After a month of training with Aiden, all three members of the Golden Sun Pirates saw a drastic increase in power. Ace managed to make a minor breakthrough, reluctantly bringing his [Blazing Glaive Art] up to the level of a seven-star fiend, and although it didn't make a huge difference to his overall strength, all things considered, it was still a step in the right direction.
As for Osiris, as Aiden predicted, he successfully brought his [Shadow Piercing Arrow Art] up to the Highgod Realm, but what not even Aiden predicted was that due to the added pressure of Kannal's leap in power, Osiris leapt over the four-star fiend level, raising his weapon art up to the level of a five-star fiend. As a result, his overall level of power jumped firmly into the realms of Commanders.
Still, the person who made the biggest leap in power was none other than Kannal. Although his Sword Art didn't manage to break through to the level of a six-star fiend, it was approaching the peak of the five-star level, but his comprehension of the laws of wind, on the other hand, he went from having comprehended 99% of five-way fusion of mysteries of the laws of wind to comprehending 10% of *True Wind*.
Between that and the boost in spiritual essence and divine power, Kannal's current level of power was enough to be considered virtually invincible amongst Commanders unless he ran into a freak like Ace, Killian, or Garott (before becoming a paragon).
On the day Kannal and Osiris were due to set off, everyone gathered to see them off personally when Mathias declared that he would be going with them.
Kannal nodded, understanding how restless his former instructor and headmaster would be if forced to stay in the Yulan Plane, but he still made a point to let him know that he would have to follow his and Osiris' lead. But other than that, he didn't mind bringing him along with them. After all, Mathias was a Highgod with the power of a six-star fiend – he was more than powerful enough to protect himself.
After that, the Yulan Plane went back to business as usual. Unfortunately, Aiden wasn't available to train Ace. The moment Osiris, Kannal, and Mathias left, Aiden immediately merged with the Overgod's spark.
Usually, when merging with a divine spark of any level, their soul was strong enough to carry on with other matters, and they divided a small part of their consciousness to absorb the insights in the divine spark. Of course, if one were to enter isolation and focus their entire mind and soul on absorbing the insights, it would be significantly faster, but it didn't change the fact that they didn't have to.
Unfortunately, the merging of an Overgod's Spark was infinitely more difficult. As such, Ace was forced to train by himself. Still, he didn't mind as it gave him the chance to focus on exploring the true capabilities of his bloodlines, something he had never actively given much thought to until now.
For the next half a decade, Ace spent the majority of his time training in isolation, but when he wasn't, he made sure to spend his free time accompanying his family. Something that was more than appreciated by the younger members of the Gol Clan especially.
Millianna wished she could spend more time with her son as she knew he would be leaving again before long, but she was no longer the dependent mother she had been when Ace was first born.
Fifty years after Kannal and his group left, Ace said his goodbyes before returning to the upper realms, but unlike what he had originally planned to do, he didn't head back to the Celestial Realm.
Originally, he planned to enter the Planar Battlefield as a Commander of the Celestial Realm, but when the moment came to head back, he decided to head to the Divine Light Plane instead.
He did this in part because he wanted to be closer to Amira. Usually, it only takes a hundred or so years for a lesser Sovereign to create an ordinary Divine Plane, let alone a Chief Sovereign like Augusta. But because of how dedicated Augusta was to helping Amira out, he made sure to slow the process down as much as physically possible so that Amira could witness every detail in what may as well be slow motion, whilst he would answer any questions she had.
This was the first time Augusta had done this for anyone, but it only made him curse for not having done it sooner. Not only was Amira benefitting greatly, but so did he, as he constantly had to create, observe, and explain what was happening in greater detail than he ever had in the past.
Still, because of this, Amira was so focused on her training that she barely spent any time speaking to Ace via their spiritual connection, and because Ace was unwilling to do anything that could potentially hinder her growth, he didn't speak to her much either.
