"Interesting."
Inside the Sovereign Palace atop Mount Nether, Death Chief Sovereign Lilia let out a soft laugh.
"Locke, what do you think the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta is trying to do?"
"Thirteen thousand years ago, the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta killed the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns."
"However, because both the course of the battle and its conclusion were filled with dramatic twists, the other Sovereigns tacitly agreed never to bring the matter up again."
"Now, these rumors suddenly appearing throughout the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes that the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns fell in the Yulan Plane..."
"...only the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta would willingly expose such a thing."
After all, no matter what, the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta was currently the strongest Law Chief Sovereign and even possessed the strength to challenge the Rule Chief Sovereigns.
If any other Sovereign dared release information concerning the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns, Augusta would undoubtedly seek them out immediately.
Although the "Sovereign Pact" established by Death Chief Sovereign Lilia prohibited higher-ranked Sovereigns from attacking lower-ranked Sovereigns without cause...
None of the Sovereigns were fools.
They all understood perfectly well what "without cause" meant.
Augusta had already publicly declared that anyone who provided Beirut with information would be regarded as provoking the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta.
He intended to make Beirut spend a hundred million years living in terror within that Material Plane.
Eventually...
Either Beirut would be killed by him after enduring endless fear...
Or, because he dared not leave the Yulan Continent to fulfill his duties as a Sovereign, Lord Locke would personally drag him out of the Yulan Plane and execute him.
Bloodridge Sovereign Pash had explained the Sovereign Pact and the responsibilities of a Sovereign to Beirut.
That alone already counted as offending the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta.
However, over countless calendrical eras, Bloodridge Sovereign Pash had rarely left the Infernal Realm except to observe the Planar Wars.
He had never traveled to any of the other Divine Planes or Higher Planes.
Moreover, Bloodridge Sovereign Pash had long since joined the camp of the Destruction Chief Sovereign Wordred.
With Wordred's protection, Augusta naturally did not dare enter the Infernal Realm to attack Pash.
That was Pash's confidence in daring to offend the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta.
Of course...
An even more important reason lay in Pash's understanding of Chief Sovereign Locke.
Based on the rules Locke had established after becoming a Sovereign, Bloodridge Sovereign Pash knew very clearly what kind of person Locke was.
If Chief Sovereign Locke learned of Augusta's actions...
He would inevitably develop a dislike for the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta.
He might even punish Augusta.
Under such circumstances...
If he could lend a helping hand to someone weaker than himself...
He would certainly earn Lord Locke's favor.
Lord Locke had not appeared for several hundred calendrical eras.
Under such circumstances, every Sovereign knew that when Lord Locke appeared again...
His strength would likely have reached a level so terrifying that merely thinking about it would fill them with dread.
More than a thousand calendrical eras ago...
Chief Sovereign Locke had already successfully fused four Laws from the Water Laws and the Edicts of Fate, allowing him to leap beyond the Four Rule Chief Sovereigns and become the strongest Sovereign in existence.
Now that Locke had secluded himself for several hundred calendrical eras...
Once he emerged, his strength would be at least a thousand times greater than it had been over a thousand calendrical eras ago.
Perhaps...
It might even be a million times greater.
Given Locke's talent...
Probably only the final fusion of two complete systems of Laws could truly present any difficulty for him.
It was precisely because he had this vague estimation of Locke's strength...
That the Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff was so anxious for the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta to obtain the Sovereign blood essence of the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns.
In Orloff's opinion...
Although he now possessed a complete set of three Sovereign artifacts...
He still couldn't be certain whether the Locke who emerged from seclusion would already have surpassed the level of a Sovereign entirely.
If even Overgod artifacts could not withstand Locke's attacks...
Would he still have any chance of surpassing him?
The Four Divine Beast Sovereigns' fused innate divine ability...
Was Orloff's final challenge to Chief Sovereign Locke.
If, even after deciphering the mysteries behind that fused innate divine ability, he still could not defeat Locke...
Then perhaps...
Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff would finally abandon his obsession.
Or perhaps...
He would entrust that obsession to Chief Sovereign Locke instead.
"Mmm."
Seated upon his throne, Locke nodded, confirming Lilia's guess.
Unlike Death Chief Sovereign Lilia...
Locke's soul power could now instantly spread throughout the entire Magic Universe.
As long as Locke wished...
Nothing within the Magic Universe could be hidden from him.
