HE TOO...

The deaths came in a single, world-ending tidal wave. In one moment, the battlefield was flooded with sounds of battle, and in the next, it was like a god had descended from above, snapping his fingers and ending it all in an instant.

"If you want to challenge the Morales, I would advise you to bring the best you have."

Gravity warped and flexed, several Tier 1 Starships appearing on the horizon. In fact, several wasn't enough to describe it, there was easily a fleet of hundreds. The number was more than Leonel thought possible.

Tier 2 Starships already took up a great amount of resources. The wealth required couldn't even be counted in terms of normal numbers, and rather had to be assessed with the revenue of capital cities instead. But even then, what was required to form Tier 1 Starships was orders of magnitude beyond.

According to Leonel's calculations, the Human Domain shouldn't only be capable of producing two dozen Tier 1 Starships. This number was almost ten times that.

Leonel's lip curled. The only explanation was that the Omann family hadn't just improved the design of Tier 2 Starships, they had made a huge stride in improving Tier 1 Starships as well.

This wasn't surprising to Leonel, it was within his expectations at odds about about 60%. Why would a family like the Omann family waste their best trump card on the Heir Wars unless they had a trump card that was even better? The only reason he hadn't assigned an even higher probability was because it was potentially true that the Omann's had found his death to be a worthy exchange. He was the link between the only two Eighth Dimensional worlds of the Human Domain, after all.

But even so, this was a bit outside of his expectations. This meant that the breakthroughs of the Omanns on the Crafting front were beyond what he had thought of them.

He still believed himself to be the best Crafter of this Incomplete World, but compared to the Omanns had had spent too little time at that level. Just months ago, he didn't have the capability of improving the Tier 2 Starships like Cynthia had, he had to rely on his enlightened self to do so. Improving Tier 1 Starships was even further beyond him.

Even so, he didn't change his plans. His clones vanished in a blink and he clasped his hands behind his back, standing before the strength and power of the whole Human Domain.

At that moment, he couldn't help but close his eyes and take a deep breath through his nose. The feelings within him were complex, not because he feared losing, not because he was worried about the outcome, but because of how far he had come, and yet how far he still felt that he had to go.

With his memory, he could remember being 17 years old as though it was just yesterday. So much had happened since he was thrust into that Mayan Zone. He had bled, he had lost, and most importantly, he had climbed.

For most of it, he was aimless, without purpose and without drive. He never really felt the need to find what his drive might be either. And yet, he never really felt the emptiness that should have come from that.

Humans weren't meant to be aimless. It didn't sit well with them, it led to a pit of darkness that even the people with the greatest opinions of themselves couldn't easily climb out with.

Now that he was finally free of those chains that had bound him for so long, he really wanted to think about it. What drove him? What did he want to get up every day and do? Now that he could truly know what freedom was...

He smiled, his eyes still closed.

Was Little Blackstar the only infant here?

If he took a step back, his current mental state had probably stagnated at 17 years old as that was the day Earth left the Third Dimension and the influence of his future self descended.

If he took another step back, even if he never increased his strength, he could easily live for hundreds of years. So how old could he even really be counted as right now?

He guessed that maybe he deserved to be a bit aimless right now.

No, he wasn't aimless, not in the same sense as before. Instead, he was looking, searching with an open mind and all the potential in the world at his fingertips.Material © .

He might as well aim high, right?

'You never wanted to be a quarterback anyway!'

Those words echoed in his mind. They had been said by James all those years ago.

Indeed, he had never wanted to be a quarterback. All his life, his next step had been chosen by others. Whether it was the Genetic Assessment of Earth, his future self, his terrible grandmother, even his father to some extent.

Every step had been chosen for him or forced.

Leonel angled his face upward. Even with his eyes closed, he felt that he could sense it, the looming presence of the Northern Star. It was everywhere, and yet located in just one place...

The end of all things.

'I think... I'd like to lay eyes on that, one day. Not because I think you'd be beautiful, though maybe you would be, in a sense. I just want to understand...'

What was a common thread linking every choice he had made? At the very least, what was the underlying philosophy?

When he had chosen to be a King, it was because he couldn't understand how to value a life. When he gave up on being a King during the Heir Wars, it was because his concept of the equivalency of every life had collapsed.

Ultimately, he never really cared about life itself, he wasn't cut out to be some holy saint or savior, he was too selfish.

What guided him forward was his will to know, his will to understand, his will to grasp the truths of the world.

Leonel's heart beat once and the echo roared across the Human Domain.

He too... was a Wise Star Order.

A stream of golden light radiated out from Leonel.