Akasha sat on the newly constructed throne hall of the Akashic Palace. Although Arcadia took millions of years to construct, it only cost Akasha around a hundred drops of Sovereign’s Might. More importantly, it popularized the inkstone as currency.
The city of Arcadia was meticulously designed by Akasha. After all, this would become his base of operations in the future.
Although the construction was finished, few deities lived in the city. Why? Because the cost of housing was an astonishing drop of Sovereign’s Might—that was only the base price. As mentioned before, Akasha only release one hundred drops of Sovereign’s Might for the city’s construction, and after it was finished, you could no longer exchange inkstones for Sovereign’s Might. Rather than waste a drop of Sovereign’s Might, most highgods preferred to save it for a life-and-death situation.
In addition, wealth wasn’t the only criteria. You needed to possess strength, at least at the level of a seven-star fiend. In the future, Arcadia would become the city of the strong. Only those highgods sitting at the top of the entire universe would be able to live here.
Because of this, each residence in the city was a mansion. Furthermore, Arcadia had thirteen districts. The largest district was the Central District, which included Akashic Palace and its surroundings. After that was the second largest district was the Commercial District, which circled around the Central District. The last eleven districts were the residential districts. Each of the resident districts represented the four edicts and seven elemental laws, so the materials used to construct the buildings and ground correlated to those edicts and elements.
Akasha didn’t stay idle during the construction, either. He attracted many deities to join his Chaotic Sea Army. Of course, not everyone could join. They must deities that joined must have become a god or highgod by themselves, not fusing with a divine spark. Plato also became the commander of the Chaotic Sea Army.
He was also the first highgod to purchase a residence inside Arcadia. Because of this, Plato employed a few servants and guards, granting them the right to live in Arcadia.
Plato was farsighted and could already imagine the honor and glory of owning a mansion in Arcadia. Plato noticed that more and more deities appeared in the Infernal Realm. With the higher population, the chances of experts rising also increased.
Akasha was happy with this trend, too. The more highgods in the Infernal Realm, the larger his army would become. The stronger the army, the easier it became to accomplish his goals.
He selected a few gods and highgods and taught them the spells of destruction before ordering them to teleport to the material planes. Their mission wasn’t just to popularize the spells, but to spread the faith of Akasha, the Extinction Sovereign.
Akasha told the other Sovereigns the use of faith and spells, but he didn’t plan to informing them the use of creating a religion. Spells can hide Akasha’s purpose more easily. Once the other Sovereigns discovered the existence of spells, they’d just think the Sovereigns of Destruction were bored.
Still, a few smart ones might create their religions, but Akasha wasn’t too worried about them leaking it out. If they were smart enough to think of it, they should also be smart enough to conceal it.
After millions of years, he could already feel the effects of the faith energy. His progress in the Edict of Destruction had increased by thirty percent. Thirty percent sounded not much, but it was a massive increase in speed.
With that goal in progress, Akasha focused on another goal of his, the Overgod Decrees. He could still recall the invincibility of Orloff near the end of the Coiling Dragon. Even if he couldn’t complete a set of Overgod artifacts, Akasha wanted at least a material defense Overgod artifact and a soul defense Overgod artifact.
To accomplish this, Akasha needed to form an extensive network spanning the entire Infernal Realm. Akasha recalled the strongest organization mentioned in the novel, Fiend Castle. Upon remembering this name, he couldn’t help but recall the imposing figure of the Fiend King. With the rise of Sovereigns, no matter how talented the Fiend King was, he could never compete.
Akasha rose from his throne and disappeared. When he reappeared, Akasha was already appeared in the streets of Fiendking City. However, no one noticed his existence and walked around him without realizing it. He didn’t immediately appear in front of the Fiend King. Instead, he took his time appreciating this non Sovereign-made city.
Compared to Acardia, Fiendking City had more liveliness. Though that liveliness came as a result of public safety and size. Already, Akasha saw some highgods killing and robbing a demigod in a seclude alleyway. A few deities noticed but paid no heed, like Akasha.
He only stopped once he was in front of a large black castle. Above the entrance, a master sculptor had carved a blurry face with two horns. It reminded Akasha of the Fiend King. The deities of Fiendking City called it Fiend Castle. Not only that, but a Fiend Castle was built in every major city in the Fiend King’s control.
When Akasha first saw this, a look of shock appeared on his face. He had always thought Wodred created the massive Fiend Castle organization, but perhaps reality was different than he thought. In the original trajectory, the Fiend King created the organization but later perished because of some reason. Only then did Wodred take over the organization and spread it throughout the Infernal Realm.
Akasha had confidence in his conjecture. Not because of the exact name, but the grading system was exactly the same as his memories.
He didn’t dawdle any longer and appeared in front of the Fiend King.
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For the past few million years, the Fiend King encountered an unsolvable dilemma.
At first, everything went according to his wishes after Akasha left. Although he was sad about a potential rival’s departure, he didn’t think too much about it. In his eyes, only another soul mutate could become his true rival. Unless Akasha could become a soul mutate, that would never happen.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
With his newfound power, the Fiend King expanded his territory. Those who witnessed his power willing served and followed him. During his conquest, his forces had grown too large, and he needed a way to categorize them. Thus, he formed Fiend Castle and divided his subordinates from one-star fiends to seven-star fiends.
Thus, the term fiends came into existence in the Infernal Realm. He himself had exceeded the definition of fiend because he was the Fiend King.
His name traveled far and wide until almost no one did not know him. Many came to challenge him, but they all failed. To his disappointment, he never met a second soul mutate like himself. Of course, he wasn’t so foolish as to publicize the existence of soul mutates.
