Gol D. Ace In Coiling Dragon

The moment Matadall made his move, with him seemingly going all out to kill Linley as soon as possible, everyone, be they deity, Sovereign, or Overgod, they all noticed. Still, for varying reasons, no one made any attempt to intervene.

For the deities, they were both too weak and too slow to stop an Intermediate Sovereign. As for the Sovereigns, whether it was the ones on the side of the Yulan Plane or the others, with three Overgods present, they didn't feel it was their place to stop him. With that said, many of those who stood opposed to the Yulan Plane did telepathically tell Matadall to stop for fear of angering the two Overgods on the Yulan Plane. Even so, Matadall continued on with his attempt.

As for the Overgods, they seemed to have no interest in the matter. They merely stood on the sidelines, continuing to watch on as simple spectators.

Seeing how both Aiden and Orloff stood stationary despite how close Matadall was to Linley now, Yunaia lost it and screamed at them in a panicked frenzy, almost ordering them to stop him.

In response, Orloff ignored her altogether, whereas Aiden merely told her to look again. Following Aiden's line of sight, Yunaia finally took a sigh of relief when she saw Linley safe and sound. As for the other spectators, aside from the three Overgods, everyone else was staring at the man blocking Matadall's path in a mixture of shock, horror, and overall disbelief.

The man was Ace, and the reason they were shocked was that, although Ace had defeated and even killed Teresia a few hundred years ago now, he was still some way away from being able to the level of an Intermediate Sovereign, but now, not only was he able to block the all-out attack of an Intermediate Sovereign, he did so without the use of his Divine Ability.

That was when they suddenly realised that Ace had made another breakthrough to the level of a High God.

Linley, who barely retained the strength to keep his eyes open now after utilising the remainder of his power to kill Fotu, looked up at Ace's back with a helpless smile before calling Ace a show-off for stealing his spotlight.

Turning back to his rival, Ace grinned and told Linley to lie back, relax, and look at the true power of the world's most powerful deity.

Linley merely rolled his eyes before allowing himself to lose consciousness. With Ace there, he knew nothing would happen to him now.

Matadall, on the other hand, had just snapped out of his frenzied anger and trembled as he looked at the man blocking his path. His body trembled in shock and fear as he realised that Ace had managed to block his strike without even using his Divine Ability.

Truth be told, Ace seemed to have to go all out to block Matadall's attack, but the fact that he did it at all spoke to Ace's current prowess. All the Sovereigns could sense the overwhelming power Ace was radiating.

Now that he had broken through to the High God realm, his Pure Yang Divine Power was twice as strong as the average Lesser Sovereign's Sovereign power but five times weaker than an Intermediate Sovereign. But where his Divine Power couldn't compare to Matadall's, his Willpower definitely could.

Without the use of his Divine Ability, Ace currently had 40 units of Willpower, the exact same as the average Intermediate Sovereign.

By now, there wasn't anyone who didn't understand how the Gol Clan's Divine Ability worked. It was for that very reason that Matadall was so petrified as he stared at Ace. He understood that although as a paragon-level Intermediate Sovereign, his Sovereign power was five times as powerful as Ace's Divine Power, and he currently had one more unit of Will, the moment Ace used his Divine Ability, Ace's Willpower would directly double, reaching 80 units – the equivalent of the average Chief Sovereign – at that point, he'd be lucky to survive one of Ace's strikes.

Coming to that realisation, Matadall, without so much as a second thought, directly re-entered chaotic space and flew away.

Seeing that, Ace sneered as his soul-self materialised to his rear. At the same time, Ace directly summoned his domain.

Every deity was capable of this basic ability, but because Ace's Willpower was so much more powerful than his opponent's now that he had used his Divine Ability, even with Matadall using his own domain to negate that of Ace, he still felt like a mortal wading through mud.

It was then that Ace appeared directly in front of him, glaive in hand. Ace leisurely explained that on his way over, he had come up with a new technique, and since he didn't have the chance to try it out, he would use Matadall as his guinea pig.

