A frown appeared on the faces of Leoso and Horax. Linley, like them, was clearly an Invincible Commander.
Still, they weren't scared of that; just one Invincible Commander was far from enough to turn the tide, but they were starting to feel as though things were slipping out of their control.
They were just about to attack when Killian and his group arrived as well. Linley and his group may not have been enough, but Killian was a different story entirely.
He may have been a Full God, but he was a Three-way soul mutate who, with the help of the Stellar River, had comprehended his first complete inter-law three-way fused mysteries – he had fused the Explosions of Fire with the Earth's Pulse of the World and Destruction.
He was now truly a monster who feared no one beneath the paragon realm. It took their enemies three Invincible Commanders just to fight him to a standstill, and even that was only barely.
Thankfully, they had an army of hundreds of commanders and seven-star fiends to keep Linley and the others busy. If not, it would've been their funeral.
Still, Linley, Kannal, and the others slowly but surely began to whittle away at the enemy's numbers, proving to the world why they were considered peerless geniuses in the first place.
Each and every single one of them began improving at a speed that was visible to the naked eye as the fight went on, allowing the speed of their slaughtering to gradually improve – even Killian began showing signs of suppressing the trio he was facing.
When the enemy's numbers were reduced to a mere quarter, the two paragons invited by Augusta finally made their appearance.
With the appearance of two paragons, the battle quickly came to a halt, and Killian's group frowned. As powerful as they were, even if they all ganged up on a single one of them, they would still lose – that was the difference between paragons and other deities.
Even Killian, as powerful as he was, could only escape with his life against one; defeating them was impossible.
Still, none of them were scared. Magnus was just about to speak when another familiar but unexpected duo made an appearance.
The first was Verano – the paragon of Fate who initially sealed Garott. The other was Fatty, a pleasant surprise for Killian and the others.
With Julius there, they could use [The Constellation Battle Tactics], which had made their Golden Sun Pirates so famous in the first place, and with the progress they had made since then, even if they couldn't defeat a paragon, they could at least fight one to a standstill.
Seeing Verano, a frown appeared on the faces of Magnus and Clementine. They could see from his stance that Verano appeared to be on the same side as Killian and his group.
One ordinary Paragon on their own wasn't enough to make them fret, especially a Paragon like Verano, who didn't specialise in combat. Still, it wasn't his combat prowess that made Verano so fearful; it was his attainments in formations.
It was well known amongst paragons that when taking Verano on, you had to be the one to catch him by surprise, as if it was he who caught you off guard, he had likely set up formations to suppress you.
Spreading their will-infused divine sense, Magnus and Clementine could see the markings of runes all around them.
They had no idea what formation Verano had set up, but the fact that he felt comfortable enough to appear directly in front of them told them enough.
Thankfully for them, Verano didn't like fighting. He calmly explained that they were all on the same side – Killian and his group were all friends with Ace.
Hearing that, the two paragons couldn't help but frown even more. So many peerless geniuses all under one banner was quite the frightening thought. Still, the thing that they were confused by was if they were with Ace, why were they fighting and killing so many experts on the side of the Divine Light Plane?
Verano sighed helplessly. He hadn't known them long, but he knew them all well enough by now to understand that they were likely only using the experts on the side of the Divine Light Plane as a whetstone.
Hearing that, the eyebrows of not only the two paragons but every expert still alive – aside from Horax's walking dead – began twitching.
Clementine snorted and said that wasn't a good enough reason. He then stated that for taking the lives of so many of the Chief Sovereign of Light's descendants, Killian and the others had to divulge the secrets of their weapon-wielding skill or face death.
Verano warned them that they were making the wrong choice. Still, the two paragons said that they didn't believe that even Verano's formations would be able to stop them, and even if it allowed Verano to escape for now, they would just chase them down when they broke free of the formation's effects.
Verano sighed and said it wasn't him they had to worry about. The formation he had set up wasn't there to protect him from them…
It was right then when a fourth paragon appeared.
Seeing Garot appear, Clementine and Magnus' eyes constricted. They had both heard the rumours of Clementine escaping his seal and becoming a paragon. Still, this was the last place they expected to see him. They thought he would be too busy with the renewal of his Four Divine Beast Clan to come to the Planar War, especially one as dangerous as this was shaping up to be.
It was then that their eyes fell on Linley and Alyssa, who were still in their transformed state. Both were following the path of a Supreme Genius, and both had incredibly pure bloodlines, especially Linley, in his Four Divine Beasts Clan. His coming in to protect them made sense, unfortunately for them.
When he made his appearance, Garot's cold eyes fell on Verano. He was still angry at the formations specialist for sealing him for all that time. Still, for Ace's sake, he wouldn't deal with him now.
Instead, his eyes turned towards the two paragons invited by Augustus. He told them that Linley and his group were under his protection, and if they had any intention of killing any of them, they had better ask his halberd still.
Seeing their hesitation, Garot told them to scram, or it'd be them who would face death.
Hearing that, Clementine and Magnus' brows furrowed. They may not be Sovereigns, but their statuses among deities were still incredibly lofty. They couldn't show weakness in front of their subordinates – it would be humiliating!
They glanced at Verano, knowing that if they had to face Verano and Garot at the same time, they wouldn't stand a chance. Thankfully, Garot said if they wanted to fight, they didn't have to worry about anyone else intervening. If Verano tried to intervene, he would be the first to attack "the pacifistic old fool."
Verano sighed helplessly but didn't respond, clearly showing his silent agreement.
Seeing that, Clementine and Magnus both charged at Garot, who, in turn, fearlessly charged to meet them head-on.
There were very few, even among the commanders, who could keep up with experts at their level, but all of those who could see what was going on could only sigh as they watched what could only be described as a masterclass.
Garot calmly suppressed his opponents with apparent ease, displaying the clear superiority of an Apex Divine Beast, as well as his Halberd Art based on the Concept of Earth, which seemed to have recently broken through to the High God level.
Lucky for them, Garot had no intention of killing them; he just wanted to teach them a lesson, as well as an excuse to have a good fight.
It had been millions of years – before he was first sealed – since he'd had the opportunity to really let loose against opponents at a similar level.
Still, he more than achieved his wish. With him there, no one on the side of the Divine Light Plane would dare go after Killian and the others again. Forgetting the fact that Killian alone was enough of a deterrent, but now, not even the paragons leading them stood a chance.
Still, because of Killian and Garot, what was left of the Divine Light Plane's forces were forced to turtle up in one place and not go out exploring for fear of running into the monsters in Killian's group.
As a result, Killian and the others chose to return to the Stellar River, waiting on the side of the Divine Darkness Plane so they could be closer to Ace in case he needed them.
Whilst they travelled, they finally heard from Osiris how it was that he was able to make so much progress in the Edict of Death in such a short space of time.
It turns out that when after arriving in the Nether Realm, although they weren't able to find Sullivan – Mathias and Lauriella's son – nor were they able to find his killer, Odin, they did manage to make it to the Abyssal Mountain smoothly, with hopes of finding the Chief Sovereign of Death.
But as no one other than the Sovereign's Emissaries knew who or where the Sovereign was, the only known way to meet the Chief Sovereign of Death was to ascend the Abyssal Mountain and eat the Abyssal Fruit.
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