Book 20, The Crown’s Riddle – Chapter 41, Two Preparations
As someone who trained in the Laws of Light, Clementine’s speed was quite fast, even amongst these Paragons.
“Swoosh!”
Space trembled as a streak of light burst forward.
“Hmph. As expected, the eight of them have come to block me.” Clementine stretched out his divine sense and discovered that Linley and the rest of the eight had moved to block off the path ahead of him. Unless he, Clementine, did not choose to go back through the teleportation array, there was no way for him to avoid the blockade of the eight.
The reason why he only considered the number to be ‘eight’ was because Clementine didn’t even take Bebe into consideration.
“What a pity, what a pity. They are simply wasting time by doing this.” Clementine crooked a smile, a hint of delighted amusement on his lips. At the same time, he stretched his divine sense into the mind of one of his Highgod subordinates. “Derry [De’lei], hurry up and inform the Chief Sovereign of Light that I have already acquired the red caltrop diamond.”
“Yes, milord.”
The group of Highgods which Clementine had led over included ones with divine clones still residing in the Divine Light Plane, right next to the Chief Sovereign of Light himself, and were constantly reporting back about the events occurring in the Okerlund Plane.
“At the same time, tell the Chief Sovereign that I am being blocked by eight Paragons, and that the situation is a bit tricky. If I am lucky enough to break through successfully, I will be able to return through the teleportation array. However...if I am unable to escape the eight of them...” Even Clementine wasn’t confident that he would be able to successfully escape from eight experts no weaker than him who were blockading him.
“If I’m unable to escape, I will choose to take the red caltrop diamond with me as I enter chaotic space! Inform the Chief Sovereign, and ask him to enter chaotic space early on and make haste to the Okerlund Plane. If I enter chaotic space, I will need the Chief Sovereign to save me.” Clementine sent mentally.
“Yes, milord. I will immediately report this to the Chief Sovereign of Light.” The intelligence agent said hurriedly.
Clementine was prepared for both possibilities; it could be said that this was a flawless plan.
If he could break through, he would; if he couldn’t, he would enter chaotic space.
The Chief Sovereign would save him. What had he to fear?
Upon entering chaotic space, even Highgod Paragons would find themselves virtually unable to control their own movements. They would instead be swept away by the endless tides of spatial chaos.
But of course, this was all predicated on the fact that ‘Paragons were invincible amongst Highgods’. If someone was able to easily kill him, he wouldn’t even have the chance to flee. Actually, although Clementine’s strategy was rather simple, it could still be considered flawless. After all, over the course of countless years, it had indeed been true that Paragons were invincible amongst Highgods. Most likely even all the Sovereigns believed this.
“Milord, the Chief Sovereign is very happy. He praised you highly, milord, and he has already entered a spatial rift and is currently in chaotic space, making haste towards the Okerlund Plane. However, from the location in chaotic space of Divine Light Plane to the location of the Okerlund Plane is too far away; even at the Chief Sovereign’s speed, some time is needed.”
“Excellent.” Clementine now felt more assured.
“Everything has been prepared. Now, I’ll accompany the eight of you in playing around for a time. Let’s see if you’ll be able to stop me?” Clementine’s lips curved upwards. He didn’t believe that anybody would be able to take the red caltrop diamond from him.
Linley’s group of eight was flying at high speed.
“Rumble...”
The waves of the sea rolled forward. Linley’s group was currently flying above the seas. Clementine was moving straight towards the Fogdeep continent; naturally, he would have to pass through the ocean. The other Paragons, even if they wanted to go all out, would thus have to stop Clementine above the sea.
“Based on the information that I have, Clementine has a defensive Sovereign artifact.” A cold, fierce voice entered Linley’s mind. “Thus, if we are to act against him, it is best if we use soul attacks! Only, Paragons have very powerful souls. The only way we can kill him is if all eight of us all strike him with soul attacks.”
The speaker was the only female in the group, a Paragon of Lightning.
“Kill him? That will be very hard.” Dunnington’s voice entered everyone’s minds. “As I see it, when the time comes, the faster ones amongst us, being Ballmer, Bayer, Linley, Nanessa [Ne’ne’sha], will go slow him down. Don’t let him escape. As long as he can’t escape, once he faces our group attacks, we will have a chance to kill him.”
