"Lord Augusta's Twelve-Winged God Angels fear no hardship. They're the perfect weapon for breaking through enemy lines and will surely bring us victory!" Angnak, the Fate Intermediate Sovereign, said excitedly.
"Thank goodness Lord Orloff and Lord Augusta have such a good relationship. Otherwise, if those Divine Angels had ended up with the enemy, winning would have been much harder!" Joey, a Fate Lower Sovereign, remarked.
Augusta was pleased by all the praise and laughed smugly.
Seeing this, Boteer hurried to ingratiate himself as well. "Lord Orloff, I found Magic Sound Asura. She's willing to fight on behalf of the Heavenly Realm."
"Magic Sound Asura?! Boteer, you really came through! She's been gone for countless years, hasn't she?" one Fate Lower Sovereign exclaimed in surprise.
Even Orloff couldn't help looking up to praise him. "Excellent. You've put in a lot of effort!"
Boteer was overjoyed. Another Fate Lower Sovereign chimed in, "Magic Sound Asura may not be in the top tier below the Paragons, but her Innate Divine Ability is especially effective in battles like this, where forces clash in great numbers!"
Everyone's attention turned to Manlu, the Earth Low-level Sovereign. They had noticed moments ago that Manlu had tried several times to speak, only to be interrupted each time.
Only when he saw everyone looking at him did Manlu finally speak slowly. "Lord Orloff, I've invited Iluka, a Paragon High-God who's mastered the Destruction Rule. He's willing to fight on behalf of the Heavenly Realm!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the attention focused on Manlu grew even more intense. Even Orloff and Augusta became serious.
No matter how many Seven-Star Fate Masters, Seven-Star Fiends, Asuras, or Divine Angels they had, none of them could match the impact of a single Paragon.
"You mean Iluka, the one who's been living in seclusion in a Material Plane for countless years? He hasn't left one in a long time. How did you persuade him?" Orloff asked gently.
"I gave him ten thousand drops of Earth Sovereign Power and told him that you, Lord Orloff, were also deeply concerned about the outcome of this Plane War. If he helped the Heavenly Realm win, he would earn the favor of the most powerful Sovereign in the world—and might even get the chance to obtain a Sovereign Spark! I imagine he agreed to help because of your reputation.
"But I also have Sovereign Angnak to thank. He discovered Iluka's whereabouts, which gave me the chance to persuade him," Manlu said with a smile.
Orloff smiled knowingly. He was indeed very pleased. "Angnak, you've put in a lot of effort too."
Angnak promptly put on a proud, self-satisfied look. "I did run into Iluka. The Four Divine Beasts were there with him, and they even tried to stop me from inviting him. Hmph! I dealt with those few pests in public, while secretly asking Sovereign Manlu to persuade him. I never expected Sovereign Manlu to be so eloquent—or you, Lord Orloff, to be so persuasive. You really did get him to agree!"
Orloff nodded, accepting the explanation, then looked at the other Fate Sovereigns. "What about the rest of you? What have you done?"
The five Fate Sovereigns looked at one another and fell silent. After a long while, one of them spoke softly. "I sent all my Sovereign's Emissaries and Sovereign Legion commanders to fight."
"So did I..."
"So did I..."
A commander wearing a Golden Badge walked cautiously across a rocky wasteland. This was the Netherworld's border region in the Plane Battlefield. He had been in the battlefield for over five hundred years, and luck had been the only reason he'd survived several deadly encounters. Now, he was even more cautious.
After facing so many dangers, he'd given up hope of collecting enough battle merits to exchange for a Sovereign Artifact. He'd rather stay at the Heavenly Realm's main camp and wait for the final battle. But he could never have imagined that a Paragon would arrive to take charge of the Heavenly Realm's forces—and that this Paragon would threaten to personally kill anyone who dared cower in the main camp, lest they weaken the troops' morale. So he'd had no choice but to come out.
Fortunately, after five hundred years, most soldiers and commanders had used up the Sovereign's Might they'd received upon entering the Plane Battlefield. The danger was now much lower than before.
But just as he cautiously scanned the distance, he suddenly found himself unable to move!
He tried to fly, to shift his feet, but both were stuck fast to the ground!
Looking down, he saw a golden liquid slowly seeping out of the earth, completely encasing his lower legs.
"Damn it, I walked right into a trap!" The instant the thought crossed his mind, he detonated his last drop of Fate Sovereign Power, trying to break free!
But the golden liquid was Dalayer in transformed form. It wasn't that easy to escape. The moment the trapped commander unleashed his Sovereign's Might, she also triggered a drop of Death Sovereign Power.
After entering the Plane Battlefield, Desterie had given Dalayer most of her Sovereign's Might to help keep her safe. Now, it was finally coming in handy!
The golden liquid binding the commander's legs shimmered with gray light. As it resisted the Fate Sovereign Power, it surged toward his forehead. But the enemy was prepared too. Seeing the danger, he simply severed both his legs and shot upward.
His severed legs hadn't been wasted, either. They exploded with a "BOOM!", blasting the golden liquid apart like flying sand.
He was a powerful fire-element cultivator with deep insight into the "Explosion" Profound Mystery.
But protected by Sovereign's Might, the golden liquid had suffered little damage and slowly began to gather itself back together.
Just as the Highgod, convinced he'd escaped the trap, prepared to strike back with a thunderous attack, he suddenly sensed an invisible wave coming toward him. Horrified, he tried to dodge, but the soul attack carried a strange aura of "fate" and "lock-on." In the blink of an eye, it struck his soul. The fire-element expert's eyes dimmed, and he fell straight from the air.
One strike, one kill!
The golden liquid swept up the commander's Golden Badge and Spatial Ring in midair, then flew a hundred meters away and coalesced into Dalayer's human form beside Desterie. Desterie had just killed the commander with a long-range sneak attack.
In the Plane Battlefield, a Highgod's divine sense could cover only about a hundred meters, so that distance really did count as far. After using Sovereign's Might, the commander hadn't immediately spread out his divine sense, so he hadn't detected Desterie hiding nearby—or the attack she'd concealed.
Desterie's attack had worked so well thanks in part to the inspiration she'd drawn from Kurado's Death-Certain Spear, which had helped her soul attack find its mark.
Desterie took the badge and tossed it in her hand a couple of times. Then she tried to claim the commander's Spatial Ring by dripping blood on it—but couldn't open it. She promptly crushed it.
"Five hundred years, and this is only the fourth Commander Badge we've gotten. If we're lucky, we might collect ten Golden Badges by the time the final battle comes," Desterie said with a smile to Dalayer.
Before you continue