Book 13: Part 9 – Too Tempting

August immediately headed over to the Netherworld to convince Imoiya and her husband to help them.

At the same time, Aiden and the others were contemplating their options regarding their final missing piece.

As long as August was successful, they would have a Sovereign for almost each of the Edicts and Laws. The only one they would be missing at that point was a Sovereign of Lightning. Unfortunately, none of those present were close enough to the Lightning Sovereigns to have any confidence in convincing them to assist them.

Aiden sighed and said that it appeared that he would have to take action himself. As much as he didn't want to, it appeared they were out of options, but before he set off, Shinji – Wukong's biological father and one of the two current Intermediate Sovereigns of Destruction – said that it would probably be for the best if he was the one to take action.

He didn't know what measures the Overgods of the Four Edicts would put in place if they started getting any more suspicious of Aiden should he take action personally, but for someone like Aiden to show even a hint of caution and/or concern, it was enough to show the importance of the matter; as such, Shinji suggested he be the one to take action.

He then explained that, although it had been billions of years, he and one of the two Intermediate Sovereigns had a long-standing feud – the only reason why nothing had come of it previously was because, although as an Apex Divine Beast with a truly impressive Divine Ability, the difference between him and Vega – the Intermediate Lightning Sovereign in question – wasn't enough for him to kill him, but now things were different.

It was right then that Wukong's eyes widened with a hint of surprise as he stared at his father's seemingly casual slash of his sword.

Considering the fact that Shinji was a Sovereign and the Yulan Plane was nothing but a material plane, the fact that the surrounding space didn't so much as ripple proved it was nothing but an ordinary slash, and yet, everyone present was capable of sensing the infinite wonders held in said slash.

 Seeing the surprised look of those around him, Shinji smiled proudly and explained that he had become a paragon in the Concept of Destruction. It was also for that very reason that he was so confident in his chances of not just defeating but also killing his long-time adversary.

The only thing that could end up stopping him was if Hurley – the current Chief Sovereign of Lightning – intervened. As it stood, all things considered, when Shinji went all out, he could confidently face the average non-paragon Chief Sovereign without losing, and even against the average Chief Sovereign who had become a paragon of their Law or Edict, he could still very escape with his life. Unfortunately, Hurley was far from your average Chief Sovereign.

Although he was far from the level of those like Augusta, Orloff, or Wodred, he was still only a level behind. The reason for that was simple: Hurley was the only Sovereign in existence who had another Sovereign Divine Clone – or at least he was before the truth of Augusta and Orloff's existence was revealed.

Hurley's Divine Clone was only a Lesser Sovereign of Earth and was yet to become a paragon, but still, it was enough to put him on a level above most other Chief Sovereigns, meaning, as powerful as he was, Shinji had no confidence facing, or even escaping from Hurley.

Ultimately, Gitara – Reisgem's mother and the other current Intermediate Sovereign of Destruction – volunteered to go with him. Although she was yet to become a paragon of the Concept of Destruction, she was still an Intermediate Sovereign, a paragon of both the Edict of Destruction and the Laws of Earth, as well as an Apex Divine Beast with a Divine Ability that allowed her to manipulate the flow and direction of gravity with deft control.

With the two of them together, If Hurley was to intervene, even if they weren't a match for him, they should be able to calmly escape.

Aiden told them that while the other six Sovereigns of Lightning were back on the Divine Lightning Plane, Hurley appeared to be in the Divine Darkness Plane. Unfortunately, now that the spirit of the Overgod of Darkness was residing there, Aiden wasn't able to sense what was happening inside.

He knew that whether it was directly or indirectly, whatever they were discussing had to do with him and/or Ace, but as there was nothing he could do to spy on them, he directly put it to the back of his mind for now.

Even though Hurley was in the Divine Darkness Plane for now, they had no idea when he would be returning; as such, Gitara still followed Shinji to the Divine Lightning Realm.

Beirut and the others were just about to go their separate ways when Osiris approached Beirut and asked for a drop of Beirut's blood.

Caught off guard, Beirut couldn't help but ask what for, to which Osiris honestly replied that he wanted to absorb it to become a Godeater Rat with the help of Yulana's Vampire Divine Ability.

Although everyone knew that the most powerful and heaven-defying ability of all known creatures with an affinity to the Laws of Darkness was undoubtedly Phueus' Wraith bloodline, Beirut's Godeater bloodline was definitely the next best thing.

Even if he wouldn't be able to acquire the "Godeater" Divine Ability, Osiris would still inherit the Godeater's freakishly powerful defences – allowing him to bolster his survivability as an archer to all new levels. Aside from that, he would also receive an overall boost in speed and strength, although not to the same levels as his defence, it was still a significant powerup.

Hearing that, Beirut directly agreed. He had known Osiris since he was a child, and whilst Osiris wasn't the most monstrous of his group, he was still a monster among monsters that very few could match up to and more than that, he appreciated Osiris' personality. Still, he did have one condition.

He wanted Yulana to help him come up with a method to awaken his Godeater bloodline in all his rat-type descendants. A method not to dissimilar from the methods used by the Four Divine Beasts Clan in the Infernal Realm.

Thankfully, Yulana was both able and willing; as such, whilst waiting for the return of Augusta, Shinji, and Gitara, Yulana helped Osiris absorb the blood of the Godeater Rat, effectively allowing him to transform him into a pseudo-Godeater rat and further bolstering his already impressive strength.

The best part about it was that, although he didn't have access to the infamous Godeater Divine Ability, which allowed Beirut and Bebe to devour the divine sparks of a living target, he could still swallow divine sparks of the dead to not only slowly increase his defence, but also forge Godspark Weapons.

Even though he and the others already had weapons they had bonded with when embarking on the paths of Concepts, Beirut explained that it wasn't impossible for him to reforge a weapon, infusing divine sparks into it to make it what could only be described as a Pseudo Godspark weapon.

Though not quite as impressive as a genuine Godspark weapon, it would still elevate the power of their weapons by another level – a fact that excited everyone.

Shortly after that, Shinji and Gitara returned along with the Intermediate Spark of Lightning, signifying their success.

According to them, their worries had been for nothing. Shinji had been able to easily dominate and kill his opponent and still get back with time to spare, with Hurley being none the wiser.

Not long after that, Augusta led Imoiya and Idarr back to the Chaotic Space surrounding the Yulan Plane, both of whom were still exceedingly cautiously following behind Augusta.

Their shock and caution could be understood. Finding out that the overly arrogant and extremely conceited Augusta and the overwhelmingly talented and good-natured Orloff were actually one and the same was almost impossible to believe, but with Augusta standing before them in the body of the Chief Sovereign of Fate, they had no choice but to believe.

But it only made them all the more frightened of Augusta and now even Orloff. Still, when Augusta offered to give them the method of cultivating concepts as long as they were willing to create a Divine Plane of Life and Death for some of their juniors to watch, they found it impossible to refuse.

The truth was, they wanted to refuse. They wanted to stay as far away from this inevitable storm as physically possible.

One Sovereign had already died, but they would be foolish to believe that the killings would stop there. They had lived extremely long lives already, but neither were willing to give up their lives yet. As was the case with most ancient existences, be they saints, deities or Sovereigns, regardless of how powerful they became – the longer one lived, the more they feared the thought of dying.

Still, the prospect of improving their strength was too tempting. For that reason, the married couple remained on guard the entire trip but still ultimately followed Augusta back to the Yulan Plane.

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