In recorded history, there had been instances of Paragons being killed by Sovereigns.
However, there had never been a case where a group of Paragons killed a single Paragon. It wasn’t that it was impossible; rather, the chances of a large group of Paragons to come to the same spot and join forces was simply too low.
“Our goal isn’t to kill him.” That cold voice rang out. “Just to force Clementine to hand over the red caltrop diamond.”
“Once it is handed over, who will take it?” Bayer’s voice rang out.
The discussion through divine sense of this group of Paragons instantly ground to a halt.
Right. If Clementine were to hand over the red caltrop diamond, who would it go to?
“It’s far too early to be discussing this.” Linley sent to the other seven Paragons. “Do you all think that it will be easy for us to acquire the red caltrop diamond from Clementine? Hmph. Let’s think about how we can force him to hand it over. As for who will acquire it, as I see it, nobody will want to give it up, right? When the time comes, it’ll be based on who has the ability to take it.”
“Right. It will be based on who has the ability to take it.”
None of the Paragons were willing to submit to each other; only by relying on ability could one acquire the red caltrop diamond, then flee past the others. Only then would the other Paragons be convinced.
“Boss, you feel confident now?” Bebe sent with worry. “Just now, they were saying that Clementine has a defensive Sovereign artifact.”
“Ninety percent confident.” Linley’s gaze was sharp as he stared into the distance. “He’s about to arrive.”
Both Linley’s side and Clementine were travelling at high speed.
In the face of a blockade by these eight great experts, even though Clementine might want to avoid them, there was no way he would be able to.
“Clementine has arrived.” The cold, sharp voice said. “Let’s just do as Dunnington suggested earlier. I, Ballmer, Bayer, and Linley will be responsible for entangling him and preventing him from escaping. And then, everyone will jointly use soul attacks against him. Hmph, he’s by himself. For him to endure the soul attacks of eight Paragons...probably even he won’t be able to endure it.”
“Bebe, just watch here for now.” Linley sent mentally.
“Right.” Bebe understood that for a battle at this level, if he got involved, he would just be dead weight.
Without hesitating at all, Linley’s group of eight shot out like eight bolts of lightning, forming a net as they shot towards that distant ray of light.
“Clementine...” Linley’s gaze was firmly focused on that distant ray of light. Suddenly, that ray of light distorted, wanting to dodge past Linley’s group.
“In your dreams!”
Linley, Paragon of Fire Ballmer, Paragon of Wind Bayer, and Paragon of Lightning Nanessa suddenly accelerated. The four of them were not slower than Clementine, and as they did a four-way pincer towards him, they easily made it so that there was nowhere Clementine could run to avoid them.
“Clementine, you won’t be able to escape.” Ballmer’s voice rang out in Clementine’s mind.
“Haha, you want to stop me? Keep dreaming!” Clementine knew that there was no way for him to dodge them, but suddenly charged at high speed towards Bayer.
Bayer, as a Paragon of Wind, was most powerful in material attacks, while a bit lacking in soul attacks. As for Clementine, he had a protective Sovereign artifact and so didn’t fear Bayer at all.
“HE wants to flee from my side?” Bayer’s face turned cold.
“Whooosh.”
Suddenly, a wild wind howled and Bayer instantly transformed into a dense cluster of thousands of Bayers. This was the ‘Doppelganger’ technique of the Laws of the Wind. The strange thing is, the many doppelgangers actually generated strange tornados, with the dense cluster of tornados actually not causing any spatial vibrations at all.
Linley, seeing this, was secretly surprised.
“Thousands of doppelgangers, joining forces to execute the ‘Dimensional Wind’ technique. This is truly inconceivable.” Linley sighed in praise.
Logically speaking, only the true body should be able to use profound mysteries. But Bayer had clearly developed a technique to make it so that all of his doppelgangers would also have access to this technique. In addition, it had a special effect akin to a ‘magical formation’, making the effects of this ‘Dimensional Wind’ technique be layered atop each other, completely locking in the surrounding space.
