once saved my life. In comparison, what is this?” Linley said with a laugh. In the past, the Chief Sovereign of Light, Augusta, had threatened Linley to force him to hand over the nine soul-pearls, and was even at the verge of attacking. Fortunately, the Chief Sovereign of Destruction had appeared.
The Chief Sovereign of Destruction, hearing this, smiled all the more broadly.
“Oh, we are about to arrive at the Planar Battlefield.” The Chief Sovereign of Destruction looked forward.
The Four Higher Planes and the Seven Divine Planes were all located quite close to each other. In the region of chaotic space at the center of these eleven divine planes was an extremely small plane; the Planar Battlefield. Thus, to tear open a spatial rift and fly through chaotic space from the eleven divine planes to the Planar Battlefield took very little time.
To go through the dimensional portals to the Planar Battlefield would actually take longer.
Going through chaotic space was the most straightforward, shortest route.
“Linley,” a familiar voice rang out.
Linley turned to look. From afar, a group of people were drawing close to them, with the Chief Sovereign of Death, that beautiful, red-haired maiden, at their head. This squad clearly consisted of the Sovereigns of the Netherworld. Fourteen Sovereigns had come from the Netherworld.
“Rumble…”
The Sovereigns all directly charged into the Planar Battlefield.
Utter silence. Within the cold, forbidding Planar Battlefield, a desolate wind howled.
The Netherworld and the Infernal Realm had brought a total of thirty-one Sovereigns, and they all landed atop a mountain. Moments later, nine other figures flew towards them from afar; these were the Sovereigns of the Life Realm. And then, afterwards, small, scattered groups of Sovereigns drew closer as well. Soon, a total of 49 Sovereigns had appeared.
“Now, we are only missing the Celestial Realm and the Divine Light Plane.” The Chief Sovereign of Death revealed a secretive smile on her face as she glanced at the Chief Sovereign of Destruction. “Wodred, Orloff seemed quite confident.”
“Confident? Who isn’t confident? Victory and defeat will only be truly determined once this battle concludes,” the Chief Sovereign of Destruction said calmly.
Linley, Beirut, and Bluefire stayed together in one corner at the peak of the mountain. As many Sovereigns saw it, Linley’s group of three, the three Sovereigns of Yulan, were like one unit. Their unit, because of Linley’s existence, was even more terrifying than the former unit of the Four Divine Beasts.
“They’ve com
e,” Linley said with a calm laugh.
Bluefire and Beirut immediately turned to look. The other Sovereigns all noticed the newcomers now as well. From far away, an imposing host was flying towards them, with a total of twenty-two members.
The Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, was the leader. The Chief Sovereign of Light, Augusta, was by his side. The other Sovereigns belonged to the various Laws and Edicts.
“Hmph.” The Chief Sovereign of Destruction, seeing this, turned his gaze towards Orloff.
As for Orloff, he too was staring towards the Chief Sovereign of Destruction.
Clearly, these two Chief Sovereigns viewed each other as their most powerful foes.
“Linley, the two of them view each other as their only opponents. They look down on the other Sovereigns. If one day, Linley, you were to surpass them both, what sort of a look would they have on their faces?” Beirut sent to Linley with a smirk.
84
THE FINAL BATTLE
Linley swept his gaze past the Chief Sovereign of Destruction and the Chief Sovereign of Fate.
“To surpass them… even if I perfectly merge the four profound mysteries of those four Laws, I will only be on par with them. Unless… I fuse with a final fire-type Lesser Sovereign spark,” Linley sent back.
Beirut and Bluefire both nodded.
“The final battle is tomorrow. Let’s just wait patiently.” Beirut laughed.
Seventy-one Sovereigns. They chatted there, casually, at the peak of the mountain. Meanwhile, the high-level commanders of the Celestial Realm and Infernal Realm began to make their preparations for the final battle. This battle could be described as the battle with the least numbers of commanders in many trillions of years.
In the past, the focal point for Planar Wars was the various commanders hunting and killing each other prior to the final battle. But this time, virtually none of those long-famous commanders and Paragons had come.
The entire Planar Battlefield had, in total, less than thirty commander- or Emissary-level experts. The vast majority of those individuals who did come were newly promoted Emissaries, such as the six under Linley’s command. There wasn’t a single Paragon present.
Paragons had a great chance for survival, true.
But if a Paragon had to fight alone against a large number of foes who would focus their fire upon him, he would rather not go risk his life, unless there was some treasure in store for him.
The Chief Sovereign of Death and the rest of the four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the top of the mountain, staring at the battlefield that was hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.
“Rumble…”
Very suddenly, at the Stellar River, an endless amount of energy began to gather, which then shot out in every direction, disintegrating the military camps on each side of the Stellar River in but an instant. All of the soldiers in each camp were at least at the Highgod level, and so everyone was able to effortless deflect this energy ripple.
“Swish!” “Swish!”
A beautiful, illusory, rainbow-colored light rose towards the heavens. Each of the two corridors of the Stellar River were emanating this dazzling, rainbow-colored light.
“Kill!!!”
The warriors, many of whom had been training or resting, didn’t hesitate at all. They acted in accordance with their pre-arranged plans, and a stream of squads wildly charged towards the Stellar Corridors.
“It has begun!”
The seventy-one Sovereigns who stood hundreds of thousands of kilometers away couldn’t help but completely focus their attention on watching this battle.
“Orloff, Wodred, which side will win, do you think?” The Chief Sovereign of Death delighted in causing mischief, and so she asked them this question with a smirk.
The icy-faced black-robed Wodred said calmly, “Win? Our Infernal Realm side doesn’t need to ‘win’. We only need to fight to a draw; that is enough of a success. I’m not confident in our chances to achieve victory in both corridors, but to gain victory in a single corridor shouldn’t be too hard.”
