The subsequent months passed without much change.
Arthur, Felix, Jack, Morrigan, Mars, Sean, Clara, and Nathan passed second year and graduated.
Mars was the first-ranked student by the end, followed by Arthur and Jack tying for second place.
Morrigan was nowhere within the top ten and Sean, Clara, and Nathan managed to enter the top 50.
The most interesting was Felix.
Until the beginning of second year, she was slowly climbing up the ranks, but in the beginning of second year, Venyth – her True Soul Weapon – evolved, and she was soon competing with Mars for the first rank.
However, during the last examination where they travelled on Blood Sea and went to a monster-infested island, she performed poorly, and received enough negative marks that she could barely stay at rank 100.
After graduation, everyone split up.
Mars entered seclusion to train with his father.
Jack would regularly disappear from the face of the world. Arthur and Felix thought he was leaving the continent to train, but Jack never confirmed the news.
Arthur joined Zeus Clan. He faced prejudice within Zeus God Clan and was labelled as a ‘bastard child,’
He was given harsh missions and told to complete them if he wanted to be accepted as a family.
Felix joined the Demigod Academy and became a combat teacher.
Morrigan also joined the Demigod Academy.
She became the principal’s disciple, and she received the True Soul Weapon the principal purchased from the Hargraves Corporation.
Nathan worked for his God Clan.
Clara, much to everyone’s surprise, opened a coffee shop and decided to settle down.
Her twin brother Sean joined Temple of Space.
Another year went by, and Mira and George died in a car accident.
Henry did not react much and completed their death ceremony. He focused on raising Layla in place of their dead parents.
Amelia returned when she heard the news.
She put her past behind her back and tried to console Henry, but Henry ignored her for the majority of time.
She stayed in the Hargraves Mansion for subsequent months to help Henry raise Layla.
It wasn’t only for him, but also because she liked Layla too.
Layla’s parents had treated Amelia like their own daughter and she owed them much.
The others repeatedly came to meet Layla and Henry, worried about the siblings.
Only Arthur didn’t come. He wanted to meet Henry too, but due to Zeus Clan’s repeated missions, he was forced to postpone the meeting.
The incident made him doubt if it was a correct choice to stay in the Zeus Clan.
Henry was busy with his company and he himself didn’t have much time to live due to the curse.
Still, he spent all of his time raising Layla. He acted strict in her mother’s place, and he spoiled in her father’s place.
He became the father and mother for the little child.
And he wanted to keep doing that.
But the curse would soon kill him. His Death told him so.
With no other choice, Henry asked Amelia to take care of Layla when he was gone.
His words shocked Amelia but he refused to elaborate.
While Henry was waiting for his end, he suddenly found out about the attempts on Layla’s life.
Layla would’ve died if not for Amelia protecting her with her life, and receiving life-threatening injuries in her place.
Henry went on a witch-hunt to find the assassin after the incident.
It was easy to find the culprit.
Sebastian.
The butler who raised Henry and Neo like his own sons.
The Senator who gave up his position after his family – the Hephaestus Clan – was destroyed.
“Why did you try to kill Layla?” Henry asked.
“Why? You should know the answer, master. It was to make you go berserk. You are contracted with Velkaria, the angel of truth—”
“What?” Henry cut off Sebastian. “Angel of Truth?”
“Yes, master. Those from beyond are the harbinger of truth. We, the foolish mortals, need to stop resisting them, and accept their gospel.”
Henry was stuned upon learning the truth.
His familial love had turned him blind to the psychopathic nature of Sebastian.
The more he found out the more his heart froze.
Sebastian was one of the leaders of Temple of Void – the organization that supported the Outer Gods coming to their world.
Sebastian was the one who summoned Velkaria.
He knew Velkaria had somehow been injured after her descent, and to preserve her life, she formed a symbiotic relationship with Henry Hargraves.
Henry had been at death’s door during the Window incident, and Velkaria threatened she would kill him and Neo, which was why he accepted Velkaria inside his body.
As for Henry’s parents’ reincarnations, they died while injuring Velkaria fatally – this was the true story that Henry did not tell Neo.
His parents had not been able to protect them. The reason the siblings survived was because Velkaria and Henry formed a contract.
Sebastian wasn’t aware of full details, but he could tell Henry now wielded the powers of Velkaria.
Those powers were why Henry transformed from a sickly child to a healthy, confident young man.
“To bring the truth, to spread it among the commoners, I needed you to wield the powers of the Angel.