A terrifying restrictive, pulling power instantly enveloped Clementine!
“Bayer actually has a technique like this?” Clementine couldn’t help but feel frantic.
Even though the profound mysteries of the Laws were the same, the attacks one could develop weren’t necessarily the same. After gaining insight into the profound mysteries, one still had to develop the best method for applying them. Bayer’s technique was a fairly clever way of applying the profound mysteries.
“Right at this moment. Soul attacks!” Dunnington’s voice rang out in the minds of everyone, including Linley.
Instantly, the eight people, including Linley, launched soul attacks without hesitating at all.
“Not good.” Clementine’s face changed dramatically.
“Bang!” Clementine’s body suddenly exploded with thousands of rays of golden light, forming a dense cluster of many Clementines. The ‘Doppelganger’ type technique was available to the Laws of the Wind, the Laws of Darkness, and the Laws of Light as well. But of course, the principle behind each was slightly different.
For now, Linley’s group of eight was unable to immediately determine which one was the true body.
Although everyone knew that Clementine’s original body wouldn’t be able to flee too far, and that it was within a few meters of the original location, within those few meters, there were five Clementines!
“Hmph!”
The only woman in this battle, the Paragon of Lightning, Nanessa, stretched her hands out. Instantly, within the surrounding area of ten thousand meters, thousands of bolts of lightning appeared out of nowhere. The wild, savage thunderbolts struck down with abandon. Instantly, virtually all of the doppelgangers which Clementine had created had all been destroyed, leaving behind only a single Clementine.
“Stay your hands.” Clementine shouted loudly as he flew backwards, wanting to pull away from Linley’s group.
“Attack.” There was no hesitation at all; as Dunnington gave the order, the eight of them all unleashed their soul attacks.
Eight rays of translucent soul attacks shot through the skies, attacking towards Clementine. Soul attacks were always terrifyingly fast to begin with. Ordinary Highgods would be completely unable to dodge, but the speed of Paragons was far faster than the speed of Highgods, after all. Even in the face of these impending soul attacks, he was still able to dodge slightly.
Clementine’s body suddenly twisted.
He managed to dodge six full soul attacks, but two of them still sunk into his body.
“Hmph.” The color of Clementine’s face changed slightly.
“Continue.” Dunnington didn’t hesitate at all.
“Stay your hands. If you keep attacking, I will destroy this interspatial ring.” Clementine’s voice instantly echoed in the minds of the eight. At the same time, an interspatial ring appeared within Clementine’s hands.
The eyes of Linley’s group of eight lit up, and they couldn’t help but halt.
“Clementine, this red caltrop diamond isn’t for you to have. Just hand it over.” The Paragon of Fire, Ballmer, snickered.
“Hmph.” The Paragon of Lightning, Nanessa, stared coldly towards Clementine with her violet eyes.
“Hand it over, Clementine.” Linley stared at him.
Clementine swept the eight of them with his gaze, then snickered, “I really didn’t expect that today’s events would occur. If I had known, I would’ve gone to the Planar Battlefield and earned a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact.” A Paragon suffer joint attacks from a group of Paragons? This had never happened before.
The Paragons had never anticipated a day like today, and so aside from a minority of Paragons who did go and acquire three Sovereign artifacts, the vast majority of Paragons either had no Sovereign artifacts or just one.
After all...
Whether or not they had Sovereign artifacts made very little difference to them. Only when they suffered an attack from a group of Paragons would a Sovereign artifact prove its usefulness.
“The eight of you really are quite vicious. It is just an Overgod talisman, right? Why fight to the death like this.” Clementine rubbed his nose, then snickered, “The reason the nine of us have come for this Overgod talisman is to give our Sovereign some face, and to acquire just a bit of Sovereign’s Might. Why fight to this extent?”
Indeed, the Overgod talisman, to Highgod Paragons, didn’t have that much use. It wasn’t worth them fighting for their lives over it.
However, not worth fighting for their lives was only true if their own lives were on the lines. The Paragons wouldn’t mind taking someone else’s life for it.
“Since you’ve said that, you should hand the red caltrop diamond over.” Dunnington said.