It could be said that Loran's combat experience against opponents of the same level was practically zero.
Under such circumstances, Loran was about to fight a God who was stronger than himself...
"This is far too interesting!"
Just imagining it was enough to make Loran feel his battle intent boiling.
Unlike Locke, who preferred to adapt to circumstances while ensuring everything was thoroughly prepared, Loran's personality was much more similar to that of the Death Chief Sovereign.
Both of them feared neither heaven nor earth and were constantly seeking things they found interesting.
If it had been Locke, upon learning that a Demigod might have to fight a God, he would probably have quietly slipped away.
But Loran was different. Fighting above his level seemed to stimulate his fighting spirit even more.
At the very least, this was a feeling he had never experienced when fighting those Saint-level magical beasts.
...
"Hey, Locke, something's happened!"
Inside the inn, Lilia suddenly rose from her seat, her expression changing dramatically.
"Hm? What happened?"
Seeing Lilia like this, Locke was startled as well and hurried over to her side.
"What is it?"
Smack!
To Locke's surprise, however, Lilia did not give him a pleasant response this time. Instead, she slapped away the hand he had reached out to support her.
"This is all your doing!"
"Let's see how you're going to deal with this!"
At this moment, Lilia felt fortunate that she had previously spread out the divine sense of her Life Sovereign body and discovered that her son had actually entered the Battle Arena.
Fortunately, she had discovered it now.
No matter what kind of opponent Loran encountered, she could secretly intervene and ensure he wasn't in any mortal danger.
But Lilia had also broken out in a cold sweat.
If she hadn't spread out the divine sense of her Life Sovereign body, wouldn't she have remained completely unaware that her son had already entered such a dangerous place?
That was the Battle Arena!
Moreover, from what her Life Sovereign body's divine sense could perceive, every participant inside the Battle Arena was at least a God-level expert.
Seeing Lilia react this way, Locke immediately realized that something had happened on Loran's side that he himself was unaware of.
At once, Locke spread out his divine sense as well and quickly discovered Loran's situation.
"The Battle Arena? And all of his opponents are Gods or stronger?"
Seeing this, Locke understood what Lilia was worried about.
At the same time, he shared the same concern.
Although the divine spark weapon and divine spark defense artifact he had forged for Loran could perfectly defend against attacks from Three-Star Fiends and below, and under normal circumstances only Five-Star Fiends could truly threaten Loran—
The God level was a realm where the difference between the strong and the weak was extremely distinct.
Weak Gods were merely ten times stronger than ordinary Demigods.
Powerful Gods, however, could reach the level of Seven-Star Fiends.
Unfortunately, a Deity's strength couldn't be determined simply from their appearance.
Of course, if a Deity deliberately released their aura, others could estimate their strength based on it.
However, outside of combat, no one casually released their aura.
After all, allowing others to fully understand your strength was dangerous in its own way.
Locke had never expected that Loran would somehow end up in the Battle Arena not long after arriving in Bluewing City.
Opening his Soul Eyes, Locke instantly saw the soul strengths of all the Gods present.
"Relax, Lilia."
"Judging from the strength of their souls, the strongest among them is only comparable to a Three-Star Fiend. They pose no threat to Loran."
Soul strength was one of the standards by which a person's strength could be measured.
The soul of a God was stronger than that of a Demigod.
The soul of a Highgod was stronger than that of an ordinary God.
Likewise, those who had fused multiple Profound Mysteries possessed stronger souls than those who had not.
This was a truth known to everyone.
However, apart from Locke's Soul Eyes, not even Sovereigns could determine the strength of a person's soul merely from appearance.
But Locke could.
Over countless years, the number of souls Locke had observed through his Soul Eyes was beyond counting.
By correlating those souls with the strengths their owners displayed, he had reached the point where he could roughly estimate a person's power based solely on the strength of their soul.
The reason he said "roughly" was because Locke could determine how many Profound Mysteries a person had comprehended or fused from the strength of their soul.
However, if that person possessed special techniques capable of dramatically amplifying their power, Locke would not be able to detect them.
Take Linley, for example, after he left the Violet Prefecture Mountains more than a thousand calendrical cycles later.
Locke would be able to see that Linley's soul belonged to a God who had fused three Profound Mysteries, placing his strength at approximately the level of a Five-Star Fiend.
However, Locke would not be able to tell that Linley had learned Reisgem's technique, Blackstone Prison, which could increase his power a hundredfold and allow him, as a God, to reach the strength of a Seven-Star Fiend.
