Chapter 96: Steadfast Rank

"Aegis," Leon commanded, his voice ringing with absolute finality. "Manifest. Finish them."

The air beside Auris violently snapped open. The iridescent silver light coalesced, and the Level 245 Silent Aegis stepped back into the throne room, its massive stone greatsword already in motion.

The crimson timer appeared above its head.

This time, the Guardian did not engage in a war of attrition. With the Void-Knights already distracted and battered by the Glacial Sovereign, the Silent Aegis moved with execution-level efficiency.

The pale stone knight triggered Storm-Step, instantly materializing behind the three knights engaging Auris. It didn’t aim for their armored chests. It aimed for the absolute structural weak points located by its flawless algorithm.

Clack-clack-clack!

In three sweeping perfect strikes, the Guardian severed the heads of the three active Void-Knights. Before the hyper-regeneration could even attempt to reattach the limbs, the Silent Aegis channeled a localized pulse of dimensional gravity through its boots, violently crushing the severed heads into fine, irretrievable ash.

It then turned to the three knights frozen in Auris’s Absolute Zero Breath. The Guardian utilized the extreme brittleness of the frozen void-plate, swinging its greatsword in a massive, horizontal arc that shattered all three blocks of ice and the knights contained within them into a million glittering, harmless pieces.

The six Level 90 Elites were completely, and permanently eradicated in less than four seconds.

Auris let out a low, satisfied rumble, shaking the frost from his scales and turning his massive cyan eyes back toward the primary target.

"Perfect," Leon said, his absolute focus returning entirely to the dais. "Now it is just you and me, Erebus."

The Void God, realizing its guards had been entirely permanently deleted, finally stood up from its obsidian throne. The entity did not possess a face, but the raw, radiating fury was palpable.

The jagged, hovering black shards orbiting its head suddenly expanded, forming a massive, rotating halo of pure destruction.

"Entropy Incarnate," Erebus grated, the localized reality of the throne room screaming in protest.

A wave of pure, concentrated mental degradation washed over the room. It was not a physical attack; it was a psychic onslaught designed to instantly lobotomize any entity that possessed a mind, forcibly rewriting the victim’s sanity into static void-code.

Ding!

[Critical Warning: Severe Mental/Soul disruption detected! Absolute cognitive collapse imminent.]

Leon’s SSS-Rank Monarch’s Will immediately flared to life. An impenetrable fortress of pure, golden conceptual energy erected itself entirely around his consciousness. The terrifying psychological assault of the Level 99 Realm Lord crashed against Leon’s willpower and shattered like fragile glass against a diamond vault.

"Chronos Devourer," Erebus commanded, raising both hands.

The ambient time within the throne room began to rapidly accelerate and decelerate randomly. The Void God was attempting to steal Leon’s localized temporal momentum, aging his physical cells by decades in a fraction of a second while simultaneously slowing his kinematic output to a crawl.

Leon felt his SSS-Rank Perfect Body instantly go to war, the flawless biological structure aggressively resisting the temporal aging, continuously regenerating the dying cells at a microscopic level, fueled by the endless vitality of his SSS+ Aura of the Undying.

"You want to manipulate time?" Leon sneered, raising his right hand, the Band of the Chronos Lord pulsing on his index finger. "Let me show you how it is actually done. Chronos Shift!"

The Mythic artifact flared with blinding, iridescent starlight.

The chaotic, and rapidly shifting temporal flow of the throne room violently halted. The world was washed in absolute, monochrome gray. The rotating halo of black shards around Erebus’s head froze mid-spin. The Void God itself, its hands raised in a casting animation, was completely paralyzed in the frozen time.

Zero point five seconds.

Leon didn’t waste a single microsecond. His 235 Agility moved his body at terrifying speeds within the frozen window.

He closed the distance to the dais in a single, frictionless glide utilizing Storm-Strider.

"Sovereign’s Edict!" Leon roared, pouring the entirety of his soul, and his 195 Intelligence, directly into the paralyzed mind of the Void God.

"KNEEL!"

The A-Rank authority talent slammed into the Level 99 Realm Lord. Even frozen in time, the conceptual weight of the command bypassed physical defenses, applying a massive, and crushing psychological suppression debuff that violently reduced Erebus’s overall defense and evasion stats.

Leon didn’t stop there. He raised the Blade of the Dragon God, the ethereal golden flames frozen like solid glass along the edge.

