Ace subconsciously exited his enlightened state to face the killing intent as a subconscious way of protecting himself. As he did, he saw two commanders boxing him in, both holding nothing back as they attacked with intent to kill.
Their attacks were virtually on top of him, but Ace felt no fear, only wrath!
Just now, he was genuinely on the precipice of breaking through and becoming a Paragon. If their attack had been a few seconds later, he would've become a genuine Paragon. At that point, he would've been infinitely more confident in facing whatever threat Phueus threw his way in the Planar Battle – he would've finally earned the ability to protect himself and his wife from most threats, but now it was ruined.
The two commanders attacking had no idea that they had just ruined Ace's good luck – they, having had a similar idea to Ace previously, had just crossed the Stellar River so as to hunt more enemy commanders from the side of the Divine Light Plane when they ran across a Full God with an enemy commander's badge.
They didn't even hesitate to attack, hoping to kill their target and flee as quickly as possible before others could find them. Unfortunately, the moment Ace's eyes regained their focus, they felt a cold sweat run down their back. The killing intent Ace released instantly dwarfed their own.
Ace immediately summoned his Golden Sun Manifestation before making easy work of his two attackers in the most brutal way.
He didn't care that his attacks could draw more attention to himself; he just wanted to make his two attackers suffer as much as possible.
The first person to arrive was a tyrannical mountain-like man who stood over three and a half meters tall and had long blonde hair and oversized rippling muscles. His name was Hemmers, and like Ace, he had also reached the level of an Invincible Commander, despite only having fused four mysteries. But he wasn't an Apex Divine Beast as one would expect; as such, he didn't have a Divine Ability to rely on. Instead, he was originally a mountain of the Divine Earth Plane that had, after billions of years, grown sentience.
And, as mentioned before, ultimately, the Heavens are fair. Since he didn't have a Divine Ability to rely on like Divine Beasts, the heavens blessed him with innate physical abilities that would even make Apex Divine Beasts like Leona, Beirut, and Bebe jealous.
Whilst most Apex Divine Beasts had a single physical attribute that had reached a heaven-defying level, Hemmers had two! Whether it was his strength or his defence, Hemmers could be considered to have reached the limits as a deity. Even amongst Invincible Commanders, Hemmers belonged to a level all to himself. He was one of the few who dared to actively go up against a paragon-level expert without needing to run away.
An expert like Hemmers had no reason to enter the Planar Battlefield – he was already more than powerful enough. Unfortunately, he still had a few glaring weaknesses that could be exploited.
The first was his soul. Thankfully, after becoming the Emissary of one of the Intermediate Sovereigns of Earth, he was given a soul-protecting Sovereign amulet. Meaning he only had one true weakness left – his movement speed!
Hemmer's problem with his mobility didn't stem from his desire to run away but the fact that so many of his enemies could escape from him without much trouble. That was the main reason he wanted to enter the Planar Battlefield this time; he wanted to accumulate enough merits to exchange for a long-range, offensive Sovereign Artefact – namely, a throwing spear.
In his eyes, if he were to get his hands on a Sovereign-grade throwing spear, with his power, there would be virtually no one under the paragon level who would be able to escape his clutches.
Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, his mobility was his biggest issue. Forget those Invincible Commanders and top commanders; even amongst ordinary commanders, he could be considered fairly slow.
This was already his third time on the Planar Battlefield, and although he could walk around fearlessly, because of his fame, any enemy who saw him would flee on-site, making it virtually impossible for him to accumulate a full ten commander badges to exchange for the Sovereign Artefact he so desperately wanted.
Till now, he had only managed to acquire a total of three. It was for that reason that the moment he saw Ace toying with two enemy commanders, he made a beeline straight for their position.
Stealing the prey of someone else was considered impolite, but he had long since become desperate. Plus, although Ace was clearly a Supreme Genius with an incredibly powerful bloodline, he wasn't quite at the level of an invincible commander – or so he thought, as Ace wasn't using spiritual attacks – he, Hemmers, had nothing to worry about in terms of retaliation.
