A day after Ace and many of the other deities of the Yulan Plane went back to their secluded training, Aiden returned.
As Overgods, the first to notice him were Orloff and Bluefire. The moment he returned, the two Overgods teleported to his location.
They could clearly sense the overwhelming power he was radiating. It was obvious that he had made several more breakthroughs in his battle with the other five Overgods. It was a fact that should've been worth celebrating, and yet, his expression was anything but one of joy.
In the end, Aiden said that although he had managed to suppress the five Overgods, he wasn't able to force them to reveal their true bodies; in fact, he wasn't even able to kill Phueus, who was effectively the weakest of the five.
Orloff noted that although it was a shame, it wasn't worth fretting about, so there had to be more to it than that.
Aiden sighed and explained that the power he revealed, as well as the potential revealed by Ace and now Linley, this time, ended up working against them. According to Aiden, after Orloff left with Ace and the others, Aiden managed to have two more breakthroughs, comprehending both the Concepts of Fate and Death.
It was then that the Overgods of the Four Edicts convinced the Overgod Spirits, who were still sitting on the fence, to join their side, claiming that Aiden was growing too powerful and with the amount of Willpower and Faith that he had accumulated with his declaration to the universe, if he were allowed to condense his Overgod's body, even if they were all to join hands, no one would be a match for him.
And that was even more true for Ace, who was born outside of Heaven's Will, and for Linley, who had broken free of Heaven's Will.
Even though the other three undecided Overgod spirits were still in an infantile state, they were still Overgods. The moment they decided to step in, Aiden found himself placed firmly on the backfoot, it was only after he further comprehended the Concept of Darkness that he was able to reluctantly, forcibly escape their encirclement.
A frown appeared on the faces of Orloff and Bluefire as they wrapped their mind around the new information. Unfortunately, things were destined to go from bad to worse.
The three Overgods suddenly turned their heads in the same direction, having sensed a large disturbance at a particular point in the universe.
A helpless smile appeared on Aiden's face when he sensed their enemies joining hands to condense the body of the Overgod of Life.
Of the four Edict-based Overgods, the Overgod of Life was now the one with the lowest amount of faith at her disposal after Aiden's actions earlier. Even so, it still would've taken her another seven to eight thousand years to condense her Overgod body on her own, but now…
Even though the other three Edict-based Overgods weren't part of the group helping – instead choosing to carry on condensing their own respective bodies – with the help of the Overgods of Darkness, Lightning and Water, the Overgod of Life would be able to finish the condensation process in no more than 1000 years.
Previously, the Overgod of Life was able to hide her true body whilst she did the condensation process on her own, but now, it was impossible. The energy fluctuations of four Overgods working together were simply too much to hide. Unfortunately, Aiden and the others knew there was nothing they could do to take advantage of it.
Aiden knew that with the power he had revealed previously, if he were to appear once again, all the Overgods that viewed him as an enemy would go all out to kill him. Meaning that the four Edict Overgods would all use their real bodies to encircle and kill him.
Even if Aiden, Orloff, and Bluefire were to take action together, the final result would still be the same.
As there was nothing they could do to stop their enemy's progress, all they could do was focus on themselves. Turning to Bluefire, Aiden said that he and Orloff would help him condense his body.
Even though he was the weakest of the three Overgods on the Yulan Plane and, by extension, wouldn't be a match for the fully condensed Overgod of Life, a fully Condensed Overgod was still a fully condensed Overgod – it would better their chances at surviving this ordeal.
Orloff shook his head and said that he should be the one to condense his Overgod body first. As his other body (Augusta) was the current Chief Sovereign of Fate, he had 81 more units of Willpower than Bluefire at his disposal. Even though he still wouldn't be a match for the Overgod of Life after she finished condensing her body due to the overwhelming difference in faith, he would stand a better chance than Bluefire.
Although his words were blunt, Bluefire had to admit that Orloff was right. Even so, Aiden shook his head and said that although Orloff wasn't wrong, it was also true that Orloff was more talented than Bluefire.