“Victory or defeat is up to them.” The Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, still had a smile on his face, looking like an amiable old man. It was as though there was nothing that could surprise him.
“How insane.” Linley, through his divine sense, was able to see the battle go on hundreds of kilometers away, and he couldn’t help but let out a sigh.
“Bang!” “Bang!”
All of the countless warriors who entered the Stellar Corridor instantly began to blaze with the aura of Sovereign’s Might. A Six Star Fiend who used Sovereign’s Might might be able to threaten a commander who wasn’t using Sovereign’s Might. And now, thousands on thousands of experts were using it together?
What sort of a scene was this? It had never been seen before in the past, but it would be today!
“Madness.” Beirut, seeing this sight, couldn’t help but shake his head as well. “No wonder even Paragons and commanders aren’t willing to participate.”
“All this is happening due to the self-interest of the Sovereigns.” Bluefire let out a sigh.
Linley continued to carefully watch the battle proceed. The two corridors atop the Stellar River had erupted into battle at virtually the same instant.
“Target, straight ahead. Launch a joint attack against the black-horned man standing at the perimeter.” A hundred warriors, blazing with Sovereign power of various colors, struck out with their weapons or with kicks at the same instant. A hundred material attacks wildly blasted out towards the area in front of them, and everything within ten meters of that muscular, black-horned man was instantly reduced to nothingness.
“Target, twenty meters ahead of us. Joint soul attacks!” A translucent wave of soul attacks blasted forth. Many of the warriors that had been battling up ahead trembled, then fell from the skies as their divine artifacts departed their bodies.
The Celestial Realm and the Infernal Realm’s experts were viciously, mercilessly slaughtering each other. This was especially true since in this battle, extremely few commanders or Emissaries were taking part. Thus, victory in this battle was determined through sheer slaughter.
“The Twelve-Winged Angels have entered the battlefield,” the Chief Sovereign of Death said with a soft laugh.
“The Twelve-Winged Angel Army truly is formidable.” Beirut sighed in amazement, and Linley, by Beirut’s side, couldn’t help but look over with shining eyes.
At virtually the same instant, on the side of the Celestial Realm, Twelve-Winged Angel battle formations appeared at both of the Stellar Corridors. They were covered with a beautiful aura of white light, and had twelve white, fluttering wings on their backs.
“Straight ahead, material attacks!” Six icy-faced Twelve-Winged Angels, covered with white light, formed each Angel Battle Formation. They unleashed rays of thick white light that instantly shot towards their foes up ahead. Wherever this light passed, space splintered and shattered. The soldiers of the Infernal Realm were very densely packed, and upon encountering the rays of light, tens of soldiers of the Infernal Realm would instantly transform into nothingness.
Each squad of Twelve-Winged Angels were formed from six individuals. Every ten squads formed into a platoon, while every ten platoons formed into a company.
“Whooooosh.”
Large numbers of Twelve-Winged Angels were advancing in an extremely orderly fashion. On each side, they were supported by many of the soldiers of the Celestial Realm. The Twelve-Winged Angels were the tip of the blade, while the many ordinary soldiers played a support role; they pressed down upon the Infernal Realm’s side, constantly grinding them down.
“Bang!”
Every attack of each squad of Twelve-Winged Angels would annihilate a large number of soldiers. These Twelve-Winged Angels were all, after all, no weaker than the Seven Star Fiend level. Most of the warriors of the Infernal Realm were only at the Six Star Fiend l
evel; there was a difference in power to begin with. Given that these Twelve-Winged Angels were also skilled in combination attacks and formations, they naturally were able to constantly advance, as easily as drilling through rotting wood!
“Up ahead, that Angel squad in front of us. Joint material attacks.” More than seven hundred warriors of the Infernal Realm jointly launched material attacks, and the skies were filled with rays of shooting light. The Twelve-Winged Angels weren’t able to dodge in time, and instantly, the squad was reduced into dust. But immediately afterwards…
Two successive rays of white light shot towards the Infernal Realm, instantly slaughtering nearly a hundred warriors and once more throwing the Infernal Realm’s side into chaos.
“They are on completely different levels.” Beirut shook his head with a frown. “A single Twelve-Winged Angel, by himself, is comparable to ten Six Star Fiends. On the side of the Infernal Realm, even if a hundred men in a squad join forces and attack, their attacks are disordered and unable to kill the Twelve-Winged Angels who are in the Angel Battle Formation. The only chance is for hundreds of soldiers to join forces together.”
Linley nodded slightly as well. He could tell that these Twelve-Winged Angels were like the extremely sharp tip of a blade. They didn’t fear death, and they were extremely powerful! To kill six Twelve-Winged Angels, the Infernal Realm would have to lose nearly a thousand warriors. And that was just the raw numbers; more important was the question of soldier morale!
With the Twelve-Winged Angels serving as the tip of the blade, the warriors of the Celestial Realm felt their morale surge towards the heavens, and they brimmed with confidence.
As for the soldiers of the Infernal Realm, although they didn’t fear death, given how vast the gap in power was, quite a few soldiers felt their hearts grow cold. If they continued to die like this… how were they supposed to win? Once morale began to drop, they would easily crumble.
“If this continues, in a short period of time, the Celestial Realm’s side will achieve victory in both corridors,” Linley said with a frown.
“The Infernal Realm’s side shouldn’t collapse that quickly.” Beirut shook his head, while Linley nodded as well. “Right. The six Emissaries under my command are currently hidden amongst the soldiers of the Infernal Realm; they haven’t participated and unleashed their power yet. I imagine that the Infernal Realm’s side must have some sort of a plan.”
Lord of the Mists Page 69
