Above The Sky-Chapter 1916 - 398: The Changed World (Short - )

Until the very end, Axel never gave up resisting.

[No matter what you say] he spoke calmly in the space-time bubble: [All thoughts will eventually be realized. If you want to defeat me, you cannot expect my surrender, you can only truly seal me]

[I will fight until the last moment]

No enemy will ever surrender, especially not the strong ones on Terra. They may not believe in miracles, but fighting to the last moment is the greatest respect for their own and their enemy’s dreams.

Especially since Axel’s goal is not to immediately defeat Ian and Michael, but to spread the power of the spiritual beacon across the whole of Terra and maintain it for as long as possible.

But Ian was also prepared.

Imperial Capital.

Yisen Gard walked all the way to the Upper City District.

Along the way, all the commoners, or rather all the Awakened Ones with the ’Innaga Personality’, worked together in cooperation to produce a large amount of anti-spirit energy canvas, to protect their bodies from being overly damaged by the spirit energy fluctuations of the Imperial Capital.

And the strong ones of the Third Energy Level and above, facing these ordinary people with the Innaga Personality, each did not know what to do. Some who missed the former emperor were full of confusion—the part of their soul that indeed housed a part of Inega II’s immortality—but can they really be considered Inega II?

Even if these people could truly call out every one of their names and even actively asked several knowledgeable strong individuals to come and study their situation, they really did not know how to deal with this situation.

The ethical and moral standards of human society are built on the era’s original technology. As times and technology change and progress, so too will ethics and morality. Perhaps in the future, people will understand whether those Awakened Ones count as Innaga and how to treat them, but for now, with the ethics and morality of Terra, they cannot face the earth-shattering impact produced by Axel.

No one stopped Yisen Gard.

The older generation of the Imperial City’s nobles watched the blond youth with complex expressions. Having grown a bit larger, he looked more mature. Even though Yisen Gard was still somewhat youthful, a trace of solemn dignity could faintly be seen in his brow and eyes—the young nobles perhaps did not know, but they still remembered... they remembered the face of that person in his youth.

Whether it is...

Whether it is the inheritance of bloodline or the echo of the soul, decades later.

Once again, the heir of Inega II stepped onto the high steps in the Imperial Capital that reach straight to the sky.

Lady Ellen, Aflina Setal, watched with complex emotions as her son walked toward the road leading to the pinnacle of Solitary Mountain, a path condensed from endless light. Her heart also harbored the echo of Inega II, but perhaps because she was the previous generation’s experiment subject, she was not too deeply affected.

"Grandfather..."

She whispered, asking herself, and also asking that will in the void: "He is different from you, isn’t he?"

Speaking to herself in this way, her tone became even more determined: "Yes... My child may have missed a lot, but he is not the same as you."

[Yes, different]the echo in the void smiled and said: [If I hadn’t gotten the Silver Chip, at Yisen Gard’s age, I might still be working on thesis research, unable to stand alone]

[You don’t need to be the same as me]

He continued to walk upward.

Yisen Gard crossed layer after layer of barriers of light.

Axel’s power lingered in this area where he resided the longest. If not for the Sunbird’s bloodline, it would be difficult to pass through, but Yisen Gard, through practicing the meditation technique, gradually mastered the power of the Sunbird in his body. Neither the fiery barriers nor the iridescent light screens could stop him from advancing toward the ’Genesis Core’ at the heart of the Imperial Capital.

Until the very end, the first, and also the last obstacle, stood in front of Yisen Gard.

"Yisen Gard, son of Afrina."

The Dean of the Spirit Knowledge Institute, Moze Halna the Omniscient, stood at the entrance of the laboratory. The old man squinted his eyes, watching the young man in front of him: "You know, this is His Majesty’s grand undertaking,"

"I know."

Yisen Gard responded calmly: "And you are an accomplice to his atrocities... a supporter, collaborator of his grand undertaking."

"So, will you try to stop me? Subdue or kill me as a Fourth Level power being?"

"No... my opponent is not you."

Chancellor Moze looked behind Yisen Gard, where a fae-like phoenix silently gazed back at him amid the light and flame.

This old scholar, who had lived through three generations and perhaps soon four generations of emperors, said indifferently: "I just want to ask—if you think His Majesty’s grand undertaking is an atrocity, then can you find a better way to let The Empire go further, or to let humans go further?"

"Only future generations can judge our actions now, right or wrong. What I want to know is your wish."

"My wish."

Yisen Gard looked at Chancellor Moze and spoke. Initially about to say that ’fulfilling the Arcane Pathway’ was his dream, he paused and contemplated.

"The Arcane Pathway is Ian’s path, and it was never truly his dream, merely a tool to achieve it."

Yisen Gard murmured to himself, thinking earnestly: "And what I want is neither to become powerful nor world peace."