“I needed you to go berserk, that’s why I killed the young master repeatedly. But he refused to die.” Sebastian smiled bitterly.
“What?” Henry froze. “You killed….”
“Yes.”
Sebastian, defeated and covered in blood after their battle, smiled as he told how he killed Neo each time.
“But to be honest, I guess I was mistaken. You wouldn’t have gone berserk from young master’s death. After all, you didn’t do anything when I killed Layla’s parents.”
Henry lost his sense of reasoning.
He had been holding himself back from killing Sebastian since he thought of him as his parent, but now, he let go of the stupid sentiment.
When he came to his senses, five countries had been annihilated and Sebastian’s soul and body were corrupted to the core.
Henry then proceeded to mutilate and punch him to death.
Multiple Senators came out to stop Henry’s rampage, but all of them were injured instead and could not stop him.
Everyone was surprised to see that the Chairman of Hargraves Corporation had powers.
But more than that…
“That fighting style resembles that of The One Above All.”
Rumors began to spread soon after. Most of the Senators believed Henry was the reincarnation of The One Above All.
Henry could’ve turned back time to erase the revelation.
But he did not do that.
He knew he would crush Sebastian with savagery again and end up revealing his powers.
The God Clans began to put pressure on Hargraves Corporation, and the stocks of Hargraves Corporation plummeted.
Before long, Zeus Clan verified that Henry was The One Above All. As soon as they foud that, they took military actions.
Henry crushed the initial forces of Zeus Clan.
The God Clan could’ve sent more forces, but they decided to be smart about it.
“We shouldn’t resort to armed forces. For one, we can’t be sure if we can even defeat The One Above All, and secondly, it would cost us too much forces,” said the leader of Zeus Clan.
Today, nine Great God Clans were gathered for a meeting.
The only God Clans missing were Hephathatus God Clan, Hades God Clan, and Poseidon God Clan.
After much discussion, the Council of Senators and God Clans decided to release the vile deeds of The One Above All to the public.
They also revealed that he had the power of Void – as seen during his fight with Sebastian, a benevolent ex-Senator who raised Henry and his brother with care.
The public would rally against the Hargraves Corporation, and it would mentally crush Henry Hargraves.
After the revelation, the public impression of Hargraves Corporation was at an all-time low.
The news of Henry Hargraves wiping out humanity angered people.
Millions requested the God Clans to form a Crusade and finish Henry Hargraves before he did something similar to what he did in his last life.
The God Clans believed they could now attack Henry. They just needed to blackmail him with Layla – his adoptive sister – and say that they would let her live if he surrendered.
Henry might fight them, but he wouldn’t wipe them all out.
If he did, he would end up making his adoptive sister a public enemy since she was a slaughterer’s sister.
His family became his chains.
The God Clans believed they had won… until Poseidon Clan moved.
Poseidon Clan revealed the full news of the history of The One Above All.
He had sacrificed his life to kill the invading Outer God, but even that was not enough.
He was forced to make a choice between killing the majority of humanity to protect them as a species, or letting them live now which would make them go extinct in the future.
The One Above All had not killed them. He was forced to make that choice.
He was a hero who did everything for the world, and now the world wanted a ‘crusade’ against him.
“What is the meaning of this!?” Alan, the leader of Zeus Clan, glared at the leader of Poseidon Clan. “Why are you improving the public image of Henry Hargraves!?”
“Because I’m afraid of Neo Hargraves.”
“…?”
“Do you remember the pressure we felt a few days ago? That came from Neo Hargraves. He later proceeded to stop time of our entire continent and then came to meet me.
“I don’t want to antagonize a guy like that by attacking his friend,” said James, the leader of Poseidon Clan.
Alan’s expression twisted, but he calmed his rage.
“Fine, if you are going to help Henry Hargraves, then do so. Just don’t expect mercy from me.”
The God Clans decided to push their plans forward and eliminate Henry before any more hiccups appeared.
Unfortunately, they did not act fast enough.
Percival revealed that he had the strength on par with Senators, and he forcefully took the leadership of Apollo God Clan.
Then, Percival took the side of Poseidon God Clan in supporting Henry Hargraves.
“Why?” Alan asked after he met with Percival.
“I’m just returning the favour I received,” Percival said. “Also, I would advise you against your ‘crusade’. There is no way Neo did not leave behind a guardian for his family. Whatever it is, I don’t think we would want to see it in action.”
Alan’s expression twisted.