"It'll still take more than ten years to reach the Nether Mountain Range from here."
"And during those ten years, we'll be passing through several cities."
"If you decide you want to leave, I can have your father open the metal lifeform at any time and let you go out on your own."
"For now, get back to your room and think carefully about the path you want to take from here on."
Watching their son leave the hall of the metal lifeform in a daze, Oakes couldn't help but say to Yagonia, "Niya, don't you think what you said just now was a bit too harsh?"
Yagonia shot him a glare.
"Oh, now you think it was harsh?"
"Then why didn't you discipline him properly earlier?"
"Oakes, we have to make Figaroia understand that in this world, only strength is real."
"As for other forms of backing, people may give you some face and spare him once or twice."
"But if one day he provokes someone who doesn't care about giving you face, then what is he, Figaroia?"
"A bug that can be crushed to death with a single slap—yet he somehow carries more arrogance than you, a Prefect Lord–level Asura. What exactly gives him that right?"
"If Figaroia remains within the Sovereign Army, as its commander, you'll still be able to look after him to some extent."
"But if he still refuses to rein in his temperament and insists on using your name to throw his weight around outside…"
"…then there's no point in wasting any more time on him."
"Ah…"
Oakes let out a long sigh, but he knew Yagonia was right.
After all these years, Figaroia's strength had not improved in the slightest.
Perhaps Five-Star Demon truly was his limit.
For an ordinary deity, Five-Star Demon strength was by no means weak.
In some forces, that was already enough to qualify as an elder.
In a smaller city, he might even be able to challenge the city lord, become lord of the city himself, and rule over a region.
But for the son of Oakes, Five-Star Demon strength was simply too weak.
What Oakes couldn't understand was this—
Figaroia had already fully fused two profound mysteries while still a God.
Yet after becoming a Highgod, he still couldn't even find the convergence point for a third profound mystery…
Normally, upon advancing to Highgod, one's soul underwent another cleansing under the Laws of Heaven and Earth, improving one's affinity with the Laws.
Under those circumstances, someone who had fully fused two profound mysteries as a God should, at the very least, be able to find the convergence point for a third after becoming a Highgod.
At worst, they would be stuck at the bottleneck of fully fusing three.
But someone like Figaroia, who hadn't even found the point of convergence for the third, was exceedingly rare.
The only possible explanation was that Oakes had sheltered him too much.
It had made him feel that no matter how hard he cultivated, it would never compare to the protection he enjoyed.
As a result, he had lost the drive to move forward and simply given up on cultivation altogether…
In the end, Figaroia did not leave midway.
Instead, he followed Yagonia's arrangement and decided to enter the Sovereign Army, becoming one of Lord Locke's soldiers.
This choice visibly softened Yagonia's expression.
Though she remained strict with him, she was no longer as cold as when she had said, if he dies, we'll just have another one.
The stronger a lifeform became, the harder it was to have descendants.
For Oakes and Yagonia, in the span of several million years, they had only ever had one child—Figaroia.
So, despite how indifferent Yagonia had sounded, she still cherished him deeply.
It was only because her son was not particularly strong, and she wanted him to survive in this world, that she had forced herself to harden her heart and push him into the Sovereign Army.
More than ten years later, the metal lifeform carrying Oakes's family descended outside the Nether Mountain Range.
"What dense fog…"
Stepping out of the metal lifeform, Figaroia stared at the mist that blanketed the entire mountain range and exclaimed in surprise.
But the moment the words left his mouth Oakes smacked him on the back of the head.
"Roa, is the only thing you know how to notice the density of the fog?"
"Can't you at least sense how dangerous it is?"
"When you're out in the world, the most important thing is determining whether your surroundings are safe."
"Once you enter the Sovereign Army, with your Five-Star Demon strength, you should at least be able to serve as the leader of a small squad."
"When that time comes, every decision you make during a mission may determine whether your soldiers live or die."
"Roa, not just anyone is qualified to join the Sovereign Army Lord Locke is establishing."
"As the commander personally appointed by Lord Locke, I'll conduct an assessment right here."
Oakes raised a hand and pointed toward Mount Nether, the mountain in the far distance wreathed in endless violet lightning.
"Roa, from this point on, your mother and I are your two subordinates."
"We will only display the strength of ordinary Highgods."
"Your task now is to lead the two of us safely to the foot of the mountain where Lord Sovereign resides."
"How you perform on this journey will determine how I assign you."