Although nothing had changed, and he still refused to speak to Amira whilst she was training so diligently, just being in the Divine Light Plane brought him no small sense of comfort and peace of mind, a feeling that was shared by Amira, so much so that the moment Ace arrived in the Divine Light Plane, allowing Amira to sense her husband's presence clearer than ever, she directly entered a deep state of enlightenment with the warmest smile on her face.
Ace was happy for her opportunity, still sensing Amira's change; he couldn't help but shake his head helplessly and sigh, wishing that she waited until at least the day after to have her enlightenment so they could spend a little bit of time communicating.
With Amira too busy to communicate, Ace was free to focus on the second reason he chose to enter the Planar Battlefield from the Light Plane instead of the Celestial Realm.
Although he didn't hate or even dislike Augusta for forcibly taking away his wife, in fact, he even agreed with his decision; still, the way in which Augusta did it left a sour taste in his mouth.
Chief Sovereign or not, Ace was never one to let things go easily. He decided he would pay Augusta back by humiliating the senior members of the clan, of which he was so proud, a little bit.
At the same time, whilst Ace was making his way through the Divine Plane of Light, Yulana, who had finished accepting the Vampire bloodline of the original Chief Sovereign of Water, and Joel, who had stayed behind to accompany her, were making their way through the Infernal Realm, towards the Four Divine Beasts Clan.
Although they knew Ace had probably long since left, as they didn't know exactly where he'd be, they decided they would head to Ace's last known location, and if they were lucky, they might find at least one or two of their fellow pirate crew members.
They had been in the Infernal Realm for a little over a hundred years already, so they had heard of the Four Divine Beasts Clan's change of location and structure and were heading there when they were stopped by a lone bandit.
During their travels, as both Joel and Yulana were still only Full Gods, they would often be stopped and attacked by other bandits or pirates. Still, when they revealed a bit of their power, their attackers would quickly flee with their tails between their legs, but this one was different.
The creature blocking their path was a humanoid being with six arms and three heads, but the thing that shocked both of them was that, like them, this creature was also at the Full God realm like them, and when Joel revealed some of his true power, not only did the creature take it head on, he forced Joel to retreat instead.
It was then that Khelissa – the original Chief Sovereign of Water – who had officially taken up residency in Yulana's spiritual sea and acted after having become Yulana's master, explained that the creature they were looking at was a humanoid Apex Divine Beast called an Asura.
Even amongst Apex Divine Beasts, it was particularly powerful. Like all other humanoid Apex Divine Beasts (Vampires included), its body didn't lean towards any one attribute, meaning that although none of its physical attributes were off the charts – like the physical defence of the Godeater Rat, the physical strength of an Azure Dragon, or the raw speed of the Divine White Tiger – all of its attributes were equal, at a level below their monstrous attributes, but above the rest of their attributes. Still, it was their Innate and Divine Abilities that made them so monstrous.
Their Innate Ability gave Asuras access to a force called "Slaughter Force," which was a unique form of energy that could be used to fuse with Divine Power to increase its force. For the average Asura, their Slaughter Force increased their Divine Power between two and five times over, but they had no way of increasing the might of their Slaughter Force, but that wasn't true for the original ancestral Asura.
Her Divine Ability allowed her to devour the essence of those they had personally slaughtered and use it to enhance the might of their own Slaughter Force.
Khelissa then explained that she never met the original Asura as she and her clan had apparently been killed by Wodred when the two met and fought over the Chief Sovereign Spark of Destruction. Still, even though she was just a spirit now, she could sense that the purity of the bloodline of the Asura in front of them had reached perfection.
The Asura in front of them, like Osiris, was an expert in the laws of Darkness and was also following the path of a Supreme Genius, having fused four profound mysteries. One less than Joel, but with him having the body of an Apex Divine Beast and his Slaughter Force increasing his Darkness-type Divine Power tenfold, the Asura could be considered to have barely reached the commander level.
Yulana stepped forward, preparing to deal with their newest attacker herself, when Joel stopped her and said he would handle it himself.
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