When asked what talent had to do with it at this point, Aiden explained that whilst they were helping Bluefire condense his body, it didn't mean they couldn't divert a part of their attention to furthering their comprehension of their respective Concepts.
A look of surprise appeared on Orloff's face as he realised Aiden wasn't wrong. Even though he didn't receive Aiden's blessing, which allowed him to gain 20 units of Will for every Concept he comprehended, he would still gain one, and although not much, it was still better than nothing.
There are two factors that determined the speed at which one was able to condense an Overgods body. First was the amount of faith that was being infused into one's Overgod body; the more faith one had accumulated, the longer the process was.
As for the other factor, it was the amount of Willpower one had. The more Willpower one had, the faster they were able to condense their Overgods body.
Realising the hidden layers of Aiden's plan, Orloff once again sighed in praise. Not only was Aiden incredibly talented, he was also just as intelligent – it was no wonder he was able to accomplish all that he had.
With a decision having been made, the three Overgods quickly got to work. And similar to the situation with the Overgod of Life, with Aiden, Orloff, and Bluefire working together, the disturbance they created was unable to be hidden.
Sensing the trio working together to create Bluefire's Overgod body, the eight Overgods that saw them as an enemy frowned.
As previously mentioned, the more Willpower one had at their disposal, the faster they would be able to condense their Overgod body.
If Bluefire had been working on his own, as he only had a total of 103 units of Will, it likely would've taken around 10,000 years to complete, but with Orloff and Aiden's help, that time was cut down drastically.
It had to be remembered that, like Bluefire, not only was Orloff a paragon of his Law who had also comprehended a further two Concepts of his element, but his other body was Augusta, a Chief Sovereign with 81 units of Will.
Even though Sovereigns didn't have the power or ability to get involved with the Overgod Body condensation process, as the two were truly one, Orloff was able to utilise a total of 184 units of Will. As for Aiden, he had 581 units of Willpower.
Between the three of them, they had a total of 864 units of Will – over twice as many as the four Overgods helping the Overgod of Life. And thanks to the fact Bluefire had significantly less Faith to condense into his body in the first place, the amount of time needed dropped from 10,000 to 800 years.
But that was where the genius of Aiden's plan kicked in. With every breakthrough Aiden and Orloff made, the speed at which they were able to condense Bluefire's body subsequently increased.
Whilst all the Overgods were racing against each other to condense the first true Overgod body, Ace and the other deities were training with just as much urgency.
As heaven-defying geniuses, it went without saying that each of them had been able to make breakthroughs, be they big or small, to further enhance their power. Still, the two that made the most progress were none other than Ace and Linley.
After getting his wish granted by the Overgod of Life, it took Linley ten years to complete his transition and become the universe's first four-way soul mutate.
A two-way soul mutate received a ten-fold increase in divine power when using fused divine power. Three-way soul mutates saw a hundred-fold increase in divine power; as such, Linley had already correctly guessed that, when using his fused divine power, his would be 1000 times others at the same level. Still, what he hadn't foreseen was the increase in Willpower.
He didn't understand the reason behind it as no other soul mutate saw an increase in Willpower simply for being a soul mutate, but Linley had. The first thing he noticed upon waking was that his Willpower had actually more than doubled, going from eight to 18 in one go.
Although it was still two units less than an ordinary Lesser Sovereign, Linley no longer feared them, as his fused divine power was no weaker than the divine power of an intermediate Sovereign, and more importantly, his physical body had also seen an increase in power as well.
Still, aside from the increase in Willpower, the change that Linley was most pleased about was his increase in faith. Although it couldn't compare with his rival's after it was revealed that he had been the one to create the new Mandate of Pure Yang, it still shot up drastically after Aiden had shown the scene of him defeating a three-way soul mutate on his own.
Because Amira hadn't revealed her power to the wider universe, Linley was seen as the second strongest deity alive; as a result, the faith that he received was enough to rival that of a Lesser Sovereign.
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