*** Over at the center of the Fringe, the Omphalos.
Tyre, Logue, Ossora, and Wasir were having a meeting at Tyre’s Sovereign Shop about the Godhunter Alliance’s impending invasion. As time went by, the four Sovereigns managed to collect more intel about their enemies’ movement. They had verified sources that all Twelve Hegemons of the Godhunter Alliance had arrived outside their border.
The great war could erupt at any moment soon. The four Sovereigns had completed their preparations. They did their best subduing as many Fringedwellers under their command as possible. All the usually aggressive Fringedwellers were now suddenly monks and ceased slaughtering each other. Stringers had been especially active, constantly scouting and collecting intel.
“Ossora, of the four of us, you are the closest to Bryan. Do you know why he is still not attending the meeting?” asked Tyre whose face was rather dark. He had sent messengers to the Pandemonium, inviting Han Shuo to join their meetings. However, Stratholme would always decline the invitations on Han Shuo’s behalf, giving the excuse that Han Shuo was in secluded meditation. And now, Han Shuo continued to decline attending the meeting when they received intel that the Godhunter Alliance was right outside the Fringe. To Tyre, this was inexcusable.
Ossora shook his head and replied, “I too have sent people over. They’ve received the same answer as yours. It seems that Bryan is at a critical juncture of his cultivation. Well, in any case, we have agreed on our responsibilities and strategy long ago. I think he would have made the necessary preparations.”
“I sure hope so!” Tyre groaned and disdainfully remarked, “If his side was to crumble like a biscuit, those godhunters could march straight into the Omphalos and attack us from our backs. None of us could afford the slightest negligence. Right, Ossora, please remind him again that the godhunters could attack anytime now and that he better be ready.”
“Sure.” Given the circumstances, Ossora agreed to Tyre’s request right away instead of bickering.
“I hope he can handle the pressure. He’s been real domineering during recent times. He ought to have something to back that kind of attitude,” remarked Logue in his malicious, cunning smile.
“Hey, you! Stop right there! You are not allowed to enter!” a cry suddenly sounded from outside the Sovereign Shop.
Tyre’s face suddenly turned dark and he seemed displeased. The Sovereign Shop was under his name and many in the Omphalos knew that he and the other Sovereigns were gathered there. The four mightiest existences in the Fringe were gathered in that room. Who would be so reckless as to trespass on the shop and interrupt their meeting?
Pow! A muffled thud sounded outside the Sovereign Shop before it returned to the usual silence.
“Hehe, Tyre, it seems that someone is taking a piss on your turf. Interesting, interesting!” teased Logue with a mischievous smirk.
Wasir and Ossora, meanwhile, were flabbergasted. They had no idea who the intruder was and they couldn’t understand how someone could be so bold or foolish to trespass on the area where four Sovereigns had gathered.
“No matter who it is, it has just sent itself to death!” Tyre suddenly turned from angered to amused. Instead of going outside to check on the situation, he sat in his seat and waited for the intruder to come to him.
Although Tyre did not step outside the chamber, using his mighty divine soul, he sensed that the intruder was a cultivator of the death energy and was only at the mid-stage highgod realm. Although an expert of this class was not abundantly found in the Fringe and quite powerful, Tyre, perhaps the strongest of the Sovereigns, could not feel less threatened by that kind of strength.
Yet, Tyre found it very strange that an expert of that class would dare intrude his territory. Besides, the henchman he had stationed outside the shop was a late-stage highgod expert who should be capable of stopping the intruder.
While Tyre was thinking about the peculiar situation, he was suddenly jolted. He discovered that fissures abruptly developed on the boundary he deployed, allowing a figure to enter the meeting room.
The intruder swept his gaze across the four Sovereigns before fixing it on Logue. He unenthusiastically asked, “Are you Logue?”
Logue was startled. When his gaze met that of the intruder, he suddenly felt that the divine energy in his body was behaving rather strangely. They turned rather disordered and got out of his control.
Logue was overwhelmed with shock by the abnormality. He immediately nodded and answered, “Yes, I’m Logue.”
The intruder nodded before staring intensely at Logue. His powerful soul energy enveloped Logue in an instant. Logue’s pupil disappeared and only the whites of his eyes could be seen. He seemed to have been frozen.
“Who are you? What did you do to Logue?” shouted Tyre as he stood up angrily. He was glaring at the intruder and ready to strike at any moment.
Wasir and Ossora got up from their seats and flanked the intruder from his left and right. They assumed hostile stances towards the person in preparation for attacking him.