Everything that transpired between the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta and the Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff inside the August Garden lay completely exposed beneath his soul power.
"The news was indeed spread by the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta."
"As for Augusta's objective..."
"Wait!"
Just as Locke was about to directly tell Lilia Augusta's intentions...
Death Chief Sovereign Lilia hurriedly raised a hand to stop him.
"Locke, after all these years, I've finally encountered something I find interesting."
"I want to witness it unfold with my own eyes."
"Don't spoil it for me."
"Very well..."
Locke chuckled.
Since Lilia wished to personally witness how events would develop...
He naturally wouldn't ruin her enjoyment.
Even without his explanation...
Lilia already knew that only the Four Rule Chief Sovereigns and someone like Locke himself would completely ignore the threats of the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta.
However...
Neither the Four Rule Chief Sovereigns nor Locke had any intention of interfering.
Of course...
Locke himself also found the current state of the Magic Universe rather fascinating.
In the original course of events...
After Beirut became a Sovereign, he wanted to find a Sovereign willing to stand on his side against the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta.
Or perhaps even someone stronger than himself...
Someone capable of confronting Augusta and protecting him.
Thus, Beirut secretly spread news throughout the Infernal Realm that Sovereign sparks existed within the Yulan Continent, luring experts from the Infernal Realm to participate in the selection for those Sovereign sparks.
Unfortunately...
Among that group of participants, the strongest was merely the Seven-Star Fiend, the "Violetblood Fiend."
No one came close to meeting Beirut's expectations.
In the end...
All of them were buried by Beirut, and even their divine sparks were left inside the Divine Plane he had created.
That...
Was the origin of the "War of the Gods" and the "Necropolis of the Gods" on the Yulan Continent.
It was also because so many experts had appeared upon the Yulan Continent...
That the continent experienced an era of unprecedented prosperity.
Its strongest natives even reached the level of Six-Star Fiends.
Those local experts...
Were the very same people who were eventually imprisoned by Beirut inside the Planar Prison.
Now, however...
Because the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta had effectively confined Beirut to the Yulan Continent...
After becoming a Sovereign, Beirut immediately immersed himself in the wondrous process of creating a Divine Plane.
Moreover...
He had already decided to cultivate a future genius possessing earth, water, and fire divine clones, allowing that individual to become a Paragon before refining the Sovereign sparks.
As such...
He never revealed the existence of the Sovereign sparks hidden within the Yulan Continent.
Yet...
The world's predetermined "destiny" still caused the original fate of the Yulan Continent to descend upon it.
Only this time...
Rather than Beirut manipulating native inhabitants of the Yulan Continent into spreading the news throughout the Infernal Realm...
It was the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta himself who spread the information.
Nor was it confined merely to portions of the Infernal Realm.
Instead...
The news swept through all Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes.
The number of living beings affected...
Numbered far beyond mere billions.
Within only a few hundred years...
More than one thousand Asura Prefect-level experts...
Hundreds of thousands of Seven-Star Fiends...
And tens of millions of Six-Star Fiends...
Flooded into the Yulan Plane.
Under such circumstances...
Battles between Deities erupted almost every moment upon the Yulan Continent...
Shaking the stability of the entire Material Plane.
Had Beirut not already become a Sovereign...
Capable of calming the disordered Laws of the Yulan Continent with but a single thought...
The fighting alone might well have destroyed the Yulan Plane.
Even so...
The Yulan Plane had already reached a perilous state.
At this moment...
The third phase of Augusta's plan gradually revealed itself before the other Sovereigns.
Everyone knew...
Destroying a plane was strictly forbidden within the Magic Universe by the Overgods themselves.
Even a Sovereign who destroyed a Material Plane would be erased by the Overgods for violating the fundamental laws of the universe.
Once Beirut refined the White Tiger Sovereign Sovereign spark and became a Sovereign...
The Light Chief Sovereign Augusta realized that his chances of killing Beirut and reclaiming the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns' corpses and Sovereign sparks had become vanishingly small.
Especially if Beirut remained hidden within the Material Plane...
Augusta could do absolutely nothing to him.
Even his attempt to intimidate Beirut had been ruined by Bloodridge Sovereign Pash.
Under such circumstances...
Augusta publicly announced that the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns had fallen within the Yulan Plane.
On one hand...
It was indeed just as he had explained to the Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff.
