Book 9: Part 2 – Plan of Action

A little over a week later, they finally saw a small town situated above a mountain, but what they hadn't expected was for there to be a giant battle taking place.

Both sides appeared to only have two High Gods and around a dozen Full Gods, with the majority of both side's fighting forces being made up of over 100 Demi-Gods. Still, they couldn't help but sigh at the brutality of the Celestial Realm.

In their Yulan Plane, a Demi-God would be treated as a king, but here, they were treated as nothing more than cattle.

Their group was just watching from the skies above when Kannal took them all by surprise and chose to intervene. It was only when they noticed him appearing before a little girl no older than eight stood trembling in front of a toddler who looked to be her younger brother that they understood the reason behind Kannal's decision.

Although he had gotten over the death of his sister, seeing a little girl about to be killed whilst trying to protect her baby brother was more than enough to tug at his heartstrings.

With Kannal's strength, even if any of the High Gods chose to target him, Kannal would easily be able to protect himself, so no one made any attempts to follow him.

Still, after seeing the appearance of a new deity and a Full God at that, many then locked onto the presence of Ace and the others.

Although there didn't appear to be any High Gods among them, both sides understood that whichever side Ace's group joined would give too big an advantage to the other; as such, the battles gradually came to an end with the group who appeared to be the invaders choosing to retreat.

After they left, Junra, one of the two remaining High Gods, introduced himself as the Chief of Firm Nail Town before thanking Kannal and the others for their help.

In the end, he revealed that in this region of the Celestial Realm, there were actually three towns that reigned supreme. Firm Nail Town, Red Bridge Town, and Frozen Tile Town. Originally, their Firm Nail town was actually the strongest with three High Gods, but they were kept in check by the temporary alliance of the other two.

Unfortunately, a few days ago, one of their High Gods – the father of the children saved by Killian – was killed whilst out clearing some of the local bandits encroaching on their territory, along with a squad of some of their Full Gods. They suspect it was part of a plot of the other two towns, but either way, their ability to resist both forces had been greatly diminished.

After hearing the news, the leaders of Red Bridge Town – the only other town with two High Gods – appeared, wanting to take advantage of their current lack of strength. Fortunately, Ace and the others appeared before things could get much worse.

The chief then went on to offer them a place to stay, to which Ace casually accepted, despite having clearly sensed the greed and desire that flickered in his eyes when he looked at Amira and the other girls in the team.

After they were shown to their accommodation, Kannal allowed Qimai and her brother Weslor the option to live with them after finding out that they were now orphans with their mother having died giving birth to Weslor.

That night, after Qimai and her brother had gone to bed, Ace and the others decided to take out the scryer recordings Beirut had given them before leaving.

In it, Beirut explained that though he had never personally been to the Celestial Realm, he had a lot of information that would be of use to them. For one, unlike in the Infernal Realm, where their mercenaries were referred to as "Fiends", in the Celestial Realm, they were known as "Fate Seekers" or just "Seekers" for short.

Aside from that, there wasn't much of a difference in strength between them:

1-3 Star Seekers = Full Gods 4 Star Seeker = Average High God (No fused mysteries) 5 Star Seeker = High God who has fused two mysteries 6 Star Seeker = High God with three fused mysteries 7 Star Seeker = High God with four fused mysteries

Above them are the Lord Prefects, also known as Seers or Commanders, depending on who you ask. There can be a big difference between those at the Commander level, but the weakest are comparable to High Gods who have fused five mysteries, whilst the strongest are those High Gods who, like Ace, had begun fusing six mysteries but hadn't completed that fusion.

Ace already knew that when using his bloodline abilities, excluding his [Willpower], he could be considered a fairly powerful 7 Star Seeker, which would give him the power to move around virtually unhindered, provided he didn't anger any expert at or above the Commander level.

As for the others, both Amira and Leona had also reached the level of a 7-Star Seeker.