He triggered Grave-Crusher, dumping an immense surge of mana to exponentially multiply the kinetic mass of the greatsword until the frozen air itself began to warp around the metal.

He channeled Reaper’s Resonance, ensuring the upcoming strike would emit a psychic shockwave capable of fracturing the Void God’s core.

He layered Dimensional Severance, wrapping the heavy blade in a localized spatial rift that completely ignored all physical and magical barriers.

And finally, he executed the ultimate sword art in his arsenal.

"Verlimon’s Judgment!"

Leon swung the Blade of the Dragon God in a devastating, two-handed vertical arc, aiming directly down the center of the Void God’s featureless onyx helm.

The iridescent starlight of the Chronos Shift shattered. Time violently resumed.

The Void God’s logic engine instantly registered the catastrophic sequence of debuffs and the apocalyptic strike descending upon its skull. It attempted to trigger Absolute Erasure defensively, but the psychological suppression of Sovereign’s Edict caused a microscopic delay in its casting animation.

That delay was all Leon needed.

The Blade of the Dragon God sheared cleanly through the dense, multi-layered void-shields protecting the Realm Lord. The Divine-Rank spatial rift of Dimensional Severance bypassed the onyx armor entirely. The exponentially multiplied kinetic mass of Grave-Crusher shattered the entity’s collarbone and ribcage.

The heavy, flaming greatsword cleaved straight down through the center of Erebus’s body, perfectly bisecting the pulsing, localized black hole that served as the Realm Lord’s core.

The Tremor Impact property of the Mythic weapon detonated at the exact moment of critical penetration.

The resulting explosion was absolute. The concussive shockwave of golden fire, shattered space, and corrupted void energy completely blew the massive dais of compressed stars apart. The blast radius violently expanded, shattering the remaining purple crystal pillars and completely leveling the throne room of the Void God Palace.

Erebus, the Realm Lord, did not scream. Its physical form instantly destabilized, the two halves of its body violently tearing apart before dissolving entirely into a massive, harmless cloud of pure, glittering white ash.

The oppressive, bruising black atmosphere of the throne room instantly shattered. The swirling vortex of deep space generated by the Void Sovereign’s Domain collapsed, replaced by the natural, pale purple sky of the Abyssal Fracture.

Leon rode the shockwave backward, landing smoothly on the cracked obsidian floor, sliding twenty yards before coming to a complete stop.

He lowered his greatsword, his chest heaving as the massive cognitive and physical exertion finally caught up to him. His SSS+ Aura of the Undying immediately flooded his system with golden vitality, violently repairing the micro-tears in his muscles and stabilizing his breathing.

Auris landed heavily beside him, letting out a long, thunderous roar of absolute victory that echoed across the ruined palace. The Silent Aegis, its timer still displaying over five minutes, stood perfectly still near the entrance, awaiting further orders.

The Void God was dead.

Ding!

[You have killed "Erebus, the Void God (Level 99, Realm Lord)"]

[Experience Multiplier: 35X Applied. Zone Boss Modifier Applied.]

[Evaluating Combat Performance... Flawless Execution.]

[Calculating Experience...]

[You have gained 55,000,000 experience points.]

The sheer volume of experience points slammed into Leon’s system like a physical tidal wave. The golden light of progression didn’t just wash over him; it conceptually elevated his entire existence.

Ding!

[Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level 99!]

The progress bar filled instantly, the residual millions of experience points violently pushing him past the final bottleneck of the Adept rank.

Leon felt his mana core shatter and instantly rebuild itself, expanding from a localized reservoir into a vast, infinite ocean that felt directly connected to the leylines of the world itself. His physical attributes skyrocketed, breaking the mortal threshold.

Ding!

[Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level 100!]

The light suddenly shifted, turning into a profound, deep cosmic blue that radiated an aura of absolute, unfathomable authority.

Ding!

[Player has crossed the Adept rank and successfully shattered the boundary.]

[You have officially entered the STEADFAST rank.]

[System Notice: The laws of progression have fundamentally altered. Experience Points (EXP) can no longer quantify your existence.]

[Player now levels up using Essence Points (EP), harvested directly after defeating Steadfast-rank and above entities.]

[Welcome to a new domain of power, Player.]

[Hold the Heaven by your palm and cross the earth with a single step.]