During the war against the Eight Great Clans, the experts of those clans had also seen through Linley's status as a God, which was why they became obsessed with killing him.
Why?
Because the experts of the Eight Great Clans all understood that reaching the power of a Seven-Star Fiend while still being a God meant one thing—
He had almost certainly completely fused five Profound Mysteries.
Only by doing so could he possess such tremendous strength despite the tenfold difference in divine power.
A Linley this powerful still hadn't broken through to become a Highgod, meaning he clearly harbored even greater ambitions.
If Linley had already discovered the point where six Profound Mysteries connected, then upon reaching the limit of fusing those six Profound Mysteries and advancing to Highgod, the strengthening of his soul by the Laws of the universe might allow him to grasp that final flash of inspiration and completely fuse all six Profound Mysteries, becoming a Paragon.
Once Linley became a Paragon, the Eight Great Clans would need to start thinking about how to preserve themselves rather than how to destroy the Four Divine Beasts clan.
At present, within Locke's Soul Vision, the strongest God among those present was a burly man who had fused two Profound Mysteries.
Next came a young man who had comprehended five Profound Mysteries.
As for the remaining dozen or so participants, they had all comprehended three or four Profound Mysteries.
If they possessed no particularly powerful ultimate techniques, they would only be a dozen times stronger than ordinary Demigods.
Hearing this, Lilia relaxed somewhat.
"No. This is Loran's first battle against God-level opponents. I have to go and watch."
After pacing around the room several times, Lilia still couldn't put her mind at ease.
Immediately, she pushed open the door and flew toward the Battle Arena.
Seeing this, Locke sighed.
Activating Mirror Flower, Water Moon, he followed behind Lilia and flew out as well.
In an instant, the two of them arrived above the Battle Arena.
Sweeping his gaze across the area, Locke quickly spotted Little Black in the spectator stands.
There was even an empty seat beside him.
At this moment, however, Little Black wore an anxious expression.
He was holding a yellow scroll in his hand, clearly uncertain whether he should tear it open right now.
It was obvious that after arriving in the spectator stands, Little Black had already learned from the conversations around him and the battles taking place in the arena exactly what this place was.
He had also realized what entering the less-crowded passage truly meant.
Locke saw Little Black, and naturally Lilia saw him as well.
"Hmph!"
With a cold snort, Lilia waved her hand.
A stream of water shot forth and transformed into a rope, instantly dragging Little Black from the spectator stands into the air.
"Ahhh!"
Caught off guard by this sudden development, Little Black immediately cried out in alarm.
The nearby spectators also noticed that someone in the audience had apparently been attacked and hurriedly looked up into the sky.
Clearly, they wanted to see who exactly possessed the audacity to violate the Sovereigns' rules and attack someone inside a city.
Snap!
Locke snapped his fingers.
Instantly, the memories of the previous three seconds were erased from the souls of every living being who heard the snap.
Those who had looked up now found themselves puzzled.
What exactly was there in the sky that had prompted them to look upward?
However, when they noticed that more and more people were also raising their heads, they immediately came to an understanding.
Perhaps they had simply done what everyone else was doing—seeing others look upward and following along out of curiosity.
"M-Master... Madam..."
After being pulled into the air, Little Black saw Locke and Lilia and immediately bowed respectfully.
"Master, Madam, the Young Master he—"
"You don't need to explain. We already know."
Lilia interrupted him.
Little Black shuddered and immediately fell silent.
Over the years, he had already discovered who truly held authority within this family.
Although his young master appeared to be the only God-level expert in the household, his young master's parents were undoubtedly supreme experts whose names shook the Netherworld.
Little Black had suspected as much long ago.
After all, judging from the young master's own words, he had been born a Deity.
How powerful must the beings who gave birth to such a monstrous existence be?
Now, seeing Locke and Lilia flying freely within the city's Battle Arena and even acting against him without anyone daring to stop them merely confirmed Little Black's suspicions.
Although the young master's parents loved him dearly, they would never allow him to act without restraint.
Little Black considered himself a "guard" arranged by the young master's parents for the young master.
Unfortunately, he had yet to grow strong enough to actually protect him.
He estimated that it would take another ten years or so before he completely refined his God-level divine spark.
As for a Highgod divine spark, it would take at least several hundred years to fully refine.
In other words, it would be several hundred years before he could truly become a Highgod bodyguard worthy of serving the young master.
What Little Black did not know was that, in the eyes of Locke and Lilia, he really was nothing more than Loran's mount.
As for Loran's bodyguard—
Even a Prefect possessing a Sovereign artifact would not completely satisfy Locke.
(End of Chapter)
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