The entire world trembled because of the battle at the heart of the Empire.
Every Fifth Energy Level powerhouse who still had some strength left turned their heads toward the Empire.
Why were these two fighting?
A conflict between father and son? Rebellion? A coup? Or an all-out spar?
A lure? These two were fighting with everything they had, yet there was no malice between them... They were battling to the death with clear minds, without the slightest hatred or anger toward one another?
As expected, the Sun God Bird lineage had no shortage of madmen.
The Light Calamity had amplified these two. The strength of both madmen had surged...
Although countless gazes converged upon them, the Light Calamity's enhancement of Sun God Bird power, along with its devastation of the gathering places of Terra's nations, meant that no matter how curious or tempted the other Fifth Energy Level powerhouses were, they knew this was not the time.
Not to mention that, amid the world's current catastrophe, the Four Orthodox Churches and Dragon Island would not permit Terra's nations to launch a great war. Even without outside forces stopping them, there was not a single faction on the Terra Continent capable of deploying a free Fifth Energy Level powerhouse to interfere.
The Azure Heaven Royal Court's internal strife, Canaanmore's consolidation, the Blazing Flame Lands being forced into retreat, the Seven Cities Alliance's descent into chaos, and Ridgehold being suppressed... Every nation close to the Empire had, without exception, developed internal conflicts and could not spare any strength for external affairs.
With the Four Orthodox Churches and Dragon Island watching, the only ones who could intervene in the battle between two Sun God Birds were the Empire's own people.
Within the Empire.
Two wills watched the Imperial Capital.
This is troublesome. My oath of loyalty is to the Sertal Royal Family. If their royal family starts fighting among themselves, I can't even mediate.
A somewhat lazy yet crisp and forceful voice, as standard as the most proper human speech, rang out. "What should we do, General? Do you have a solution?"
"No. Same as you, I pledged loyalty to the Empire. If their royal family is at war internally, I can't interfere at all."
Another voice spoke, brisk and decisive yet unable to conceal its age. Its tone was calm, carrying a trace of helplessness. "In my opinion, we should stay out of it."
"It is a war between Sun God Birds. Let them settle it themselves. Whoever wins will be our sovereign."
"Who would have thought there would be two Sun God Birds in the past?" the clear voice said. "Still, this is our sovereign's family matter, just a father and son fighting. It truly would not be appropriate for outsiders like us to intervene."
In the end, the aged voice made its decision. "You patrol the east, and I'll patrol the west. Keep outsiders from getting involved. We must earn the salary we receive."
"As for everything else, let them resolve it internally."
The royal family.
Beneath the light blasting forth from the collision of two suns, two other rays of light approached the Imperial Capital. But just as Mikael had blocked Axel, Carlos's light blocked Alegria's.
"Carlos! Why are you stopping me?"
The furious female will was like an erupting flare, unleashing streak after streak of light that could annihilate all things. A hazy humanoid figure of light stood firmly before her. "Do you even need to ask? My answer is no. This is Father's duel with Mikael. I cannot let you disrupt it."
"Cannot disrupt it?" the female will demanded sharply. Her fury and desire for destruction continued to rise. "Everything in the Empire is flourishing. Why are you helping Mikael obstruct Father's great undertaking?!"
"Mikael reaching the Fifth Energy Level—is that not an omen of the Sertal Empire's resurgence? Why is he dueling Father... Why is he making an enemy of the Empire?!"
Leia Carlos answered calmly, "Do you not know how long Father has waited for this day? The Empire's revival... At a time like this, do you still want to play the Empire conquest game?"
"More than a thousand years—we grew tired of it long ago. Not just us. Every Fifth Energy Level powerhouse, every powerful Sublimer, has grown tired of the game of rulers and subjects... All Terrans, whether strong or weak, whether Sublimers or not, everyone is awaiting the arrival of a New World."
"The Arcane Path opened the prelude to this New World. That is why Father no longer needed to wait, and why my younger brother answered Father's expectations."
Having said this, Carlos spoke heavily, one word at a time. "Yes. We were too slow! We lost!"
"If you gamble, you must accept defeat. Those who lost should not dream of competing with the suns!"
"But!"
Alegria raised her head. She looked unwillingly toward the heart of the Empire, then frowned deeply. "Are there not still others?"
"Why would anyone else dare intrude upon their battlefield?"
"What?"
Carlos also turned back in shock, looking toward the skies above the Imperial Capital.
Then they saw it.
A pitch-black sun tore through the silence, its cyan-gold flames blazing around it and igniting more than half the heavens.
Everyone—not merely Carlos and Alegria, but all those watching the Empire, even the two Sun God Birds still fighting—shifted their gazes. Countless eyes reflected that burning sky and the black star at its center.
"The Black Sun?!" someone exclaimed in shock.
"No..." But after observing more carefully, the more cautious people revealed even greater astonishment. "This is the Immovable Fortress!"
Gales surged like tides, crossing more than half the Empire. Endless flames swept across the heavens like a raging sea and a mighty river. Those who did not understand its principles would be shocked by the overwhelming tide of light brought by this phenomenon, but true experts could sense the unimaginable power contained within the black aether core wrapped in layer upon layer of distorted spacetime.
