With that decided, Ace and the others slowly made their way back to his private dimension to spend the rest of their time before his child was born.
When he did, he instantly used his powers as "heaven" to suppress a small corner of his dimension. He only did it for this small corner of the world so that the other members of his faction could continue to practice in peace.
As he did, he instantly found being mortal once again a truly novel feeling – there was something incredibly peaceful about it. It was as if all the worries, concerns, pressure, and his responsibilities dissipated with his power. A fact which only served to reaffirm his decision.
For the next few years, as if to really get into character, he and many of his friends and family remained in the small mortal village. And although he continued his training, his focus wasn't on his comprehension of the Rules of Time but on his glaivesmanship.
He knew that in terms of comprehension, he had reached his limit of Concepts for his current realm, making it all but impossible to improve anymore, but every day, Ace would spend several hours practising his glaivesmanship. Not because he was seeking a breakthrough but because he found it calming.
His life as a mortal continued in the same peaceful fashion for the next few thousand years, and in that time, several new children were born of those of his closest friends and family, each of whom decided that they would raise their children for the first 18 years in their mortal village, making it something of a rite of passage.
During that initial 18 years of life, the child wouldn't cultivate at all – at least not in the strict sense of the word. Instead of cultivating, they would be trained in the art of weapon handling, allowing them to lay an exceedingly solid foundation for when they really began cultivating.
Originally, the plan was to tell them the truth about not only cultivation but also their heritage and standing in the world, but Joel came up with a different idea.
At the time, he and Yulana had just had a child, and like Ace, he obviously wanted them to grow into the best possible version of themselves. He thought that if they simply told his son the truth at 18 and allowed him to continue life from that point as the child of two of the strongest beings in the universe, it would be too easy to end up becoming the arrogant and corrupt man they were trying to keep him from being in the first place.
Although he was a genius, his innate talent was far from the best. By all intents and purposes, it should've been impossible for him to reach his current level. And although his relationship with Ace was one of the biggest factors that allowed him to reach his current level, it wasn't all. Even Ace himself, although he would've been considered one of the greatest talents in the universe, if all he did was rely on that to train, becoming an invincible paragon would've been his limit.
What really allowed each of them to grow was the pressure they were constantly under – it was either improve or die. Unfortunately, with him and Yulana as parents and uncles and aunts like Ace, Amira, and the others, if they were to grow up under their wing, he thought it would do more harm than good; as such, although a little cruel, he thought it would be best that his son experienced a hand-crafted tragedy, before forcing him into a mortal world to start his journey.
At first, Yulana was the first to reject his proposal, not wanting their first and only child to experience such a thing, but after some persuasion, she was eventually brought around on the condition that they secretly followed their child into the mortal world.
Although their son would be 18 when the "tragedy" struck and had never truly cultivated a day in his life, between the foundation in weapon-manship that they had helped lay for him and the fact that he was innately far more talented than either of them, it shouldn't be too hard for them to rise up and make a name for themselves in whatever world they went to next. Even so, they knew better than most that there were no absolutes in the world.
If their son provoked the wrong powerhouse, his losing his life would be a very real possibility, but as Sovereigns following from the shadows, it wouldn't be too hard to save them. In fact, with their power, they were easily capable of shaping the way things panned out, keeping their son under constant pressure without killing them.
They would be effectively playing god, but it was the best way to achieve what they wanted in the long run.
In the end, their plan would be so effective that it would be adopted by all of their friends and family moving forward.
Time continued to flow, but none of that had anything to do with Ace. Instead, Ace was trying to settle his nerves as Amira had finally awoken from her comatosed state, as today would be the day that their child would be born into the world.
What no one saw coming was the turbulence the child's birth would cause. The natural laws descended as if heaven itself wanted to bear witness to the birth of the child, but as it did, Amira's face suddenly warped.
Heaven was effectively granting the child an almost unparalleled level of talent, even when taking the talent of their parents, but in turn, Amira was forced to pour her very life's essence into her unborn child to keep them from dying.
