Upon leaving the seal that had kept them prisoners for so long, Garot sensed a Godrealm sweep over them.
Having expected something like this to happen, he was hardly surprised. Still, what had surprised him was Ace’s reaction.
The Godrealm hadn’t swept over their position for longer than a fraction of a second when Ace’s body flickered slightly.
To the untrained eye, Ace was still standing in the same position, but Garot could clearly sense that the Ace beside them was just a clone of sorts. His real body had disappeared.
As though he had genuinely teleported, Ace suddenly appeared above the body of the man who tried to scan them.
The technique Ace used was his new and improved movement technique. It was one he named “Subtle Sun Stepper.” It was one that utilised the Profound Mysteries of the Essence of Fire, Mirages, Explosions, and Fire Body.
Not only did it retain the explosive speed of his former movement technique, but with the aid of the mysteries of Fire Body and the Essence of Fire, he was able to create fiery clones of his body that retained 10% of his full power.
Still, the most genius part of it was, with the mystery of Mirages, Ace was able to wrap his fiery clone in an additional layer of subterfuge that made the clone look almost identical to him. Though it was a very low-level illusion that only really affected the naked eye – as a deity’s Godrealm would be able to see through it almost instantly, Ace didn’t need much more time than that.
As soon as he saw Ace and the others, though surprised, he didn’t hesitate to take out some sort of communication device to relay the information of Ace’s escape to his superiors, but before he got the chance to go through with it, Ace’s glaive swept through his arm like a knife through butter.
The man in question was incredibly shocked; still, due to the nature of the task he was sent on, he was also a commander-level expert. As such, he didn’t let his surprise get the better of him.
He was aware that the fact that they had escaped meant that someone among their group had become a paragon, and since he could see Ace was still a Full God, he knew it wasn’t him.
The chances of him being able to escape from a paragon-level expert were virtually non-existent, but he had to at least try. He immediately used a spiritual attack, hoping to kill Ace in one go or, at the very least, stun him for long enough that he could escape.
Unfortunately, he had underestimated the progress Ace had made these last thousand years.
In part due to his reincarnation and in part because of the nature of his bloodline, Ace’s soul had always been monstrous, but he had never focused on the spiritual nature of his Powers, focusing primarily on material attacks, but now things were very different!
Ace had created two soul-based techniques. The first was one he called “Sun Soul Shield.” It was a technique that used the mysteries of the Essence of Fire, Heat, and Spiritual Fire. Taking inspiration from his own Visual Manifestation, he fused them to create a Sun that permanently enveloped his soul, burning anything that attempted to come in contact with it. It was that technique that easily protected his soul from the man’s spiritual attack.
The next was his first, and as of right now, it is his only offensive spiritual technique. It was called “Spiritual Sun Pulse.” It was a technique that utilised the fusion of the Essence of Fire, Heat, Spiritual Fire, and Explosions to create a burning shockwave starting at the user’s soul that burns all spiritual essence it comes in contact with.
The man who attempted to flee for his life barely made it 20 meters before his soul was completely incinerated by the overwhelming power of Ace’s Spiritual Essence.
Garot, who just appeared in the sky behind Ace, looked at Ace’s back speechlessly. It had to be remembered that typically, although supreme geniuses aiming to fuse all six laws as a Full God could fight against 7 Star Fate Seekers and potentially even commanders, that tended to be with the use of material attacks thanks to their fused mysteries.
Typically, the one weakness of a supreme genius when going up against High Gods would be the power of their souls. As they were still only Full Gods, their souls tended to be their biggest weakness, which was why so many of them would go out of their way to acquire at least a High God Soul Protecting Artifact. Still, that would only be able to protect their souls from spiritual attacks.
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The fact that Ace didn’t have a single soul-protecting artefact and yet could not only easily shrug off the spiritual attack of a Commander-level High God who clearly specialised in the soul but also incinerated the man’s soul with just as much ease.
Garot’s shock was more than justified. Unfortunately, Ace didn’t seem to care one way or the other. He was rather indifferent as he said that it didn’t look like the man had another clone out there anywhere. He took out a drop of Fate-type Sovereign’s Might from the man’s storage ring, casually tossing it to Julius, who stored it away for himself.
