The Wager

Wager

Lincoln swept the area with his Divine Sense. Anyone who could travel through the Spatial Turbulence had to be a Chief God. And there were only a few Chief Gods who would barge directly into his Divine Plane like this.

It was indeed a Chief God—and one Lincoln hadn't expected: Darkness Chief Sovereign, Dark.

"Chief Sovereign, what an honor to have you visit my humble home. If you need anything, you could have sent word, and Lincoln would have taken care of it." Lincoln stopped his research, his voice full of warmth, though his expression showed no welcome.

Dark glanced around. "If you really cared, you wouldn't have waited for me to come looking for you."

"I see you've collected quite a few rare beasts. I wonder if you've made any discoveries?" Dark asked casually, unconcerned.

Seeing that Dark had clearly come with hostile intentions, Lincoln grew wary. He was sure to win if they fought, but there was no guarantee that something unexpected wouldn't happen.

Lincoln's Divine Sense pierced through the plane and reached into the Spatial Turbulence, but he found no other Chief Gods lying in wait...

"I'm ashamed to say I've just been wasting my time. I've made a little progress, but it's of no use to us Chief Gods." Lincoln spoke to Dark expressionlessly.

"I thought you'd reached Paragon." Dark strolled closer, and the might of a Chief God made every living creature in the Divine Plane choke with discomfort.

What had gotten into Dark? Lincoln was utterly baffled. They'd always gotten along peacefully over the years. He'd even treated Aridona, who had thrown in with Orf, with kindness. So why was he suddenly flying into a rage at Lincoln, who had the backing of Life Sovereign and Death Chief Sovereign?

"Chief Sovereign, you're awfully quick to judge. What if I reach Paragon one day?" Lincoln retorted.

"Since you haven't, shouldn't you rein in your Sovereign Army? You've been expanding for millions of years, making a mess of countless Material Planes. People will think I, the Darkness Chief Sovereign, am the one stirring up trouble!" Dark feigned anger.

"Fine. Then let's fight before this Plane War ends and decide who gets to keep our Sovereign Sparks." A Chief Sovereign Spark was valuable, but one of the Darkness Element was useless to Lincoln. Then he reconsidered: among the other six elemental Chief Gods, a few had Darkness Clones. So he readily agreed.

First, without overwhelming strength, a Ten Consecutive Wins streak was impossible in this era. Second, having another Darkness Clone and an extra measure of Willpower was certainly important, but it was far less valuable than safely refining several more Sovereign Sparks.

Still, even if he wasn't going to kill Dark now, Dark could forget about getting any kindness from him.

"Fine!" Lincoln's swift agreement caught Dark by surprise.

After Dark left, Lincoln began to mull things over. Someone was coveting his Sovereign Spark, but it couldn't possibly be Dark. As fellow Darkness Chief Gods, there was no point in such a scheme.

The Four Divine Beasts were another possibility, but they hadn't truly revealed Chief Sovereign-level strength, and they were clearly plotting to obtain a Chief Sovereign Spark. They likely had no time for anything else.

He hadn't sworn a Supreme God Oath, so he could boast all he wanted without having to prove a thing. How could Dark really give up his Sovereign Spark over a moment of anger? Besides, that was only half the story.

Surprised that Lincoln had talked back, Dark mocked him. "Paragon, you say? Since you think you can reach Paragon, if you can beat me, I'll destroy my Sovereign Clone and give you my Sovereign Spark. How about that?"

The shift was so sudden. They'd just been discussing a fight to the death, and now the conversation had abruptly turned to the Plane War.

As for the fight itself, even if Lincoln hadn't made any further progress over the past few million years, dealing with Dark would still be easy. And even if he really couldn't beat Dark, he could play word games and use the Life Sovereign Spark to settle the debt.

Among the possible suspects, Orf and Augusta were of one mind, but given Orf's absolute rationality, the odds of him making a move were low. Lincoln hadn't had much contact with Uterede, so he couldn't rule him out, but Uterede didn't have a Darkness Clone. Hullei didn't have one either. Hela was out of the question, unless she had hidden her strength exceptionally well. As for Vivian, the first Chief God Lincoln had met, they'd grown distant over the years.

Lincoln reconsidered. Wasn't this just a matter of finding a few cannon fodder? He could recruit a few people easily. He didn't care whether they won nine times or ten.

"You're certainly quick to agree, but we can't just leave the fight undecided until the day you reach Paragon, can we?" Dark added.

Lincoln couldn't help laughing in exasperation. Dark had suddenly gone on a pointless tirade, clearly trying to provoke him into a fight, but the ploy was too clumsy. Who was behind it? Augusta? After all, Augusta was about the only Chief God who might hold a grudge against him.

"Chief Sovereign, you jest. If research alone could lead to Paragon, why would there be only a handful of Paragons among the Chief Gods?" Lincoln parried.

"And what if you can't beat me?" Dark pressed, seizing the opportunity. Not being able to win included a tie. "You'll have to give me your Sovereign Spark, too!"

Forget trading a Sovereign Clone for a Chief Sovereign Spark—even trading one Chief Sovereign Clone for a second one was absolutely worth it.

"Don't be so delusional. You couldn't reach Paragon through Faith Power a million years ago, and you have no chance now!" Dark continued to argue.

After all, his army preached about Chief God Lincoln, not the God of Darkness.

"Fine. I hope you'll keep your word, Chief Sovereign!" Lincoln agreed as well. Being able to defeat someone and being able to kill them were two different things, but with Dark's promise, that Chief Sovereign Spark was at least temporarily in safe keeping.

Dark didn't have to swear a Supreme God Oath. Lincoln could do it himself.

Still, Lincoln didn't believe him. In this day and age, no Chief God cared about the faith of mortals in Material Planes. Even if one did, they should have approached Lincoln directly instead of going to Dark.

Events had gone far more smoothly than Dark had expected. Dark studied Lincoln, and a trace of worry stirred in his heart. This was a fight for their lives, yet Lincoln had agreed so readily. In this clash, who was the hunter, and who was the prey?

But the deal was already done. Dark couldn't yet see things more clearly or work out what was really going on, so he continued, "Good. It's a deal. Oh, since you brought up the Plane War, it's starting in a few hundred years. As a Darkness Chief God, you should do your part. The Darkness Divine Plane has won eight times in a row. Recruit some Sovereign Envoys to take part in this war and make sure we win for the ninth time."

The only ones who could have set Dark in motion were the four Rule Sovereigns and Hullei.

Besides, if someone were only after the Darkness Sovereign Spark, there'd be no need to target Lincoln. That suggested the mastermind was after Lincoln himself, and the Sovereign Spark was merely an added prize.

But without a legitimate reason, no one wanted to violate the Sovereign Pact and become a target for everyone. Nor did they want to reveal who was trying to harm Lincoln.

So, as long as he paid close attention from now on, he'd be able to tell who was pulling strings behind the scenes. In truth, a beautiful figure had already appeared in Lincoln's mind, but he found it hard to believe.