Among the several gods who had arrived, one of them seemed to recognize the others. Before even reaching Locke, he sensed the auras of the remaining three and immediately fled.
Clearly, he must have suffered at the hands of one or more of them before. The moment he detected their presence, he decisively withdrew from what could have been a potential contest over a divine beast.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two figures stopped in front of Locke. After scanning their surroundings for a while, disappointment surfaced on their faces.
"Tch. Got excited for nothing."
"Thought we'd be picking up five million inkstones for free. Turns out it's just a Demigod advancing to a God."
"What a waste of our time."
After spreading their divine sense and confirming that there were no other God-tier beings nearby aside from Locke, the two gods grew visibly irritated.
"Hey, you. Because of you, we came all this way for nothing."
"If you know what's good for you, sever the binding on all your spatial rings and hand them over."
"Otherwise, we wouldn't mind taking a God-level divine spark to make up for our losses."
The companion of the speaking god made no move to stop him.
In his eyes, this sort of behavior was perfectly normal.
If anything, he was mildly surprised that his partner was still being kind enough to spare this god's life.
That said, since his partner had already made a choice, he wasn't about to undermine him.
With the combined strength of the two of them, surrounding and killing a God would be difficult—but hardly impossible.
"Oh? Then I really should thank you," Locke said with a faint smile. "I was still hesitating over how to deal with you. Your words just gave me some inspiration."
Facing the threat, Locke calmly raised his right hand toward them.
"Now—this is a robbery."
"If the two of you don't sever the connection with all your spatial rings and obediently hand them over, I'll spare your lives."
"Otherwise, I don't mind charging two God-level divine sparks as a handling fee."
"Of course, if you don't have any other divine clones, that would be even better. I'd be more than happy to accept your entire inheritance."
"What?"
"Hahahahaha—!"
"Roz, this guy is way too funny!"
"Did you hear what he just said?"
Locke's words made the previously speaking god laugh so hard he nearly doubled over, slapping his companion on the shoulder.
"He's telling us to surrender?"
"In all the years we've roamed the lands, this is the first time we've ever heard something like that!"
"This is killing me!"
"But you've completely pissed me off now. Sorry—I don't feel like sparing you anymore."
"Die!"
The two Gods moved with perfect coordination.
The instant the arrogant god finished speaking, both of them erupted into motion. Divine artifacts appeared in their hands, and under the crushing pressure of the laws, they lunged straight at Locke.
"Pathetic ignorance of the weak."
From their speed and the power behind their attacks, it was clear that these two were far stronger than ordinary Gods.
At the very least, the fluctuations of their divine power were ten times stronger than Locke's had been before he advanced.
In other words, their divine power was twice that of a normal God.
But in front of Locke—
They were still far too weak.
Setting everything else aside, Locke's divine power alone was five times stronger than that of an ordinary God.
He didn't even bother taking out the Rising Sun Spear. Locke simply raised his right hand, and a thread of white light gleamed at the tip of his index finger.
Then, he casually slashed through the air.
Clang!
The sharp sound of blades leaving their sheaths echoed through space.
The arc traced by Locke's finger was like an impossibly sharp weapon, cleaving through the sky and leaving behind a white scar in the air.
"Ah—!"
"Ah—!"
Blood sprayed.
Under the horrified gazes of the two Gods, their attacks were shattered outright by that single streak of icy light.
Even their God-level defensive artifacts they wore cracked under the blow.
Though they weren't completely destroyed, it was obvious that God-level defensive armor could no longer guarantee their safety.
Ice-Edge was one of the advanced Profound Mysteries of the Water element—and also the most offensively powerful among them.
Having fully comprehended Ice-Edge to reach Godhood, coupled with divine power five times stronger than normal, Locke's attacks far surpassed those of ordinary gods.
These two Gods had no room to resist at all.
With a single strike, Locke shattered their defensive artifacts.
With a flick of his hand, biting cold gathered around him, condensing into several hundred ice swords. These exquisitely beautiful blades radiated no obvious power on the surface—their chill was completely restrained.
Yet when the ice swords struck the ground, the cold sealed within them exploded outward, instantly freezing everything within a certain range before shattering it to pieces.
Guided by Locke's divine sense, the ice swords swarmed like piranhas of the deep sea, relentlessly hunting the two Gods.
Each time an ice sword struck, a portion of their divine bodies was blown apart, forcing them to consume vast amounts of divine power just to regenerate.
In just a few short minutes, their divine bodies had been shattered more than a dozen times. The divine power they had stockpiled was on the verge of being completely depleted.
"My lord! We're willing to surrender—please show mercy and spare our lives!"
By now, how could the two Gods fail to realize that they had kicked an iron plate?
While struggling to fend off Locke's attacks, they desperately begged for mercy.
"Yes, yes! Please, my lord, spare us just this once!"
"We're willing to sever our connection to all our spatial rings! Please, for Lord Karl's sake, let us live!"
"Lord Karl?" Locke raised an eyebrow.
"Yes—Lord Karl is the Prefect of the Nightblaze Prefecture. The two of us are soldiers of Lord Karl's prefectural army. We've offended you, my lord—please, for Lord Karl's sake, spare us this time."
"The Prefect of Nightblaze Prefecture, huh?"
Locke frowned slightly.
Throughout all of Hell, there were exactly one hundred and eight prefectures.
Every prefect was a supreme powerhouse among powerhouses.
In the current era, the weakest of them was at least a Highgod.
Moreover, each one possessed strength comparable to an Highgod who had fused two Profound Mysteries.
Although the secrets of Profound Mystery fusion had not yet been made public, true geniuses could still carve a path where none existed. Finding points of harmony between two Profound Mysteries and discovering the terrifying power born from their fusion was hardly impossible.
(End of Chapter)
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