"I understand, Father."
For once, Figaroia answered seriously.
They had already reached the place where Lord Sovereign resided.
Figaroia understood that his father was likely giving him this task so that Lord Locke himself could observe his performance.
Given how highly Lord Locke regarded his father, there was no way his arrival here would escape the Sovereign's notice.
Which meant that every step he took from here onward would definitely be seen by Lord Locke.
Even if nothing else came of it, as long as Lord Locke formed some impression of him, it would at least mean he had been remembered.
With that thought, Figaroia stepped in front of Oakes and Yagonia, spread out his divine sense, and extended it into the mist.
Figaroia's guess was correct.
The moment Oakes arrived at the Nether Mountain Range, Locke had already noticed him.
At first, Locke had intended to part the lightning barrier and allow the family to come directly through.
But after extending his divine sense and hearing the exchange between Oakes and his son, Locke chose not to interfere.
Originally, Mount Nether had not been covered by this layer of mist.
It was only after the Planar Battlefield that news of a Sovereign residing on the mountain spread outward.
Deities hoping to audience a Sovereign and gain their favor began flocking to the Nether Mountain Range.
For a time, Death Sovereign had been so irritated by these endless visitors that she had wanted to forcibly drive them all out.
In the end, however, Locke stopped her.
Instead, he had Christina, commander of Death Sovereign's Nether Army, come here to recruit experts willing to join a Sovereign Army into the Nether Army.
While Seven-Star Demons generally looked down on joining a Sovereign Army, many Five-Star and Six-Star Demons were more than willing.
If nothing else, simply carrying the insignia of a Sovereign Army greatly increased one's sense of security when traveling outside.
Once it became known that the commander of a Sovereign Army was recruiting here, even more people flooded into the Nether Mountain Range.
For many wandering experts without any background or support, joining a Sovereign Army was practically the best possible path.
Under normal circumstances, however, Sovereign Armies never lacked manpower.
Now that Locke had become a Sovereign, it was only natural for him to establish his own.
Thus, he spread this sea of mist across the entire Nether Mountain Range and used it as a test to select soldiers for his army.
In other Sovereign Armies, a God was enough to join as a common soldier.
But in Locke's army, only those strong enough to cross this mist and reach the deeper regions of the mountain range were qualified.
Anyone capable of passing through this fog was either a Highgod, or a God with exceptional soul power or profound attainments in soul techniques.
Unlike the current Sovereigns, Locke knew that what truly maximized the combat value of an army's soldiers was the magical battle formation.
Normally, in front of true experts, sheer numbers meant nothing.
No matter how many weaklings there were, at most they merely forced the stronger side to use a few extra moves.
But with the amplification of a magical battle formation, even a formation composed of ordinary Gods could threaten a Highgod.
If the formation was powerful enough, a battle array of several thousand—or even tens of thousands—of Gods could still kill a high-ranking Demon.
The problem was that, in the Coiling Dragon universe as it currently stood, no one had yet learned to comprehend magic formations through the Laws of Heaven and Earth and turn those universal principles into usable power.
Locke was laying the groundwork for that future.
A magic formation was created by a formation master who, through understanding the Laws of Heaven and Earth, used certain materials to set up an array in a fixed location and thereby draw upon the power of those Laws.
A magical battle formation, however, was vastly more difficult than a stationary formation.
It could be said that someone capable of setting up an ordinary magic formation was not necessarily a true formation master.
But anyone capable of creating a magical battle formation definitely was.
After all, once a fixed formation had been laid down, anyone who knew how to use it could activate it.
The interplanar teleportation array was a perfect example.
A magical battle formation, on the other hand, required a formation master to direct the participating gods in real time, turning each soldier into one of the formation's nodes.
If even a single soldier made a mistake—if even one node was out of place—the entire battle formation would collapse instantly and lose all amplification effects.
Because of this, magical battle formations placed extremely high demands on the soldiers' soul power.
But once formed, the deterrent force of a Sovereign Army would rise dramatically.
For that reason, in Locke's Sovereign Army, some positions such as squad leader, company leader, and battalion commander would not be promoted based solely on raw strength.
Instead, promotion would depend on one's attainment in formation arts.
That was right.
Locke intended to select a portion of interested soldiers within his army and train them in magic formations—
all to ensure that his Sovereign Army became the first Sovereign Army in existence to wield magical battle formations.
(End of Chapter)
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