Locke's Sovereign Army had been established in the Netherworld and was named after himself—the "Locke Army."
Among the Sovereigns, Locke occupied two Sovereign positions by himself.
One was his Fate Sovereign clone, which possessed a Sovereign spark.
The other was his water divine clone, which lacked a Sovereign spark but possessed strength almost comparable to the Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts.
However, whether Locke was considered a Water Sovereign or a Fate Sovereign, the "Locke Army" he established had never participated in the Planar Wars of either the Netherworld or the Celestial Realm.
Because of this, although the Fate element currently had six Sovereigns, only five Sovereign Armies participated in battle.
Perhaps because both sides' Sovereigns had given instructions beforehand, the war between the Netherworld and the Celestial Realm appeared far more brutal than the wars between the other planes.
Even before the final battle began, both sides' Commanders had already led their Seven Star Fiends into enemy territory in small squads for one-on-one battles.
In this mode of combat, the Netherworld possessed a considerable advantage.
This was because among the eleven planes, the Netherworld had the greatest number of Seven Star Fiends and Prefect-level experts.
This was mainly thanks to Locke twice spreading the Water Paragon Laws throughout the skies of the Netherworld.
As a result, not only did native water-element experts settle in the Netherworld, but a large number of water-element experts from the other ten planes also chose to make the Netherworld their home.
Thus, in every Planar War involving the Netherworld, even when they were at a disadvantage in terms of Sovereign Armies, the participation of these many experts allowed the Netherworld to achieve victory again and again.
This time was no exception.
The number of Prefect-level experts on the Netherworld side was nearly twice that of the Celestial Realm.
Even after leaving half of their experts behind for defense, the number of experts sent across the battlefield to assassinate enemy Commanders was still almost equal to the enemy's total.
Under such circumstances, the experts of the Celestial Realm had practically no power to attack and could only defend, with no spare strength to send experts to the Netherworld side to cause trouble.
When the gap in strength wasn't too great, battles between Prefect-level experts were very difficult to decide with death.
Unless several people joined forces to besiege one target, or one side possessed Sovereign artifacts, it was impossible to kill opponents of the same level within a short period of time.
Simply focusing on defense, the Prefect-level Commanders of the Celestial Realm suffered very few casualties.
After the thousand-year preparation period ended, the Netherworld army immediately launched an attack toward the Celestial Realm.
Clearly, they intended to end this war as quickly as possible.
The Sovereign Armies of the Celestial Realm had no choice but to brace themselves and meet the attack head-on.
With such a huge disparity in the number of Prefect-level experts, the soldiers of the Celestial Realm retreated step by step and suffered grievous casualties.
Just when nearly all the Sovereigns believed that the tenth consecutive victory in this Planar War would belong to the Netherworld, a massive number of Sovereign Army soldiers suddenly emerged from the teleportation array behind the Celestial Realm's forces.
"Those are the Light Sovereigns' Sovereign Army and Angel Army?"
When these armies appeared, the Sovereigns immediately turned their gazes toward the Light Sovereigns present.
The Light Divine Plane had also accumulated a considerable number of winning streaks in the Planar Wars.
This was because the Light Sovereigns, in addition to their own Sovereign Armies, also controlled the Angel Rebirth Pools.
By placing pure souls into an Angel Rebirth Pool, angels absolutely loyal to the owner of the pool could be born.
In other words, every Light Sovereign possessed not only their own Sovereign Army, but also an additional Angel Army.
Although there were only two highest-grade Angel Rebirth Pools capable of producing angels with Prefect-level strength, while the lower-grade pools could only produce angels up to the Seven Star Fiend level, because the souls of those angels were controlled by the Light Sovereigns and their lives and deaths depended upon a single thought, the Angel Armies were even more trustworthy to the Light Sovereigns than their Sovereign Armies.
At this moment, both the Sovereign Army and Angel Army that had appeared in the Celestial Realm possessed Prefect-level experts.
This meant that the Sovereign who had sent reinforcements absolutely possessed one of the highest-grade Angel Rebirth Pools.
Among the Light Sovereigns, both of those highest-grade Angel Rebirth Pools were controlled by Light Chief Sovereign Augusta.
Seeing so many Sovereigns directing their gazes at him, especially the gazes of Lord Locke and the other three Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts, Augusta felt somewhat panicked.
After all, before this, there had never been a precedent for one Divine Plane or Higher Plane sending reinforcements to another plane's Planar War.
