Light Bleeds Too

The whole world trembled because of the battle at the heart of the Empire.

Every fifth energy level powerhouse who still had even a little strength to spare 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 at full strength with clear minds, without the slightest hatred or anger toward one another?

As expected, the Sun God Bird lineage had plenty of madmen.

The Light Calamity had amplified those two. The strength of the two madmen had surged...

Although countless gazes converged upon them, with the Light Calamity enhancing the Sun God Bird's power and ravaging the settlements of Terra's nations, no matter how curious or tempted the various fifth energy level powerhouses were, they knew this was not the time.

Not to mention that, amid the current global catastrophe, the four orthodox churches and Dragon Island would never permit the nations of Terra to launch a great war—even without outside forces stopping them, there was not a single faction on the Terra Continent capable of dispatching a free fifth energy level powerhouse to interfere.

The civil strife in the Azure Heaven Royal Court, Canaanmore's consolidation, the Blazing Flame Lands being forced into retreat, the Seven Cities Alliance descending into chaos, and Ridgehold being suppressed... Every nation close to the Empire had, without prior arrangement, developed internal conflicts that made it difficult to project power abroad.

Under the watch of the four orthodox churches and Dragon Island, the only ones who could intervene in the battle between two Sun God Birds were the people of the Empire itself.

Within the Empire.

Two wills watched over the imperial capital.

This is bad. My oath of fealty is to the Sertal imperial family. If they start fighting among themselves, I can't even mediate.

A somewhat lazy yet crisp and forceful voice, as standard as the most proper human speech, sounded out. "What should we do, General? Do you have a solution?"

"No. Same as you, I am loyal to the Empire. If the imperial family goes to war with itself, there is not a thing I can do."

A decisive voice rang out, old in a way it could not quite conceal. Its tone was calm, carrying a faint helplessness. "In my view, we should stay out of it."

"A war between Sun God Birds should be decided by themselves. Whoever wins will be our lord."

"Who would have thought there would be two Sun God Birds in the past?" the clear voice said. "True enough. This is our lord's family matter, just a father and son fighting. As outsiders, we really should not interfere."

At last, the aged voice made a decision. "You patrol the east, I'll patrol the west. Keep outsiders from meddling. We have to earn the pay we take."

"As for everything else, let them settle it internally."

The imperial family.

Amid the light blasting out from the collision of the two suns, two more streaks of light approached the imperial capital. But just as Mikael and Axel had done, Carlos's light blocked Alegria's.

"Carlos! Why are you stopping me?"

The furious female will was like an erupting solar flare, sending up beams of light that could annihilate all things. A hazy figure of light stood firmly before her. "Do you even need to ask? My answer is no. This is a duel between Father and Mikael. I cannot let you disturb it."

"Cannot disturb it?" the female will demanded sternly, her fury and desire for destruction rising without end. "Everything in the Empire is flourishing. Why are you helping Mikael obstruct Father's great undertaking?"

"Mikael has reached the fifth energy level. Is that not an omen that our Sertal Empire will rise again? Why would he duel Father... Why would he become an enemy of the Empire?!"

Leia Carlos answered calmly, "Do you not know how long Father has waited for this day? The Empire's restoration... At a time like this, do you still want to play the Empire conquest game?"

"For over a thousand years, we have long grown sick of it. Not just us—every fifth energy level powerhouse, every powerful Ascender, has grown sick of this game of rulers and subjects... Everyone on Terra, whether powerful or powerless, Ascender or non-Ascender, all of them are awaiting the arrival of a new world."

"The Arcane Path opened the curtain upon this new world. So Father no longer needs to wait, and our younger brother answered Father's expectations."

Having said this, Carlos spoke each word heavily. "Yes, we were too slow! We lost!"

"A bet is a bet. Those who lose should not dream of vying in brilliance with the suns!"

"But!"

Alegria raised her head. She looked unwillingly toward the center of the Empire, then frowned tightly. "Isn't there someone else?"

"Why does someone else dare barge into their battlefield?"

"What?"

Carlos too turned back in shock, looking toward the sky above the imperial capital behind him.

And so, they saw it.

A pitch-black sun tore through the silence. Azure-gold flames blazed around it, setting half the heavens alight.

Everyone—not merely Carlos and Alegria, but every person watching in the Empire's direction, even the two Sun God Birds in battle—shifted their gaze. Pair after pair of eyes reflected the burning sky and the black star at its center.

"A black sun?!" someone said in astonishment.

"No..." But after observing more carefully, the more cautious people revealed even greater shock. "This is the Immovable Fortress!"

Wild winds surged like tides, sweeping across most of the Empire. Endless flaming light swept through the heavens like an enraged sea and a mighty river. Those ignorant of its principles were stunned by the towering tide of light brought by this phenomenon, but true powerhouses could sense the utterly 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 blazing heat and searing radiance. Its meaning of existence was not to erase all things, but the flourishing vitality of the myriad phenomena of heavenly law. Countless rays of light transformed according to Mikael's will into phantasms of giant hands, vines, swords, and more, crashing down upon Axel.