It should also be mentioned that although mobility was something that Hemmers struggled with, it was only when flying or when he had to turn. When moving in a straight line on the ground, his speed could only be described as breathtaking, a benefit of having so much raw power at his disposal.
Even Ace raised an eyebrow when he realised Hemmers arrived. He had just knocked the two enemy commanders back when Hemmers appeared before them, crushed their skulls in one strike, and put away their badges, all in one seemingly practised motion.
Hemmers was about to turn around and say something to Ace when he realised Ace's glaive was already near enough on top of him.
Ace had no interest in speaking; he was still fuming over his wasted opportunity. He didn't care who it was; he just needed to vent, and if it couldn't be the two who ruined his shot at becoming a paragon, it would be the man who stole his kill.
And with his [Observation], Ace could sense the terrifying raw might hidden within the man's body.
Ace knew several Apex Divine Beasts now, but most of them were either friends or rivals from the Yulan Plane and were still Full Gods, following the path of a Supreme Genius.
As such, the two deities with the strongest bodies he'd ever met were Leona and Garott. Still, in terms of raw physical ability, neither of them could compare to the monster in front of him; as such, Ace no longer had to hold back as he did against the previous two – he could finally go all out.
Hemmers found himself instantly suppressed. Despite being so much physically superior to his opponent, the difference in skill was too vast. Unfortunately, unless Ace used some of his actual ultimate techniques, even breaking Hemmer's skin was impossible for him. Still, Ace only continued to use his glaivesmanship.
Hemmers quickly grew bored of this battle; Ace could do nothing to him, and he could do nothing to Ace. Unfortunately, because Ace was so much faster than him, he couldn't even escape.
Hence, for the first time in his life, Hemmers hated his mobility because it prevented him from being able to escape. It got to the point where he even tried to give Ace the two commander badges as compensation, but Ace didn't respond; he was only focused on his glaivesmanship.
It was right then, as Hemmers considered using one of his ten remaining drops of Sovereign's Might, that a change happened.
Ace's [Blazing Glaive Art], which had previously been nearing the peak of the Seven Star Fiend level, finally broke through to the commander level.
Between that and the additional boons of his bloodlines, Ace finally gained the ability to harm Hemmers with his ordinary strikes. Each attack could only give him what may as well be a papercut, but the phrase "death by a thousand cuts" wasn't unfounded. However, it may well need a million cuts for a deity and a billion for a monster like Hemmers.
Still, Ace's breakthrough meant that Ace finally posed a genuine threat to the mountain man.
Hemmers, without a second thought, immediately used one of his drops of Earth-Type Sovereign's Might to try and escape. Unfortunately, Ace, who had a whole gourd full of Fire Type Sovereign's Might, easily caught up and continued suppressing Hemmers.
And if that wasn't bad enough, because Ace could control Sovereign's Might without wastage, Hemmer's drop of Sovereign's Might quickly ran out, forcing him to use a second.
Realising that he wouldn't be able to outrun Ace, he knew that his best chance, as small as it was, was to fight. Unfortunately, the difference was too much for Hemmer.
Even after he finally began fusing his fifth Profound Mystery of the Laws of Earth, Hemmers found himself suppressed in the exact same way.
Before he knew it, Hemmers had gone through five drops in the time it took Ace to go through three-quarters of his first. Because of that, Ace was finally able to finally pierce his glaive through the man's shoulder.
As Ace pulled his glaive out, Hemmers subconsciously closed his eyes and braced himself, expecting Ace to kill him with the next strike. But that final strike never came, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Ace casually strolling away, still huffing and puffing under his breath over his wasted opportunity.
He subconsciously called out to Ace and asked if he really was letting him go. When Ace didn't respond, he took out the two commanders' badges and asked if he wanted them. To which Ace finally snorted that he had no interest in those things, but the next time he stole his prey, he really would kill him.
With Ace having vented, his mood was back to normal for the most part, allowing Ace and Hemmers to slowly make friends, and Ace even agreed to teach Hemmers the art of [Concept Infused Weapon Wielding!]
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