Back at the War God’s Mountain, everyone was still in a daze, still blankly staring at Ace as he allowed his body to flop onto Leo’s soft, furry back.

He no longer had the strength to fight another battle, not that any mortal would dare to challenge him after witnessing his last strike.

Still, before he and Leo could return to Arianna’s side, a powerful aura suddenly appeared in the skies above.

Though he was drained, he knew better than to lower his guard in enemy territory, so the moment the figure appeared, Ace’s head snapped up only to see a crimson-haired man looking down at them all with an indifferent gaze, but the thing that shocked Ace was the overwhelming power the man radiated.

Ace had met dozens of saints by now, but purely in terms of presence, none were anywhere near as imposing as this man. The aura he emitted seemed to burn even brighter than the sun that hung in the sky to his rear.

Still, that shock only lasted a second before turning into a dense killing intent that seemed to lower the temperature in the surrounding area.

Ace had never seen the man before, but it didn’t take a genius to understand that he was the man who tainted his mother’s pure soul. He was the one who fuelled Ace’s desire to grow stronger most. It was he whom Ace had dreamt of slaughtering in the most brutal way imaginable every night for over a year. He was the War God of the Yulan Continent – he was O’Brien!

Sensing such a powerful killing intent directed at him, O’Brien’s eyes immediately fell on the dark-haired teen.

As a deity, he could very easily conceal his energy, preventing anyone from sensing him in the slightest, but he disdained such acts; he was an invincible deity who commanded respect from everyone who appeared before him. As such, it was rare for anyone – saint or not – to dare even look directly at him, let alone show such a warped expression, and for it to come from a child, how could he not be taken aback?

But as soon as he looked at the defiant teen, he immediately understood he was the one who had caused all the commotion in his empire. Even so, he would never allow anyone who dared to show him such disrespect, even if they were a genius seen once every million years. His dignity was never to be infringed on!

Still, the most important thing right now was to find the source of that energy he sensed earlier. Although it was nowhere near powerful enough to threaten him, it still made him shiver slightly.

“What happened?” O’Brien asked as he turned to face his eldest disciple.

“Well,” Fain began. “It all started when that child, Gol D. Ace, appeared with his group to challenge the students from the college…”

Whilst Fain was explaining everything that happened, Arianna was watching her disciple trembling in a near uncontrollable manner in Lance’s arms. This was the moment they had all been most worried about.

If Milianna was able to see O’Brien once more in person and all of them leave with their lives, they were 99% sure that Milianna’s soul would once again see an improvement and after that, the day Ace challenged and defeated O’Brien, Milianna’s soul should recover completely.

Unfortunately, this dangerous plan – proposed by her disciple – was a double-edged sword. Although it was true that it should be plain sailing once they left here, it was also very possible that just by being in his presence, it could cause Milianna’s soul to worsen dramatically.

What happened from here on out all depended on Milianna and her willpower. All she could do was protect her disciple and the rest of their group from harm’s way.

As such, she focused her attention back on O’Brien, preparing herself to act at a moment’s notice.

“… And that was when you arrived,” Fain explained slowly, making sure not to leave anything out.

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“You mean to say that not only did that energy I sense originate from that boy?” O’Brien asked expressionlessly. “But he used it to defeat a newly promoted saint whilst only at the sixth rank?”

“That’s right, but tha…”

“Your name’s Ace, right?” O’Brien asked before Fain could finish his sentence, watching as Ace dismounted his beast companion’s back to sit facing him on the back of the peak saint staged lion. “Be my disciple!”

O’Brien watched Ace being carried onto Carter’s back but did nothing to stop them. After all, in his eyes, there was no way two trivial saints could stop him if he decided to make a move. If anything, their action was more cute than anything else.

No one was shocked by the ‘command’ of the War God. The talent Ace showed here today was simply heaven-defying. He had already proved that he would face no bottlenecks until he became a deity, a being on the same level as the man speaking, and that didn’t even take into consideration the fact that his beast companion was a Divine Beast who would also become a deity eventually as well, or the fact that he had knowledge of such a fearsome mystic technique.

Still, although they weren’t shocked, it didn’t mean they were happy about it either. Those from other forces were unhappy because, should Ace say yes, it would mean that the O’Brien Empire would have three deities in the future.

Those from the O’Brien Empire weren’t happy as Ace had all but humiliated their empire only to be awarded a position that most of them could only look up to. Still, it was bittersweet as they also understood it would only bolster their power in the future.

But the person most displeased with this development was Byrius. Not only had Ace killed his disciple and publicly humiliated him, he was also the disciple of his rival and greatest enemy – Aiden Rohault.

No matter how they felt about it, the moment O’Brien opened his mouth, everyone already believed it was a done deal. When a deity speaks, the rest of the world had no choice but to obey. The only ones capable of acting against the War God were other deities, but that was why Ace’s response shocked them beyond belief.

Ace’s eyes radiated pure killing intent as he met the gaze of the man the world stood in awe of. “Fuck off!”

It was only two words, but when they came out of Ace’s mouth, whether it was O’Brien himself, his disciples, or any of those present, they all stared at Ace blankly, not knowing what to say, think or do.

The only ones who were still calm – for the most part – were Ace’s group. They all knew that with Arianna here, O’Brien couldn’t do anything to them. Well, most of them knew that.

As a former member of the O’Brien Empire, Cirulus had been all but indoctrinated to fear and respect the War God. Still, he was a decisive man by nature. Since he had decided to stand by Ace, he would continue to do so until the day he died.

The other person who wasn’t able to remain calm was obviously Milianna. Her master had already told her that she was stronger than O’Brien and that as long as she was there, O’Brien would never be able to do anything to them.

Milianna knew Arianna wouldn’t lie to her, she knew she should believe her, but every fibre of her being was petrified of the man in front of her, but not for her own sake. She was scared for her son. She was scared that O’Brien would take Ace away from her.

Her whole body was trembling non-stop, and had it been any other time, her odd reaction would’ve caught the attention of those present, but lucky for her, each of Ace’s actions seemed to take their full attention.

Had O’Brien swept his Divine Sense over their group, with the power of his soul, the shadow robe would do next to nothing to stop him from seeing the identity of the wearer, but at the moment, he was way too distracted for anything else.

“What did you say?” O’Brien asked blankly as though he couldn’t comprehend the boy’s reply.

“I said, fuck off!” Ace repeated just as coldly as before.

God or not, anyone who dared to touch his mother was nothing but a walking corpse in his eyes.

“Good,” O’Brien voiced emotionlessly. “Very Good!”

Even though O’Brien displayed no visible emotion, none of those watching dared take a breath for fear of what was about to happen.

“How long has it been since someone dared to take that tone with me?” O’Brien asked as he stared up at the sky as though he were seriously wondering.

“Since you’re so intent on doing things the hard way,” O’Brien voiced slowly. “Have it your way.”

As he said that, O’Brien disappeared from his previous position.

The moment he moved, whether it was Ace, Fain or Desri, none of them were capable of following him with any of their incredible senses.

Even though he didn’t specialise in speed, the speed of a deity was simply immeasurable for saints to follow. Well, most saints, anyway.

Unfortunately for O’Brien, Arianna wasn’t “most saints”.

O’Brien had only covered half the distance when his eyes widened in shock and horror. Without a moment of hesitation, O’Brien immediately came to a halt and raised his arms, covering them with his deity-level energy to block the incoming sword-shaped beam of golden light.

Once again, the audience was shocked speechless as they saw smoke rising from O’Brien’s arms as he looked deeply at the only human saint among Ace’s group.

“I believe you were already told to fuck off!” Arianna said, still as calm as ever.