Amira knew that if she continued to do so, she would inevitably die, but if she didn't, her child would definitely die before they were born, and that was something she couldn't allow – she didn't even hesitate when making her decision, she simply smiled at Ace gently.
She didn't need to say anything. Whether it was via their bond or how well he knew her, he understood what she was trying to say. "I love you, but it's time for me to go – look after our child!"
Although they were soulmates, because both had long since left Heaven's reach, the death of one wouldn't lead to the death of the other. Even so, Ace wasn't willing to lose his wife at the expense of their child. Everything he was doing was so that they could live the rest of their eternal lives in peace.
Unfortunately, no matter how much he racked his brain, he couldn't find a solution. It looked like he would be forced to truly lose his wife in front of him.
It was only when Amira was on her last legs that the answer presented itself to him – Faith! The reason that Overgods, after condensing their Overgod bodies, were virtually impossible to kill was because they were intrinsically tied to the faith of their Law.
It was also what was keeping Amira alive at that moment, albeit only barely. Unfortunately, the faith she had managed to accumulate was too small to sustain a being on her level, but he wasn't. Ace had accumulated more faith than any other being in existence. His feats had made him a legend like no other; if he could transfer the kernel of his faith to his wife, then she would easily be able to live. Unfortunately, by the time he realised it, it was too late; his wife was too far gone.
Never in his life had Ace wanted to reverse time, and although he could, in a manner of speaking, only do so for himself, he couldn't do it for others, let alone for two beings at the same time.
It was then that it hit him: the insight he had been missing. The spark of comprehension that kept him from becoming a Paragon of Time hit him all at once. Theoretically, reversing Time for others wasn't possible, but what if he fused the Rules of Space and Time together and drew on the power of both Rules to reverse the time in a certain space?
As soon as the thought hit him, not only did he become a paragon of the Rule of Time, but he was also blessed by heaven for fusing both Rules together to become the Laws of Space-Time, a Law no weaker than the Laws of Chaos.
The natural Laws descended around Ace, gifting him not only ten units of Will for comprehending the final Rule of Time and another 100 units of Will for fusing both Rules together, but it also doubled the power of his Divine Essence.
Unfortunately, although he had the right idea and his power had seen drastic improvements, even after using his Divine Ability and drawing on the power of his personal dimension, he was still too weak to reverse the Time in the Space surrounding his wife. At most, all he could do was slow the time surrounding his wife and child to a crawl, which only served to increase the pain he felt as he was forced to watch his wife die in front of him in slow motion.
Seeing the look of contentment on his wife's face as she approached her death, something snapped inside him. His soul-self roared at heaven, seemingly coming to life in a way that shouldn't be possible for a phantom representing his Divine Ability.
Ace and the others were so focused on Amira and her giving birth that they had actually forgotten that, due to the disturbance caused by the birth, the Overgods of the Four Edicts were able to see what was transpiring.
Seeing Ace's current predicament, they realised that they were never going to get a better chance to kill Ace once and for all than right now.
Without hesitating, the four of them fused into one, all-powerful being. A being so powerful that not even the fabric of chaotic space seemed able to bear their might.
The moment they sensed their intentions, whether it was Aiden, Lance, Bluefire, or Orloff, each of them took action to stop them. Unfortunately, with the Four Edict-based Overgods working together, they were too powerful a force for them.
As mentioned before, it would've taken all four of the Yulan Plane's Overgods, plus Ace, to fight them to a standstill, but with Ace too busy, that was obviously impossible.
The four Overgods of the Yulan Plane were knocked aside with such force that they were too weak to bring themselves to a halt in time. All they could do was watch, pale-faced, as the unbearable transpired.
The attack of the combined Overgods approached Ace, but that was when Killian and the others took action. Utilising their battle formation, they were able to stop the attack for just about long enough for Linley to make an appearance.
After founding the Laws of Chaos, Linley became an existence that was able to stand against an ordinary Overgod as well. Unfortunately, his opponent this time was far from ordinary – it wasn't someone the current him could oppose.