"How is this possible?"
Seeing his proudest technique shattered by this unfamiliar Lesser Sovereign, Sovereign Snowfall revealed a look of horror.
Snowfall had always possessed tremendous confidence in the technique he had learned from Chief Sovereign Locke.
Once this move was unleashed, among Lesser Sovereigns, he would reign supreme.
To break this move so effortlessly, only an Intermediate Sovereign whose strength surpassed a Lesser Sovereign by more than a hundredfold should be capable of doing so.
This fellow clearly possessed the aura of only a Wind Lesser Sovereign. How could he possibly possess the strength of an Intermediate Sovereign?
"Could it be...?"
A thought suddenly flashed through Snowfall's mind.
Could this Wind Lesser Sovereign opposite him actually be a Paragon?
It seemed there had indeed been rumors recently about a Wind god-level expert reaching the Paragon realm.
Could it be him?
Boom!
After shattering the frozen world created by Snowfall, Theresia didn't stop. He struck down with a palm toward Snowfall.
Sensing the power contained within this attack, Snowfall became completely certain that this Wind Lesser Sovereign truly was a Paragon.
He absolutely could not block this attack.
He might even be killed instantly by Theresia.
Faced with the threat of death, Snowfall followed the choice buried deep within his heart. His divine sense spread across the entire Water Divine Plane as he cried for help—
"Lord Locke, save me!"
In that instant, the entire Water Divine Plane seemed to fall silent.
No one had expected Snowfall's plea for help to be broadcast throughout the entire Water Divine Plane using divine sense.
Not only Sovereigns—even god-level experts and Saint-level beings—so long as they were within the Water Divine Plane, all heard Snowfall's cry in their ears.
Those Sovereigns who had just extended their divine senses toward the Water Divine Plane naturally heard it as well.
Immediately, these Sovereigns' divine senses paused. They didn't know whether they should continue observing or simply withdraw and pretend they knew nothing.
However, led by several powerful divine senses, the rest ultimately couldn't resist the temptation of some fresh gossip. Thus, they all extended their divine senses toward the place where Snowfall and Theresia were fighting.
"Edict—"
"Spatial Shift!"
White light erupted from Locke's body, and he instantly vanished from atop the cloud bed.
In the next moment, Locke's figure appeared directly before Snowfall, grabbing Theresia's wrist with one hand.
Bang!
With Locke's grip, the terrifying power in Theresia's attack—power sufficient to instantly kill Snowfall—shattered like bubbles.
"Lord Locke!"
Seeing Locke, Theresia was shocked.
Because from the Locke standing before him, what he sensed was unmistakably the aura of a Fate Sovereign.
Wasn't Lord Locke a Water Paragon Sovereign?
Why was he a Fate Sovereign?
Could it be that Lord Locke also possessed a Water Paragon Sovereign clone?
"Oh? After more than five trillion years, a new Sovereign has finally appeared?"
"And this new Sovereign is actually Wind Paragon Theresia?"
"What a pity. If he had refined an Intermediate Sovereign spark instead, things would have become interesting."
As doubts filled Theresia's heart, the divine senses of the various Sovereigns had already arrived.
Since Theresia had left traces of himself across many planes over this period of time, some Sovereigns naturally recognized this, Paragon.
And now, having become a Sovereign, he had transformed from a mere ant into a Sovereign stronger than the majority of them.
The first batch of Sovereigns all understood the terror of Paragon Sovereigns.
The Paragon Will granted a hundredfold increase in power, allowing them to directly rival Sovereigns of higher ranks.
Currently, Chief Wind Sovereign Dia had repeatedly backed down in battles against opponents of equal level, causing many Sovereigns to privately mock him as the "Weakest Chief Sovereign."
If Paragon Theresia had refined a Wind Intermediate Sovereign spark, then he would possess strength comparable to an ordinary elemental Chief Sovereign.
At that point, among the Wind Sovereigns, should Dia be acknowledged as supreme, or should Theresia?
Fortunately for Dia, however, his luck seemed good.
Although Theresia had fortunately obtained a Wind Sovereign spark and become a new Wind Sovereign, he had only become a Paragon Wind Lesser Sovereign whose power was equivalent to an Intermediate Sovereign.
"Hmph!"
Naturally, Dia heard the conversations among the Sovereigns. In the end, however, he merely snorted and offered no comment.
These days, everything else was meaningless. Only staying alive mattered.
Dia understood this principle very clearly.
Look at the Chief Sovereign of Darkness, the Chief Sovereign of Lightning, and the former Chief Water Sovereign. Hadn't they all been extremely high-profile in the past?
How many people still remembered them now?
Chief Lightning Sovereign Hurley had been forcefully slain by the Death Chief Sovereign.
No one knew how the Chief Sovereign of Darkness had died at the hands of the Chief Sovereign of Light.
As for the Chief Water Sovereign...
