LightReader

Chapter 8 - All for One

Silas learned that the average lifespan of the ability holder was actually just 3 years. Yet even so, most of the superhumans in White Crescent want to obtain this ability.

This was just how glorious it was to become the strongest being.

Silas found this ability incredibly interesting, the reason was not its power but its functionality.

Nobody knew the actual reason behind its workings. Anything the ability holder sees is automatically copied.

This seemed impossible in theory. Let's say a superhuman with a bionic arm capable of producing a laser blast does so in front of the holder.

The ability will automatically replicate the exact laser blast. But that was not the most miraculous part.

The miraculous part was that it did so without creating the bionic arm. This meant that the ability dissected the core functionality of the laser blast, understood all its principle and then created that functionality based on the tools it had.

Technically, this was not copying, it was instant learning. 

Of course, it was not possible to maintain an empire just with the strength of the empire. The second reason why Crescent Empire lasted this long was because of its unique law system.

The Crescent Empire is the only empire that has banned usury. This meant that they were almost always a few steps behind the other powers in economy and money circulation. 

But this all changed, 50 years ago. After the sixth world war, most nations in the world were bankrupt. After all, war costs more money than it costs blood.

While the victors tallied debts and the defeated bartered away sovereignty for bailouts, the Crescent Empire stood apart. Its rigid ban on usury - once mocked as archaic - had spared it from the debt traps that now strangled other economies. 

There were no sprawling compound interest chains, no foreign banks with hold over critical infrastructure, no private creditors demanding political concessions in exchange for liquidity.

With its economic system still barely intact and its economy grounded in real, debt-free transactions, the Empire became a haven of stability in a collapsing world order. 

Trade routes once disrupted by sanctions or interest-backed monopolies reopened under fairer, interest-free agreements. 

Refugees came first, but soon after came skilled laborers, engineers, and thinkers - disillusioned by the economic slavery outside and drawn to the Empire's alternative model.

Over time, even former rivals began to engage with the Crescent Empire's economic system - not out of ideology, but out of necessity. 

Quietly, its influence grew. Markets once dominated by speculators and hedge funds were now being rebuilt through cooperative finance and asset-backed credit. 

And because the Empire had never allowed its policies to be shaped by lenders, it alone retained the freedom to dictate terms without foreign interference.

What was once seen as economic backwardness was now viewed as prophetic restraint. The very law that had held them back for centuries had become their shield - and now, their sword.

This combined with All for One and the world's strongest military made the Crescent Empire the current strongest in the world.

------

As for the other empires, they were the New Roman empire, officially known as the federated principalities of Europa in control of most of Europe and Rus empire in control of North Asia, Central Asia and parts of Eastern Europe.

The Rus empire was the weakest empire of the four due to its weak economy and social system. But nobody, dared to call it weak. This was because of the immortal legion and the blood emperor that ruled it.

Blood emperor was the strongest superhuman on earth apart from the holder of One for All. He possessed the ability to produce shockwaves but he had mastered this ability to such a degree that it was able to shift the tectonic plates of the planet. 

This combined with his magic, he was practically invincible at the planetary level.

That was a lot of information to process for Silas. But what interested him most were three pieces of information.

The first one was the presence of magic, Silas always believed magic to be a supreme discipline.

He always preferred growth type pathways that will let you grow stronger slowly but infinitely over fixed power, even if that power was enough to level the universe.

This was because, Silas didn't want power. He wanted evolution. As such he believed that a fixed power, no matter how grand will always be limiting in the fact that it will never be complete and will never make him complete.

For example, let's say he gains the power to manipulate all metals. Silas could use that power to reach beyond the planetary level given the uniqueness and potential of the power but will that power no matter how strong help him in an environment free of metals.

Of course, such environment is difficult to create since even blood contains metal but if someone could he would immediately become an ordinary human.

This means that his power is incomplete and his actual strength is still just at the baseline human level. At most he can cause some destruction and perform some tricks.

In this regard, magic that lets its wielder have complete and comprehensive power in all regards is a supreme discipline.

The second piece of information was the similarities between this world and the previous earth. This was both good news and bad news.

The bad news is the fact that the world is based on earth, a place he knows deeply, increases the chances of this being an illusory world of some kind.

The good news is that the similarity could suggest that is a world parallel to his own.

If that is true, he can understand the basic theory behind the existence of this world. Silas already knew about possibility of parallel universes. If this is a parallel universe, in a way it suggests the existence of a larger multiverse.

The third important fact he learned was how many there were on terra, there are literally hundreds of magic schools in every continent.

They are so common, they are actually treated as a higher education option like a regular university.

More Chapters