One could easily foresee that if the Celestial Realm achieved ten consecutive victories this time with Augusta's assistance and obtained sufficient benefits, future Planar Wars would no longer simply be battles arranged by the Planar Battlefield.
Instead, nearly all the Divine Planes would become involved, forming alliances and counter-alliances and making the Planar Battlefield even bloodier.
"Everyone, this can be considered a bit of selfishness on my part."
At this moment, Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff spoke.
"First, I offer my apologies to Your Excellency Death Chief Sovereign."
"Because of the disparity in strength between our two planes, in order to secure victory, I paid the price of a favor in exchange for the support of the Light Chief Sovereign."
"After all, this concerns the point that Lord Locke predicted might bring changes to the world."
"I also wish to see what sort of changes are worthy of Lord Locke's attention."
Looking at Orloff speaking with a smile, Locke inwardly marveled at this man's calculations and his disregard for the lives of divine lifeforms.
To join one side of a Planar War, troops had to enter through the teleportation array of that particular plane.
In other words, this Sovereign Army and Angel Army had entered the battlefield through the Celestial Realm's teleportation array and joined the Celestial Realm camp.
With so many people entering the Celestial Realm, how could its Sovereigns possibly not know?
If not for Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff's intervention, the Celestial Realm Sovereigns would likely have treated this Sovereign Army and Angel Army as invaders and wiped them out.
This meant that before this Planar War had even begun, Orloff and Augusta had already decided to have Augusta's Sovereign Army and Angel Army help secure victory.
By doing this, Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff could ensure that the Celestial Realm obtained ten consecutive victories.
Secondly, he could openly establish ties with Light Chief Sovereign Augusta and provide him with some public protection.
Locke didn't believe Orloff was unaware of the consequences such actions could bring.
Yet for the sake of obtaining ten consecutive victories, he had still opened this Pandora's box...
While Locke looked at Orloff, Orloff was likewise looking at Locke.
Augusta's Sovereign Army and Angel Army were the Celestial Realm's trump card in this war.
Orloff might not care about the other Sovereigns, but when it came to Locke, he felt that no amount of caution was excessive.
The reason he was willing to unleash future bloodshed in the Planar Wars just to obtain one ten-win streak was because he trusted Lord Locke's prediction and wished to be the first to enjoy the benefits brought by ten consecutive victories.
At present, because of the Planar War, all the Sovereigns' armies had already gathered before the teleportation arrays leading to the battlefield, leaving behind only some Gods and a portion of Highgods to maintain order in their respective planes.
Now, with the addition of Light Chief Sovereign Augusta's Sovereign Army and Angel Army, the Celestial Realm had begun suppressing the Netherworld forces in turn.
Judging from the current situation within the battlefield, the Celestial Realm would obtain victory within at most a hundred years.
Even if the Sovereigns of other planes wished to reinforce the Netherworld, there simply wasn't enough time.
Their armies would need at least two hundred years merely to travel to the Netherworld.
In other words, barring any surprises, once Augusta's Sovereign Army and Angel Army joined the battle, the outcome had already been decided in favor of the Celestial Realm.
Unfortunately, Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff had overlooked one thing.
For Locke, if you were willing to play by the rules, then he was willing to play with you within those rules.
But if you no longer wished to follow the rules, then there was no need for him to continue binding himself with them.
Over the years, Locke had never committed his own Sovereign Army to the Netherworld's Planar Wars, which already made his stance clear.
Among all the Sovereigns present, if there was anyone capable of overturning the outcome of this war, it was probably only Lord Locke.
After all, the Netherworld still possessed one of Locke's Sovereign Armies.
Moreover, this army was stationed on the eighty-one Nine Nether Islands within the Nether Sea of the Netherworld. From there to Flamebone Island, the gateway to the Planar Battlefield, it would take only a few years at most to gather and enter the battlefield.
That army was Lord Locke's Locke Army.
At the same time, it was also recognized by the Sovereigns as the strongest Sovereign Army.
Although the Locke Army had once been defeated by the Paragon Dunnington, that didn't mean the Locke Army was weak.
Paragons possessing Will might could be called "Minor Sovereigns" in the eyes of other Deities.
There was nothing surprising about a Sovereign Army being defeated by a Sovereign.
Rather, if a Paragon failed to defeat a Sovereign Army, that would be what truly surprised everyone.
Within the Locke Army, aside from Commander Oakes—an expert who could practically be called the number one figure of the Netherworld—there were also five Prefect-level Vice Commanders.
Under each Vice Commander served at least ten captains capable of displaying Seven Star Fiend-level strength.
(End of Chapter)
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