That incident indeed involved Dia. After all, he had been the one who invited the Chief Water Sovereign to attack the Four Divine Beasts Sovereigns together.
Unfortunately, under the might of the Four Divine Beasts' combined innate divine ability, the slower Chief Water Sovereign became their primary target and ultimately perished.
Meanwhile, although Chief Wind Sovereign Dia had a poor reputation, he was still alive and well.
That alone proved he had been right.
These Sovereigns dared to chatter so freely only because Chief Sovereign Locke was present to keep things in check.
If these same Sovereigns had to face Dia directly, the words coming from their mouths would be sweeter than those of courtesans in a brothel.
"Lord Locke!"
After having his wrist seized by the suddenly appearing Locke, Theresia was startled.
Especially after seeing his attack effortlessly neutralized by Locke, Theresia realized that even after becoming a Sovereign, he was still just a small fry before Lord Locke.
"Lord Locke..."
Before Theresia could greet Locke properly, Snowfall had already begun crying bitterly.
"Lord Locke, it's this fellow! Not only did he tear open space from the spatial turbulence and forcefully enter the Water Divine Plane, he also violated the Sovereign Pact and attempted to kill me, a Lesser Water Sovereign of the Water Divine Plane!"
"I beg Lord Locke to uphold justice for me!"
Snowfall's accusations left Theresia utterly dumbfounded.
Previously, while in the Netherworld, Theresia had learned from the Netherworld Sovereign that both Lord Locke and his wife were in seclusion, with only one Sovereign clone temporarily acting as Water Chief Sovereign in the Water Divine Plane.
Thus, Theresia had intended to come directly to the Water Divine Plane to seek out Lord Locke's other Sovereign clone.
However, Theresia had never imagined his luck would be so good.
After wiping out a group of bandits, he had unexpectedly discovered a Sovereign spark perfectly suited to his element inside the interspatial ring of the God-level leader.
After refining it, he had instantly become a Wind Paragon Lesser Sovereign.
At the same time, from the information contained within the Sovereign spark, Theresia learned of the three ranks among Sovereigns.
People like himself belonged to the lowest rank—Lesser Sovereigns.
Each level among Sovereigns differed by a hundredfold in Will.
In other words, the gap between a Chief Sovereign and a Lesser Sovereign reached a terrifying factor of ten thousand.
Of course, Theresia also knew that as a Paragon, relying on perfect Laws and the additional Paragon Will, his strength was sufficient to rival an ordinary Intermediate Sovereign.
But compared with a Chief Sovereign, there still remained a hundredfold difference.
He had already understood this from Lord Locke's earlier move.
His strongest attack had been casually crushed in Lord Locke's hand without posing the slightest threat.
Because Theresia had known Locke before becoming a Sovereign, even though his wrist had been seized, he had no intention of struggling free.
In his mind, now that he had become a Sovereign, he should at least receive some preferential treatment from Chief Sovereign Locke.
But after hearing Snowfall's tearful accusations, Theresia felt completely numb.
What in the world was this?
Tearing open space from the spatial turbulence to enter a Divine Plane was considered a challenge to the authority of that plane's Chief Sovereign?
Attacking another Sovereign violated the Sovereign Pact?
What kind of rules were these?
Without question, all the things Snowfall spoke of were rules established among the Sovereigns.
Just like back when Theresia had still been a god-level expert. Stories of Sovereigns circulated everywhere, but actually meeting one—or witnessing one take action—was exceedingly rare.
Most information concerning Sovereigns came from rumors, including the first Planar War—the War of Faith.
It was said that during that war, which had swept across the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes, even the Sovereigns themselves had personally entered battle.
Of the seventy-seven Sovereign Armies, fewer than fifty remained active today.
The remaining nearly thirty Sovereign Armies had long since disbanded after receiving no news from their Sovereigns for over five trillion years.
According to common speculation, at least thirty Sovereigns had fallen in the first War of Faith.
Theresia had luckily obtained an abandoned Sovereign spark and become a Wind Lesser Sovereign. He certainly didn't want to be killed shortly after becoming a Sovereign simply because he was ignorant of Sovereign taboos.
"Lord Locke, I have been wronged..."
"I've only been a Sovereign for less than a day. No Sovereign has ever explained the rules among Sovereigns to me."
"I only learned from the Netherworld Sovereign that Lord Locke had a Sovereign clone in the Water Divine Plane. That's why I came here to pay my respects. I never intended to offend you."
"I know."
Seeing Theresia's face flushed red from anxiety as he explained himself, Locke nodded and released his grip on Theresia's wrist.
Earlier, when Theresia had gone to Mount Nether, although Locke's original body had been in seclusion, he had still sensed it.
It was only after Theresia had been taken away by Lilia's other half, the Netherworld Sovereign, that Locke stopped paying attention.
(End of Chapter)
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