At this moment, Mikael's light and Axel's light were clashing and overlapping. Driven by the power of the Heavenly Law Dragon, the Sun God Bird was no longer merely the sovereign of scorching heat and searing radiance. Its purpose was not to erase all things, but the vigorous vitality of all phenomena under heavenly law. Countless rays of light transformed at Mikael's will into phantom giant hands, vines, swords, and more, crashing down upon Axel.
Axel's power, however, was incomparably pure. It was simple overwriting and erasure. Every illusion and vessel of will created by Mikael shattered and vanished as it approached, as though wiped away by an eraser, leaving only a few blurred outlines before disappearing entirely.
Between them lay a pure white dividing line that constantly shifted and tugged. At its center was a region of pure aether created by the collision and annihilation of two different lights and aethers. Spacetime twisted and fluctuated because of it, tearing open rifts into the void.
"For someone who has only just entered the Fifth Energy Level, this is truly not bad." Yet in this confrontation, Axel held the advantage. His domain steadily forced Mikael back beneath an endless torrent of light. The Emperor's voice came from the tidal flood of radiance. "You have grasped the true core of the Apex Seat—the Nature of Immortality. You can even draw upon a portion of the power of the past and future to oppose me."
There was not the slightest anger in his voice over his child defying him. Instead, there was a trace of pleasure and gratification. "I am glad you came prepared to oppose me, rather than acting on a momentary impulse."
He raised a hand, and the humanoid figure with wings on its back and three halos behind its head let out a muffled groan. A crack appeared upon Mikael's Aether True Form... No, perhaps it was not a crack. Azure Heavenly Law Dragon power transformed into patterns that manifested across Mikael's body. "You even prepared for me borrowing the Light Calamity and the Imperial Capital's power, and found the power of the Progenitor True Dragons—indeed, an immensely vast legacy, one of the strongest at the Fifth Energy Level."
"But unfortunately, while you understand the Sun God Bird well, you do not understand True Dragons very well. They cannot fuse perfectly, and that leaves a flaw."
Behind Axel, a halo faintly emerged, obscured beneath layer upon layer of wings of light. Upon that halo were countless densely packed golden eyes.
Every eye looked in a different direction. Every eye released endless light, just like the sun, bestowing its power without distinction or reservation.
Compared to Mikael's winged humanoid form, Axel's Sun God Bird Aether True Form possessed not the slightest human characteristic. Countless flowing, rotating eyes watched all things in the world, gazing selflessly upon everything, suppressing his child with merely around half of its power.
Thus, he noticed that black sun before Mikael did.
"Of course. You did not come here to seek death, but to defeat me... Besides your trump cards, you also have assistance."
Axel stared at the black sun, countless thoughts running through his mind. Just as he had always allowed, the Immovable Fortress that had been driven away had ultimately returned, bearing power greater than he had imagined.
It was simply that this Immovable Fortress seemed somewhat different from the one in his memories.
No matter.
Axel raised one of his wings. The wing became light and vanished. The wing became a blade, transforming into light as it descended.
A straight, searing scar of light tore through everything, branding even space with a brilliant mark. It slashed directly toward the black sun. Along its path, the atmosphere erupted with thunderous blasts and was scorched into a vacuum.
But when that straight blade of light struck the black sun, it abruptly curved. Chaotic spacetime and gravity caused it to deviate for an instant, before it fell diagonally toward the earth.
Boom!
As the blade of light struck, a vast region of land—at least several continuous mountain ranges—was melted away. Terrifying heat and highly penetrating radiation dissolved and vaporized all matter. The violent shockwave produced by the explosion swept away every surrounding forest, while what remained rapidly carbonized, burned to ash, and scattered as dust.
But Axel's expression changed slightly.
That strike had appeared to miss, but it had actually landed—the blade of light was not merely light, but an aether field that distorted spacetime. Of course he knew that the Immovable Fortress could use immense gravity to bend light, specifically countering the Sun God Bird, but the Sun God Bird naturally had its own method of countering the Immovable Fortress.
But...
Axel raised the wing with which he had just attacked. Black cracks were spreading across that wing of light, with droplets of flaming radiance spilling from them and falling like blood.
At the instant he struck his opponent, he had suffered a counterattack.
And his opponent's counterattack had also traveled at light speed.
Interesting.
Axel narrowed his eyes and smiled. Even if one could predict a Sun God Bird's attacks and prepare beforehand to fight to the death in mutual assault, Sun God Birds were rarely truly counterattacked, because they were simply too fast. Much of the time, even if one "knew," one could not "counterattack."
But Mahdi's defensive counterattack had left even him unable to react.
What in this world could be as fast as light?
Naturally, gravitational waves!
At this moment, Ian, speeding forward through Curvature Navigation, was surrounded by hundreds upon thousands of folds in spacetime, forming an enormous spacetime bubble. Within that bubble was an incomparably terrifying yet stable gravitational field. After being amplified by aether, the gravitational field, powerful enough to bend light over a small area, had even formed a simulated Black Domain. It spun at high speed, achieving perfect equilibrium.
Under such circumstances, so long as an external force attacked, the entire gravitational field would erupt and counterattack the aggressor.
Even if the attack was light, that terrifying gravitational field, capable of compressing an entire mountain range into the tip of a needle, could instantly deliver an incomparably dreadful counterattack... at the same speed as light.
"It seems there is nothing in this world that cannot be destroyed."
In the blink of an eye, there were already three suns in the heavens.
From behind the black domain came a young, forceful voice. "Look."
"Even light can bleed."
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