Shaking his head to get rid of his distracting thoughts, Garot said that was good as it would allow them to smoothly move on to the next part of their plan.
A couple of days after Ace, Garot, and the others left, a wizened elderly man appeared in the skies above the seal that held Garot captive for so long.
Looking down at the runes on the ground, an intrigued smile appeared on the man’s face as he muttered that it looked like things were going to get a little chaotic again.
A little over a month later, Ace and his group entered a lavish city, though, for some reason, Garot wasn’t with them any more.
As they made their way through the city, seemingly without a goal, they overheard a particular conversation that caught their attention.
A group was talking about a certain crew of pirates that had made quite a name for themselves recently.
According to them, the Firm Nail Pirates were a relatively large crew with over 100 experts among their ranks – the weakest of which were still High Gods. The odd thing, though, was that the leaders of the crew were a brother and sister pair, who, whilst only Full Gods apparently had the power of Five Star Fate Seekers, also had a unique ability to fuse their souls, allowing both of their power to multiply to the level of a six-star fate seeker.
The leaders of the Firm Nail Pirates were obviously Qimai and Weslor, the same brother and sister that Kannal saved back when they first entered the Celestial Realm.
News of their current strength hardly came as a shock to Kannal and the others. It had been over a thousand years since they had seen them last, and between their talent and the foundations they helped them lay, it was only natural. But what they weren’t expecting to hear was news of their capture.
According to the group they were eavesdropping on, news of their connection to the Golden Sun Pirates – who everyone believed to be dead now – was released. After that, they were hunted down by Joleon, who proceeded to slaughter their whole crew before capturing them and imprisoning the two siblings in the Boleyn Clan’s dungeon.
Hearing that, the mood of Ace, Kannal, and the others could be imagined. Though it had been over a millennium since they had last seen them, everyone thought of the two as part of their family. As such, there were no arguments when Ace decided to make a change of plans.
There was a rule against flying in all major cities, but Ace didn’t care. He and the others all floated into the skies, and then, under the shocked eyes of all those below, he summoned his metallic lifeform.
It had been a thousand years since anyone had seen the ship of the Golden Sun Pirates, but the moment that infamous banner began to flap in the wind, there wasn’t a single person who didn’t recognise it.
Still, Ace didn’t pay anyone or anything else any mind as he willed his pirate ship to take off in the direction of the Boleyn Clan’s headquarters.
Thankfully, they weren’t too far away either. Within the space of a day and a half, they had arrived, and unlike what one would expect after what happened last time the Golden Sun Pirates had a run-in with the combined force of the Boleyn Clan and the Fate Seekers Association, they didn’t even try to hide their presence.
They flew straight into the airspace above the Boleyn Clan’s Estate. Several experts furiously took off to teach their ignorant intruders a profound lesson, but when they saw the flag of the Golden Sun Pirates flapping in the wind and the nine members of the crew coldly looking down at them, they couldn’t help but halt their steps. Still, it was the manifestation of the Golden Sun that hovered over Ace’s back that truly put the fear of God in them.
Seeing the crowd that had formed beneath them, Ace used another of his new techniques to greet them.
Searing Rain was Ace’s only area of effect attacks. And although it wasn’t as powerful as some of his other single-target attacks, when used in situations like this, it was far more effective.
By fusing the Essence of Fire with Heat, Explosions, and Spiritual Flames, Ace was able to make small drops of fiery rain fall from the skies above, which proceeded to explode after making contact with someone.
Even though not particularly powerful to Ace, who could now be considered very powerful among Commander-level experts, each explosion held the power of the attack of a five-star fate seeker.
It had to be remembered that although incredibly weak to those true experts, those with the power of a five-star expert were rare. The vast majority of those who came out to face the intruders could only be considered average High Gods.
The damage Ace’s attack caused could be imagined. Still, the most fearful aspect of Ace’s attack was the spiritual aspect it hid.
As Joleon – who had been in closed-door training since capturing Qimai and Weslor – exited to see what all the fuss was about, he was greeted by the heart-wrenching screams of his fellow clansmen.
“Come, let’s see how tough you really are without your mommy here to hold your hand,” Ace said when he saw Joleon arrive, his expression barely changing as his Glaive entered his hand.