The Tsunami Legion's encampment wasn't far from the imperial palace.
With Celes's strength, the clash between Locke and Bolton naturally couldn't escape his notice.
Now that Bolton had been killed by Locke — and Celes neither sent Locke a message nor appeared in person — it clearly meant he didn't care about this matter at all.
For Celes, the most important thing was gathering as much faith as possible for the Sovereign, earning the great lord's rewards.
In fact, even the very existence of the Radiant Temple was only because Celes discovered that having a rival power actually allowed the empire's citizens to generate even more faith. That was why he allowed the Radiant Temple to grow.
Of course, if the Radiant Temple's influence ever grew so large that it reduced the amount of faith Celes personally collected, he would absolutely take action himself and wipe the temple off the map.
Understanding Celes's attitude, Locke rose into the sky. A vast surge of magic erupted from him.
Boom!
The oppressive might of a Sanctuary-level mage spread outward, but Locke skillfully confined it within the Tsunami Legion's grounds.
Under that immense pressure, the soldiers instinctively lowered their heads, not daring to look directly at Locke.
"Everyone, I am His Majesty Celes's newly appointed commander of the Fifth Legion — Locke."
"The former commander, Bolton, was dissatisfied with His Majesty's decision and challenged me. He has already been slain."
"If any among you still doubt my right to command the Fifth Legion, you may step forward as Bolton did. I will give you the chance to challenge me."
Only now did the Tsunami Legion's soldiers understand why Bolton had fought the newly arrived Sanctuary expert today.
So his command post had been reassigned to someone else, and he tried to take it back through strength.
This sort of thing was far from rare in the Frost-Snow Empire — especially within the army.
After all, aside from the commoners, some of the legion's members were noble scions. Compared to commoners, nobles possessed battle-qi manuals and combat-skill inheritances. Their starting point was far higher. Once they joined the army, their minimum position was typically squad leader or above.
The former squad leader would then have to challenge the incoming noble in public.
If he won, the noble who lost would have no face to stay.
If he lost — well, strength speaks for itself, and even his own soldiers would no longer follow him.
War kills people.
Given a choice, everyone prefers to follow a stronger commander. That way, their odds of survival increase dramatically.
Everyone present had witnessed the battle between Bolton and Locke.
Locke's strength was indeed far above Bolton's.
And moreover, Locke hadn't gone overboard after defeating Bolton — it was Bolton who refused to accept defeat and attempted a sneak attack, forcing Locke to kill him.
On this point, Bolton hadn't lied.
Most of the Tsunami Legion soldiers really were personally selected by Bolton and were indeed "real men," valuing fair battle.
Seeing Bolton resort to a sneak attack in front of everyone disappointed them deeply.
In such circumstances, how could any of them step out to oppose Locke becoming commander?
All of this was within Locke's expectations.
Because if he were the soldier standing below, without overwhelming strength, he too would have remained silent.
"It seems everyone in the Fifth Legion is different from the previous commander Bolton. None of you object to my taking command."
"In that case, prepare for deployment."
"In three days, we march!"
"Yes, Commander Locke!"
…
After returning to the commander's tent, Locke dismissed the guards with a wave.
He sat on the large tiger-skin chair at the center of the tent and closed his eyes in thought.
His injuries were slowly recovering under the effects of Aqua Therapy.
At this rate, he would fully recover in about three days.
For anyone above the Sanctuary level, insight into the Laws is everything.
If your understanding of a Law's mysteries surpasses your opponent's, you can easily expel the Law-energy they force into your body, allowing your injuries to heal quickly.
But if your opponent's comprehension exceeds yours, you cannot expel their Law-energy — your body will continuously be eroded by it, forcing you to spend a great deal of time and strength to recover.
For Sanctuary experts, this wasn't too bad. Everyone's Law-mysteries came from the natural world itself, so using enough battle-qi or magic could slowly grind down the invading Law-force.
But once someone reached the Deity realm, the strength of one's Laws increased to terrifying levels.
A Deity's Law-energy that entered your body could persist for tens of thousands — even hundreds of thousands — of years.
Thus, severely injured Deities often took hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years to recover.
Some died before they healed.
"I was careless…"
Thinking back to his battle with Bolton, Locke still felt a lingering chill.
If he hadn't trained as a warrior on the side, raising his Warrior rank to the Ninth Rank, Bolton's last-second ambush would likely have killed him.
"I'm a Sanctuary Magus, but my Warrior rank will take at least five more years to reach Sanctuary."
"The 'Illusionary Fog' Mystery I've comprehended isn't the strongest among the Water Laws in terms of offense or defense."
"To strengthen my survivability, I must keep focusing on illusion-based techniques."
"In terms of evasion… Phantom Clone is quite good."
"But I'm not a pure warrior. If my spirit can't react in time during close combat — and if an enemy's attack speed exceeds my mental perception — I'll have no way to defend."
"So next, aside from training my battle-qi to reach the Sanctuary level as soon as possible, I need to upgrade Phantom Clone."
"The improvement direction… should be something that automatically activates the moment danger is sensed — like passive skills in my previous life's games…"
"In addition, according to the intelligence from His Majesty Celes, the enemy this time — the ones I will face in our expedition against the Radiant Temple — are the two Sanctuary experts who killed the former Fifth Legion commander more than twenty years ago…"
(End of Chapter)
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