“You better not try to strike me or I will end you.” The person was slowly and thoroughly exploring Logue with his soul and yet, somehow, he could still talk. His tone was filled with utter arrogance and disdain as though Tyre, Wasir, and Ossora were puny ants that he could kill with a lift of his finger instead of mighty Sovereigns of the Fringe.
Tyre had met plenty of haughty, conceited characters, but never someone as condescending as this unknown intruder. The usually calm-looking Tyre was infuriated by his attitude. He responded, “You think that this is a place that you can simply enter and leave alive, even if you are a Hegemon of the Godhunter Alliance? End us all? Haha, let’s see it!” Upon finishing those words, Tyre raised in preparation to launch an attack.
“Tyre, stand down!” Logue’s pupils returned to his eyes and a shiver traveled down his spine before he shouted those words just in time. He looked at the intruder with a frightened face and in a slightly trembling voice, he asked, “Is there anything that I can help you with, Lord?”
Tyre was stunned. He almost couldn’t believe that the Logue at this moment was the same person who he had known for ages. This infamously treacherous and vengeful Sovereign had never used honorifics when speaking to another person or shown any fear towards any being. But the Logue now was visibly frightened and he spoke in a humble tone.
“Tyre, do not attack!” repeated Logue as he slowly got up. Quickly, he turned to the intruder, bowed at him, and asked, “How may I serve you, Lord?”
“Name me every cultivator of the death element in the Fringe,” asked the person unhurriedly after putting on a calm, faint smile.
“Han Hao, Lung-qi, Perseus…” replied Logue respectfully after thinking for a moment.
“And where are they?” asked the intruder after nodding his head. He seemed satisfied with Logue’s attitude.
“I don’t know where Han Hao is, but the others are located at…” answered Logue hastily while his body was still bowed.
“Em-hmm. Good,” the man turned on his heels and walked away after getting the information he wanted. He didn’t even bother to look at Tyre, Wasir, or Ossora.
The room remained silent until long after the unknown intruder had left. Finally, Tyre looked at Logue with a grave face and asked, “Who is he? Your father? Grandfather? Why would you be so respectful toward him?”
After letting out a long sigh of relief, Logue slouched on his seat. After taking his time to calm his mind down, he grimaced and replied, “I wouldn’t be that respectful to my father and grandfather. And if I were even remotely related to him, I wouldn’t be living in the Fringe now.”
“Then who in the world is he?” Even the usually non-talkative Wasir couldn’t help himself but ask.
“Overgod!” answered Logue stutteringly as though it took a ton of effort to utter it. After taking a short pause, to make sure that Tyre and the order understood him, he added, “And obviously, not the half-assed kind of overgod that we are.”
Upon hearing those words, Tyre, Wasir, and Ossora were stupefied. Shivers traveled down their spines.
“No wonder… I should have guessed… If wasn’t him, Logue wouldn’t have been so humble…” remarked Wasir whose face seemed a little pale.
“I’m so glad that I’ve listened to you and not attacked…” Tyre grimaced and continued, “Otherwise, the Fringe would have been flattened before those godhunters were even here.”
“Why would he come to the Fringe? What does he want?” Ossora seemed somewhat flustered. He mumbled to himself, “Could it be that the Twelve Existences intent to wipe out the Fringe? How could this be…?”
Logue managed to fully calm down and with a collected face, he gave his analysis, “That is probably not his intention. Otherwise, the four of us would have already been dead. He should be after something else…” After thinking for a moment with his eyes closed, Logue explained, “He seemed to be searching for something, or someone… His soul had explored every part of my body. There was nothing on me that I could hide from him. He likely did not find the thing that he’s after and therefore spared me…”
“I really hope that is the case. Otherwise, oblivion would fall upon us no matter what we do.” Ossora seemed somewhat pessimistic. He knew that even the combined might of the Fringe stood no chance against such a mighty being.
“I think we should call it a day. We all need some time to calm down from that,” said Tyre, ending the meeting decisively after seeing that the other three Sovereigns no longer had the desire to talk about defending against the Godhunter Alliance.
Wasir, Logue, and Ossora agreed. Without Tyre saying another word, they left one after another. Even Logue went home to suck his thumb instead of staying behind to have further discussion with Tyre.
After all three of them left, Tyre sat quietly in the chamber for a long while before stealthily leaving the Omphalos. He went to the dead volcano where Han Shuo was first introduced to the Sovereigns. He went behind a cliff, deployed a barrier, took out a magical mirror, and dialed Dhaka.
Not far from the cliff, a ghostly figure was standing under the shadow of a tree, tracking Tyre…
