After becoming a demigod-level powerhouse, Locke had once clashed head-on with the Pope of the Temple of Light.
Although Locke had gained the upper hand in that encounter through the use of illusions, he had been deeply envious of one particular aspect of the Pope's strength—the way the Pope could fuse his Divine Domain with the Profound Mysteries of the Profounds into a single, devastating attack.
Over the years, through relentless research and experimentation, Locke had finally achieved the same feat: integrating the Profound Mysteries of the Profounds into his Divine Domain.
Locke knew his own shortcomings well.
As a mage who had ascended to godhood, he lacked experience in close-quarters combat. And in Hell itself, there was no practical way for him to devote large amounts of time to honing his melee skills.
A Divine Domain could almost be considered a "natural talent" possessed by every god-level being.
Perhaps precisely because everyone had one, Divine Domains had gradually lost their perceived value—so much so that few gods bothered to truly study or refine them.
But Locke was different.
Having been "baptized" by tens of thousands of novels and anime in his previous life, the concept of a domain was, in every story, an essential trump card for the strong—an ability that allowed one to fight far above their level.
In Locke's understanding, a domain was a powerful force that enhanced oneself while suppressing one's enemies.
To compensate for his weakness in close combat, Locke directly fused the Profounds he had comprehended into his Divine Domain.
As his Divine Domain spread outward, boundless cold followed in its wake.
The surrounding air itself seemed to freeze under the overwhelming chill.
Sheets of frost spread outward. Though weakened by the Divine Domains of the bandits, the ice still advanced toward them like an unrelenting tide, creeping up their bodies inch by inch.
And the closer Locke drew, the more terrifying that cold became.
Crack… crack…
"Damn it!"
The bandits erupted with divine power and unleashed their own Profound Mysteries, shattering the ice encasing their bodies.
Yet the cold seemed endless. The moment they broke free of the frozen shell, another surge of frost swept in, sealing them once more.
Under these conditions, the five demigods could do nothing but repeatedly break the ice around themselves—only to be frozen again moments later.
Other than that, they couldn't even move.
And they dared not stop.
Because deep down, they all felt it—
the instant they were completely frozen by this ice would be the moment of their deaths.
The three gods fared far better.
With their strength, breaking the ice that bound them was effortless. And once shattered, it took some time before the cold could freeze them again.
But even so, the three were forced to continuously unleash their divine power.
The moment frost began forming on their bodies, their speed would be drastically reduced.
"This is bad. This guy is beyond anything we can handle—run!"
From this single exchange, the three bandit leaders realized they were no match for the one who had come. Exchanging a glance, they nodded in unison and fled at full speed in three different directions.
As for the five lower gods under their command…
As long as they themselves escaped, they could always recruit more subordinates later.
Unfortunately for them, that realization came far too late.
"Celestial Dance—Treasure Wheel."
"Five Senses—Deprivation."
Those words were the last sounds the three god leaders ever heard.
Once their consciousness was stripped away, they could no longer resist the invading cold.
In moments, Locke's frigid power had seeped into their bodies, freezing all three solid into massive blocks of ice.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The frozen masses slammed into the ground, shattering like brittle glass into countless fragments. All that remained were three god level divine Sparks.
Whoosh—
Powerful divine energy surged from the Divine Sparks, attempting to reconstitute their divine bodies.
This was because the souls of the three gods had merely been suppressed by Locke, not extinguished.
For beings at the god level and above, a divine body was nothing more than a construct formed from divine power. As long as the soul remained intact, the body could be restored at any time.
Just as now—though their divine bodies had been completely destroyed, their souls still lingered, and the divine power within their Divine Sparks instinctively sought to rebuild them.
However,
It was useless.
After their divine bodies were destroyed two or three times in succession, the divine power stored within their Divine Sparks was completely exhausted.
With no divine power left to protect them, the frigid force within Locke's domain invaded the Divine Sparks directly, freezing their souls and erasing them entirely.
After storing away the three Divine Sparks and several spatial rings, Locke withdrew his Divine Domain.
Even so, after the rampage of that overwhelming cold, the entire mountain had been encased in ice, transformed into a frozen peak.
The five demigods had long since lost all signs of life.
Once he had collected all the spatial rings from the bandit group, Locke bound them with a drop of blood.
Fortunately, none of the bandits possessed additional divine clones, which meant Locke could freely use all of their spatial rings.
"Tch. Just over ten thousand inkstones? Aren't these guys a little too poor?"
Though he complained inwardly, his actions were brutally honest.
After transferring all the inkstones into his usual spatial ring, Locke leapt into the air and flew toward the location of the second bandit group…
Nightblaze Prefecture.
Inside an inn, Locke sat at a table by the window, waiting for his food to arrive from the kitchen.
At a nearby table, several godswere eating and chatting.
"Hey, Luka, have you noticed? Lately, it feels like we haven't run into any bandits at all. Do you know what's going on?"
"Oh? So, it's not just me? I thought I'd simply been lucky—several trading trips in a row without encountering any robbers."
"Looks like you're not the only one enjoying good fortune."
"Heh heh. If one or two people don't run into bandits, that's luck. But if everyone doesn't, then it's definitely not just luck."
"Oh? Could it be that Brother Davy knows something?"
"Lika, hurry up and pour Brother Davy some wine!"
The group clamored noisily, flattering the man who supposedly knew the "inside story," eager to hear firsthand information.
Even Locke couldn't help but shift his attention toward them.
After all, the sharp decline in bandit activity around Nightblaze Prefecture—Locke suspected that more than half the reason lay with him.
Hearing it spoken by others, however, gave him an oddly satisfying sense of quiet pride.
That said…
He was also genuinely puzzled.
During his fights with bandit groups, Locke always expanded his domain, cleaned up, and left without delay.
There shouldn't have been any information leaks about him at all.
So how had this news spread?
(End of Chapter)
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