With Killian being what both Garott and even Shinji described as the strongest man under the paragons, his group obviously didn't fear the small army of commanders that was sent after him, but Linley's and Faith's groups were different.
With him having inherited the bloodline of a true Apex Divine Beast, his comprehension of *True Water* having reached 99%, and the [Rippling Tide Stance] of his [Serenity Sword Art] having long since reached the High God level, Linley's power was teetering on the verge of becoming an Invincible Commander. Unfortunately, unless one was truly an invincible commander, it made defeating waves of Commanders impossible on their own.
Even with the rest of his group and all the progress they'd made, facing a group of 30 top commanders on the side of the Divine Light Plane was too difficult. Thankfully, Linley was able to turn misfortune into fortune before he lost any of his friends or family.
Though he wanted his next major breakthrough to be his breakthrough to become a paragon, sometimes things were out of your control. Under the pressure of facing so many top commanders, Linley managed to fully comprehend the sixth individual profound mystery he'd previously been trying to avoid so as not to become a normal High God.
Although he hadn't become a paragon, his becoming a High God allowed him to advance by leaps and bounds on all fronts. Both his spiritual essence and water-type divine power saw a tenfold increase in power, but it was his physical body that saw the biggest improvement – just relying on his body, his speed had reached the level of an ordinary High God, the azure scales of his dragon form became as tough as High-God Artefacts, but it was his raw power that improved the most.
As it stood, his punches alone were no weaker than Hemmers back when he first fought Ace. Between that and Linley's already incredible comprehension of the Laws and Concepts, Linley jumped well over the minimum requirements of an invincible commander, allowing him to slaughter over ten commanders and forcing the others to flee for their lives.
It was a bitter-sweet breakthrough – he knew that this breakthrough would make his becoming a paragon in the future all the more difficult, but he didn't regret it. That breakthrough gave him the strength he needed to protect his friends and family.
Still, it was group three that was struggling the most. They didn't have anyone as strong as Linley to begin with. Even Reihom and Reisgem, despite being High Gods and powerful top commanders, were still a level or two beneath the ranks of an invincible commander.
And to make it worse, Reisgem already had quite the feud with the experts from the Augusta Clan; as such, it was their group that faced the largest and most powerful group of experts. And although, with him being the only child of one of the two Intermediate Sovereigns of Destruction, those from the Augusta Clan wouldn't dare to kill Reisgem himself for fear of angering Gitara, they didn't hold those same reservations for Faye and the others.
Whether it was Faye, Yulana, or Joel, they all knew that just by exposing their relationship to Ace, they could put an end to this farce.
They'd already heard from Leona about what Ace had done back in the Divine Plane, so they could imagine how fearful they all were of Ace. Still, if they revealed that, there would likely be hardly anyone who'd be willing to fight them anymore for fear of getting on Ace's bad side, and without experts to fight, their rate of improvement would slow right down, and with the danger looming over their captain's head, that was something they couldn't afford to do.
Unfortunately, as unwilling as they were, there were simply too many enemies this time. They were just about to reveal their connection to Ace when an unexpected backup arrived.
Kannal, Osiris, and Mathias, of all people, suddenly appeared.
In the last 600+ years, with the desire to save his son motivating him, Mathias had become a genuine commander-level expert.
Still, it was Osiris and Kannal who allowed Faye and the others to turn the table. Although Kannal couldn't be called an invincible commander, he was infinitely close to that level. With the Empyrean Sky Essence he received from Aiden back on the Yulan Plane allowing his wind-type divine power to match that of a High God as a Full God and his comprehension of *True Wind* reaching around 80%, just that gave him the power of a top commander, but it was spectacular swordsmanship that really brought his power to whole other level.
Between him having the physical strength of an ordinary Divine Beast thanks to the Blood Root Fruit he and the others had eaten and his wind-based sword art reaching 99%, he could truly be called a monster in human form.
Even so, it was actually Osiris who did the most harm. In a one-on-one setting, Osiris was significantly weaker than Kannal and most of the others, but as an archer, it was when facing high numbers that he really shone especially as he had begun comprehending *True Darkness* and even though he had only comprehended it around 20% of the six-way fusion of the Laws of Darkness, between that and the fact that his [Shadow Piercing Arrow Art] had reached the level of a Seven-Star fiend, he was able to provide timely support to anyone who needed, regardless of where they were on the battlefield.
Still, that wasn't what truly shocked Faye, Joel, and Yulana. What shocked his old friends was the fact that they had only separated at most a thousand years ago, but in that thousand years, aside from the progress he had made in the Laws and Concept of Darkness – which was impressive enough as it was – he had apparently also begun comprehending the Edict of Darkness and had even reached the levels of a weak commander.
Osiris, like them, was definitely a peerless genius. Still, the level of talent needed to have done what he had was what they'd expect from Ace or Mira.
Unfortunately, because of the battle they were embroiled in, they didn't have time to ask Osiris how he'd done it.
Thankfully, with Osiris not only supporting them from afar but also turning the weaker enemy experts into his death puppets, they were quickly able to turn the tables and force the rest to flee.
Unfortunately, Osiris and the others were barely given the chance to flee. They had just left their previous battleground when they found themselves surrounded by an even bigger army, and this one was led by a pair of genuine Invincible Commanders – Leoso and Horax!
Reisgem quickly explained that Leoso and Horax were, respectively, the head emissaries of an Intermediate and Lesser Sovereign of Light.
Leoso was an ordinary human who supposedly had one divine clone that was infinitely close to becoming a paragon of the Laws of Light and another that had reached the seven-star fiend level of the Laws of Earth. That alone wasn't enough to make him an invincible commander, but when combined with the fact that he was also a two-way soul mutate… nothing else needed to be said.
Just him alone was enough to make the group frown. They had several soul mutates in their group; as such, they were well aware that he, on his own, was more powerful than all of them combined.
But then there was Horax, who was also an Apex Divine Beast, infinitely close to the paragon realm. As an Abyssal Dragon, not only was the raw power of his body no weaker than Linley and Hemmers, but his Divine Ability was equally astonishing. It allowed him to summon an army of walking dead of every creature he'd ever killed.
Just as Reisgem finished explaining, the phantom of a deathly greyish-black dragon appeared behind Horax and on the ground behind that, a giant swirling pit radiating a deathly energy appeared, and from it, thousands of warriors stepped out – the weakest warrior to appear were seven-star fiends, but even they were the minority. The vast majority were commanders, and there was even another Invincible Commander.
Without a second thought, Kannal told everyone to run. As they did, Faye sent a flare of energy into the sky, signalling for help.
They tried their best to escape, but unfortunately, Leoso was too fast. Within seconds, he had already caught up and forced them to stop and fight.
Immediately, all of Faye's group used drops of Sovereign's Might to try and break past, but Leoso also had Sovereign's Might, allowing him to force them to stay until Horax's army had surrounded them and to add insult to injury, the Augusta Clan which had previously escaped, had returned in full force.
But instead of hurrying to kill them, Leoso and Horax tried to get the secrets of their utilisation of concepts out of them.
Joel, knowing that help was almost definitely on the way, conversed with them to waste time.
Realising what he was doing, Horax attacked with intent to kill. In his eyes, since multiple of them could use concepts, killing one would be okay as they could get the answer from the others, but before he could, Linley arrived on the scene, blocking Horax's attack and forcing the humanoid Abyssal Dragon to retreat.
Unfortunately, as heaven-defying as Linley was now, there were simply too many experts present to turn the table – three of whom were no weaker than him.
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