As for Killian, although he was a three-way soul-mutate, only his Earth and Fire Divine Clones had reached the Full-God level; his Destruction Divine Clone was still only at the Demi-God level, and because all three clones had to be at the same level for him to fuse the divine power of all three, he could only be considered a two-way soul mutate. Still, even so, he was only a hair's breadth away from the level of a 7-Star Seeker, having fused four mysteries of the laws of earth.

As for the others, their strengths ranged between the level of a 4 and 6-Star Seeker. As a group, they would easily be able to wander around unhindered.

Aside from that, it also mentioned that the currency used in the Celestial Realm was Fatestones, which could only be produced by a sovereign and could be used to purchase anything from weapons to Metallic Lifeforms like Beirut's castle to sovereign's might.

Thanks to the bandits that tried to attack them on their journey, the group had a little over 10,000 Fatestones, which sounded a lot until they heard Beirut mention that a single trip from the Divine Realm to the material plane cost one trillion Fatestones. A deeply demoralising thought as it meant that if they ever wanted to return home, they would need almost a hundred million more than they currently had. Still, that was a problem for the future.

Their next course of action was to decide what they wanted to do next, something that left everyone stumped. Their main goal when coming to the Celestial Realm was to look for answers about Amira's Viz clan.

Amira's aunt Sharanthia had said that Amira's mother was born and raised here in the Celestial Plane and that her master was some big shot here. Unfortunately, they didn't have so much as a name to go off.

In the end, they decided that their best bet was to take the Fate Seeker trials and become Seekers themselves. At least that way, they'd be able to slowly gather funds as well as gather information about some of the Celestial Realm's true movers and shakers.

When asked when they wanted to go through with the trials, Ace and Amira both felt Kannal's body imperceptibly tremble.

Ace shrugged and said he still hadn't finished transforming his insights into the laws of fire into concepts for his [Blazing Glaive Art], a feat which could take anything from one year if he was fast and five if he was slow.

Everyone, Kannal included, understood he was doing it for their youngest brother's sake. Even though he had only just met them, Kannal was reluctant to leave the two siblings, and he knew it was impossible for them to bring them along on a trip which would inevitably be fraught with danger.

Still, no one minded Ace's decision. Five years might sound like a long time, but after witnessing the creation of Divine Planes for over 150 years, five years was nothing. Plus, though he said it for Kannal's sake, it didn't make it any less true. In fact, it was true for all of them, aside from Julius, who had no interest in fighting and, by extension, weapons.

With that decided, everyone went back to their respective rooms. When it was just Ace and Amira left, Ace expressed his concerns. He explained that even though this was the Celestial Realm and not the Divine Realm of Darkness where her Viz clan originated, there was no way of knowing if her family's enemies were here as well. To that end, he said that, like him with his use of his [Willpower], she should refrain from using her Viz bloodline in public.

Amira tried to argue that although it could get back to her family's enemies, her using her bloodline could also get back to her mother's master as well, effectively bringing the mystery expert to them instead. Ace nodded in agreement and said that was why he would use his Golden Sun manifestation.

But for the plan to be most effective, it would mean that aside from his [Observation Haki], which was otherwise invisible, Ace wouldn't be able to use the rest of his haki, as if both he and Amira were seen using Haki as husband and wife, someone might be able to tell that they were soulmates, allowing them to understand that they both would have both bloodlines, thereby making it easier to deduce that Amira was the actual Viz Clan descendant.

In other words, unless it was a last resort, Ace and Amira would effectively be swapping bloodlines. At least until they had the power to protect themselves from their enemies.

Ace carried on by explaining that, although it was still a risk, if her Viz clan's enemy was a commander-level expert or even a paragon, only he would have the ability to protect himself.

Even though it would mean revealing his [Willpower], he'd still be able to protect himself, but Amira had no such power. Even if she used both her Viz Manifestation and Haki, she was still just considered a top-tier 7-Star Seeker.

Amira hated that she was being forced to stand behind Ace again and even more that he was having to basically handicap himself even more than he already had for her sake, but she also knew he was right, so she decided to agree.

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