Despite the fact he was so publicly looked down on by a mere deity, Matadall couldn't find the courage to feel any kind of anger, just fear, an overwhelming amount of fear that came from his very soul.

Ace slowly raised his glaive as he entered the most ordinary of fighting stances – it was a simple movement, and yet it was one that seemed to captivate all those who watched; it was only when he uttered the words "Shooting Star" that everyone snapped out of the trance in time to watch as Ace's glaive seemed to transform into a genuine golden shooting star streaking across the seemingly endless expanse of space.

It was a technique that merely utilised a fusion of three Profound Mandates of Pure Yang – The Mandates of Warped Light, Lightspeed and Explosion, but that did nothing to take away from the power and beauty of the strike.

The fusion of the Mandates of Explosion and Lightspeed served to take that strike to the pinnacle of speed and explosive power, whereas the Mandate of Warped Light served to distort the vision and soul sense of those watching, preventing most from being able to keep track of the attack.

Without the Mandate of Warped Light, the strike was so fast that even an expert like Wodred, one of the most powerful Sovereigns to ever live, would be hard-pressed to dodge it, and yet because of the Mandate of Warped Light, even the weaker deities in the audience were able to watch the "shooting star" streak through space before crashing into Matadall and causing his body to explode as two Divine Sparks shot into the distance.

One of the Divine Sparks was actually the Intermediate Sovereign Spark of Death. An item capable of turning a deity into a genuine Sovereign. An item so precious it would cause all-out war for many determined to get their hands on it, and yet, there wasn't anyone paying attention to it in the slightest. Everyone's sole focus was on the man who launched the strike.

Ace, on the other hand, looked in the direction of the two flying gems before casually waving his hand.

Although he had no interest in becoming a Sovereign through a Sovereign Spark, nor did he specialise in the Edict of Death, having another Sovereign on their side would never be a bad thing.

It was then that he looked back down at Linley, who was lying peacefully back on the Planar Battlefield, seemingly without a care in the world.

Ace seemed to teleport, and he appeared in the sky behind Linley and snorted. He called out and told the "lizard" to wake up and use his wish already, as he didn't have all day to babysit him.

As he said that, he pointed in Linley's direction, causing a golden beam of light to pierce through the void and enter Linley's body.

That seemingly casual beam of light was also a three-way fusion of the Mandates of Pure Yang – the Mandates of Pure Yang Essence, the body of Pure Yang, and Purity.

As the beam entered Linley's body, whether it was his physical injuries or his fatigue, they were all washed away in mere seconds.

Linley, though, didn't seem thankful in the slightest, nor was he particularly shocked. In fact, as he woke back up to the disrespectful shouts of his rival, Linley merely snorted and told Ace to wait; after he became a soul mutate, he would wipe that arrogant smirk off his face.

Before Ace could respond, Linley had already summoned the two Overgod Talismans in his possession from his storage ring and bound the storage ring of the now-deceased Fotu, taking out the Overgod Talisman stored inside.

Under the focused eyes of all the spectators, the three Overgod Talismans fused together. At the same time, the fabric of space in both the Planar Battlefield and the chaotic space surrounding it began to shake as a blurry figure began to take shape.

The aura of the figure was so pure and overwhelming that, despite the fact that the figure was still only in the process of materialising, most of those watching felt a sudden urge to bow their heads in subservience.

Seeing that even his wife was struggling to resist that pressure, a cold glint flickered across Aiden's eyes as he snorted.

It was a simple action, but it was enough to eradicate the pressure surrounding those on the side of the Yulan Plane. As for the others, he was too lazy to pay them any mind.

Still, the one who faced the brunt of the pressure, as well as a hint of the figure's killing intent, was Ace.

Despite his current prowess, he was still nothing but an ant in the eyes of even the weakest of Overgods, let alone the Overgod of Life.

His back was drenched in sweat as his body trembled. Even so, his knees and back remained ramrod, similar to the glaive in his hand.

It took everything he had to remain standing, and yet he didn't make a sound of displeasure. He simply stood as he coldly stared at the figure appearing in front of Linley.

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