Yet Axel's power was incomparably pure: simple overwriting and erasure. Every phantom and vessel of will that Mikael created was shattered and wiped away the moment it approached, as though rubbed over by an eraser. Only a few blurred outlines remained before vanishing completely.

Between them lay a pure white dividing line that constantly shifted and tugged. At its center was a region of pure aether formed by the collision and annihilation of two different lights and aethers. Spacetime warped and rippled from it, tearing open rifts into the void.

"For someone newly entered into the fifth energy level, this is truly not bad." Yet in this confrontation, Axel held the advantage. Under the relentless pressure of light, his domain was forcing Mikael back. The Emperor's voice came from the tidal flood of light. "You have grasped the true core of the Apex Seat—the immortal nature. You can even draw upon a portion of the strength of the past and future to fight me."

There was not the slightest anger in his voice over his child rebelling against him. Instead, it carried a trace of joy and gratification. "I am glad you came prepared to oppose me, rather than acting on a hot-headed impulse."

He raised a hand. The humanoid figure with wings on its back and three halos behind its head let out a muffled groan, and a faint crack appeared on Mikael's aetheric true body... No, perhaps it was not a crack. Azure Heavenly Law Dragon power turned into lines of patterns, manifesting across Mikael's body. "You even prepared for me to borrow the strength of the Light Calamity and the imperial capital, and found the power of the ancestral True Dragon—that truly is an immense inheritance, one of the mightiest fifth energy levels."

"But unfortunately, while you understand the Sun God Bird well, you do not understand True Dragons well enough. They cannot fuse perfectly, and that leaves a flaw."

Behind Axel, a halo faintly emerged, veiled by layer upon layer of wings of light. Upon that halo were densely packed golden eyes.

Every eye looked in a different direction. Every eye released boundless light, just like the sun, selflessly and without distinction giving forth its strength.

Compared to Mikael's winged humanoid form, Axel's Sun God Bird aetheric true body possessed not the slightest human trait. Countless flowing, revolving eyes watched all things in the world, selflessly watching everything, suppressing his own child with only around half his power.

And so, he noticed that black sun before Mikael did.

Of course. You did not come here to die—you intended to defeat me... Beyond your trump card, you have help.

Axel stared at the black sun, countless thoughts passing through his heart. Just as he had always allowed, the Immovable Fortress that had been driven away had ultimately returned, bearing power greater than he had imagined.

Only, 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 fell.

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 thunder, burned into a vacuum.

But when that straight blade of light struck the black sun, it abruptly bent into an arc. Chaotic spacetime and gravity displaced it for an instant, and it fell diagonally toward the earth.

Boom!

With the slash of the blade of light, a vast region on the ground—at least several continuous mountain ranges—had already melted. Terrifying heat and intensely penetrating radiation dissolved and vaporized all matter. The surging shockwave formed by the explosion blew away every surrounding forest, while what remained rapidly carbonized, burned to ash, and turned to dust.

But Axel's expression changed slightly.

That strike had seemed to miss, but it had actually hit—the blade of light was not merely light, but an aetheric field that warped spacetime. Naturally, he knew that the Immovable Fortress could use immense gravity to bend light, a trait that countered the Sun God Bird. But the Sun God Bird naturally had its own methods of countering the Immovable Fortress.

But...

Axel raised the wing with which he had just struck. Black cracks were spreading across that wing of light, and specks of flaming radiance leaked from them and dripped down like blood.

At the instant he struck his opponent, he had suffered the opponent's counterattack.

And that counterattack had also traveled at the speed of light.

"Interesting."

Narrowing his eyes, Axel smiled. Even if one could predict the Sun God Bird's attack and prepare in advance to risk death in a mutual strike, Sun God Birds were rarely truly counterattacked, because their speed was 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, it was a gravitational wave!

At this very moment, Ian, racing forward through curvature travel, was surrounded by hundreds upon thousands of folds in spacetime, forming an enormous spacetime bubble. Within that bubble was an exceptionally terrifying yet stable gravitational field. After receiving aetheric amplification, the gravitational field—which could bend light within a small area—had even formed a simulated black domain. It spun at extreme speed, achieving perfect balance.

Under such circumstances, so long as an outside force attacked, the entire gravitational field would erupt and strike back at the attacker.

Even if the attacker was light, the terrifying gravitational field, capable of compressing an entire mountain range to the tip of a needle, could instantly unleash an immensely terrifying counterattack... at the same speed as light.

"It seems there is nothing in this world that does not perish."

In an instant, there were already three suns in the heavens.

And from behind the black field came a young voice, sonorous and forceful. "Look."

"Even light bleeds."