He intended to have a portion of the Four Divine Beasts Clan's experts die within the Yulan Plane, making the forces of the other planes bold enough to invade the Infernal Realm and attack the Four Divine Beasts Clan.
Only then could he obtain enough Four Divine Beasts Clan corpses to refine sufficient quantities of the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns' Sovereign blood essence.
On the other hand...
Augusta also intended to let those experts continue fighting within the Yulan Plane...
Until the Yulan Continent itself could no longer withstand the destruction...
And ultimately collapsed.
Once the Yulan Continent collapsed...
Any being below the level of a Paragon who lacked a material-defense Sovereign artifact...
Would be utterly annihilated by spatial turbulence.
As for Beirut...
As a Sovereign, the destruction of a Material Plane itself would pose no threat to him.
However...
Without the protection of his home plane...
The Light Chief Sovereign Augusta could deal with Beirut however he pleased.
Shaking his head...
Since Locke had already seen through Augusta's scheme...
He naturally would not allow it to succeed.
It wasn't that Locke was deliberately targeting Augusta.
Rather...
As an Overgod, although Locke did not possess the same instinctive drive as the Four Overgods to maintain the stability of the Magic Universe...
Neither would he simply watch a Material Plane suffer an unnatural destruction.
Thus...
Locke extended his right hand toward the empty space before him.
...
Within the dazzling currents of spatial turbulence...
The Sovereigns whose divine senses were spread throughout spatial turbulence suddenly noticed an unusual fluctuation.
Instantly...
Their divine senses converged toward the source of the disturbance.
Very quickly...
They discovered where the abnormal fluctuation originated.
It was...
A Material Plane.
And this Material Plane...
Was one every Sovereign recognized.
It was the home plane of Beirut...
The Godeater Rat who had stolen the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns' corpses.
As a newly ascended Wind Lesser Sovereign...
Beirut's rise to Sovereignhood had greatly broadened the horizons of the other Sovereigns.
After all...
Aside from the Sovereigns of Locke's lineage...
Every Sovereign had become one only because of extraordinary luck, obtaining a Sovereign spark compatible with one of their divine clones.
Even the current Dark Chief Sovereign...
Had only received the High Sovereign spark of Darkness from the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta after swearing loyalty and becoming Augusta's chosen representative.
As far as they knew...
Beirut was the only person who had successfully snatched something from a Sovereign—
And not just any Sovereign...
But a Chief Sovereign.
Therefore...
Although, because of the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta, none of them had contacted Beirut...
That didn't stop them from paying close attention to him.
They all wanted to see...
How long Beirut, the one who had snatched prey from Augusta's jaws, could survive.
None of the Sovereigns believed Beirut would meet a good end.
After all...
Sovereigns were different from Deities.
A Deity who became divine by refining a divine spark...
Could continue refining a God divine spark or a Highgod divine spark to advance further.
But at the Sovereign level...
One could refine only a single Sovereign spark.
Refine a Lesser Sovereign spark...
And you became a Lesser Sovereign.
Refine an Intermediate Sovereign spark...
And you became an Intermediate Sovereign.
Refine a High Sovereign spark...
And you became a Chief Sovereign.
There was no such thing as a Lesser Sovereign refining an Intermediate Sovereign spark to become an Intermediate Sovereign.
Seventy-seven Sovereign sparks.
Seventy-seven Sovereigns.
One spark.
One position.
No more.
No less.
Of course...
The Sovereigns of Locke's lineage were the sole exception.
As descendants of Locke, the supreme divine beast of the Space Laws...
As long as they cultivated one of the earth, wind, water, or fire Laws to the level of Paragon...
They could use Locke's blood essence to gain an entry point into the Space Laws.
Thus...
The Sovereigns of Locke's lineage were, strictly speaking...
Less "Sovereigns"...
And more akin to "Heavenly Gods."
Under the watchful gaze of the assembled Sovereigns...
Countless currents of spatial turbulence gathered together...
Forming two enormous hands that gently cradled the Yulan Plane within their palms.
"W-What..."
"What kind of power is this?"
As the native Sovereign of the Yulan Continent...
Beirut naturally sensed the changes occurring within the spatial turbulence outside his home plane.
When his divine sense extended beyond the Yulan Continent and he saw those colossal hands formed from spatial turbulence...
He was so startled that he rose from the throne inside his metallic lifeform.
"This..."
"This is Lord Locke's aura!"
(End of Chapter)
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