The Fiend King didn’t rest on his laurels either and continued to fuse the profound mysteries of fire and master the Edict of Destruction. After fusing the fifth profound mystery, he reached a new level. With his fused divine power, the Fiend King estimated that he had the power of a highgod who fused all the profound mysteries of a single law.
The Fiend King’s comprehension in the Edict of Destruction also matched his attainments in the Elemental Law of Fire. He also fused the Profound Mystery of Explosion with the Edict of Destruction, but to his disappointment, it only equaled the fusion of three profound mysteries.
He did not give up, and wanted to continue to fuse more profound mysteries of fire and principles of destruction. Alas, the difficulty exceeded his wildest imagination. However, he did not give up, but before he could succeed, the Sovereign’s appeared.
The Fiend King’s territory, which comprised trillions of kilometers, instantly shrunk to only millions. All the prestige the Fiend King built collapsed in a few thousand years. Once any deity saw how a Sovereign easily wiped out an army of highgods, they would lose all resistance. Not only did the Fiend King lose most of his territory, but the Sovereigns took over his Fiend Castles and renamed them. They didn’t even have the decency to change the strength categorization system he devised.
The most hateful thing was that all the Sovereigns were just lucky.
That’s right, lucky. From all the information he gathered, the Fiend King learned that to become a Sovereign, you need to fuse with a Sovereign spark. There was no requirement for the number of profound mysteries fused or depth of comprehension of the edict. Though, in recent years, the Sovereign took less action and almost everything was carried out by their army.
If he, the Fiend King, could fuse with a Sovereign spark, he would become the king of Sovereigns!
Alas, he was not one of those lucky few. From his observation, there should be seven Sovereigns, and these Sovereigns were all of destruction type. It was quite easy to tell since the birth of a Sovereign was too obvious.
The Fiend King came up with two plans. First, he was going to fuse all the profound mysteries of fire, completely comprehend the whole Edict of Destruction, and fuse the entire Edict of Destruction with the Elemental Laws of Fire. The moment he accomplished this, the Fiend King estimated he could wipe out an army of highgods.
The second method was to find to find a Sovereign Spark of Fire and bind it, becoming a Sovereign, too. Unlike the unknowledgeable deities, the Fiend King knew that the elemental laws were equal to the edicts. Since that was the case, if Sovereigns of destruction existed, then Sovereigns of fire must also exist.
Until he accomplished either of these goals, the Fiend King did not plan to clash with any of the Sovereigns. He was proud, not stupid.
“You’re really unlucky.”
The Fiend King opened his eyes and searched his surrounding upon hearing the unknown yet familiar voice. “Who?!”
Upon seeing Akasha, his mind spun, and he soon came to a shocking conclusion. “Have you become a Sovereign?”
It wasn’t hard to come to this conclusion. He heard that no highgod could detect with their spiritual power, and the room he trained in was seeped with his spiritual power. No deity could enter without his notice.
“You already figured it out?”
Although Akasha didn’t directly answer, his answer said all. Another highgod that surpassed him because of luck. The Fiend King comforted himself that Akasha was more worthy than the other Sovereigns. “What do you want?”
Despite knowing that Akasha could likely easily kill him, the Fiend King couldn’t bring himself to address the other party as lord, or even mister. Perhaps, this was the last line of pride he could protect.
Luckily for him, Akasha didn’t seem to mind. “It’s nothing. I just felt nostalgic and wanted to take a look at my old rival.”
The Fiend King’s face darkened. “Have you seen enough?”
“No,” Akasha said. “I want to see how much progress you made.”
Akasha didn’t give the Fiend King the chance to say anything and attacked. The Fiend King exploded with all his strength. Both of his divine clones appeared, and they defended with all their might. Even so, the Fiend King was still knocked back and blood dripped down his chin.
“You’re really talented. You’ve already fused five mysteries of fire, and your destruction clone is equally as accomplished,” Akasha said with some amount of shock.
Although Akasha focused mostly on the Edict of Destruction, he still partitioned some time to train in the Elemental Law of Light. His light-type clone only managed to fuse four profound mysteries. Aether couldn’t find a juncture to fuse the fifth profound mystery. Because of this, Aether focused on fusing profound mysteries from the ground up again, hoping to find inspiration.
Suddenly, Akasha frowned. If the Fiend King managed to refine the High Sovereign Spark of Fire and another destruction-type Sovereign spark, regardless of the rank, then his power would instantly eclipse the other High Sovereigns.
Even if he refined an Intermediate Sovereign Spark of Fire, his power would become comparable to a High Sovereign as long as he refined a second Sovereign spark. And, if he managed to become a Paragon…
Instantly, the thought of killing the Fiend King to prevent future troubles appeared in Akasha’s mind. But just as fast as the thought came, it disappeared. ‘You best hope that you don’t get a High or Intermediate Sovereign Spark. Otherwise…’
Akasha shook his head. If the Sovereigns in Coiling Dragon learned that Linley was a four-way soul mutate, they would admire him, but likely kill him at all costs. Someone with the potential to break the balance would cause them to disregard any of the rules. Only someone like Orloff, who possessed three Overgod artifacts, could make them feel helpless.
While Akasha thought, the Fiend King watched Akasha with trepidation. Earlier, he senses killing intent for the briefest of moment. So short was it that he thought he had hallucinated, but the Fiend King believed in his senses. Although he didn’t know why it disappeared, he raised his guard.
Suddenly, both Akasha and the Fiend King looked up. Their gaze pierced the Fiend Castle’s roofs and into the sky. The sky of the Infernal Realm had changed color. This only happened seven times before, and the only reason it would happen again meant that another Sovereign had been born.
The age of Sovereigns had begun.