Oath of Allegiance (8400, Please Vote)

When Korizen's soul fragment condensed before the Dark Gold Dragon, the latter was not surprised in the least.

Ian merely raised his head, met the chief academician's gaze, gently flapped his wings, and waited for him to speak.

Korizen's true body was still fighting the Grand Library's guardian and appeared to be at a disadvantage—yet he had still split off a portion of his power to speak with him.

An invisible spatial barrier rose around the Silver Sky Gate, cutting off others' prying eyes and creating a vast yet enclosed space.

They looked at each other, but neither spoke for a long while.

My Path is correct.

After a while, Korizen slowly said, "But I still do not understand. Why did you not transmit information concerning your 'selfhood' to parallel spacetime?"

The chief academician looked at Ian with an almost pitying incomprehension. "What connection is there, really, between the current you and the past you? You are practically two completely different people. You merely both possess a Soul Light Body like the 'Guiding Star.'"

"Initial Ian died long ago. You cannot even be considered his dregs. You are only a tool he shaped, a... a phantom."

"I see 'the self' and 'Ian' a little differently."

Ian calmly replied, "You see the self as too small, and the essence of life as too insignificant. If memories had to be completely identical, then the moment you forgot what you ate for dinner yesterday, you would no longer be yesterday's self..."

"As long as every being across endless spacetime willing to acknowledge themselves as 'Ian' shares a consensus with me, then I am 'us,' and 'we' are me."

"On the contrary, you."

As he said this, Ian narrowed his eyes, carefully observing Korizen before him, then could not help smiling. "Isn't this soul