Chapter 97: Void Mist Cleared

Ding!

[The Abyssal Fracture has been cleared.]

[The localized dimensional corruption anchoring the Void Mist to Sector 12 has been permanently severed.]

Ding!

[Title received: "Sovereign of the Fracture" (Mythic)]

Ding!

[Global Announcement! An anonymous player has cleared the abyssal fracture of sector 12, an adept rank region!]

The sector-wide announcement echoed not just in his interface, but resounded like a distant, booming bell across the sky of the realm itself. Every single surviving player currently operating in Eternal Heaven had just received that exact notification.

Leon swiped a hand through the air, dismissing the holographic text. He let out a slow, controlled breath, the absolute stillness of the ruined palace offering a moment of absolute clarity.

He just calculated that he had spent approximately four and a half hours inside the Abyssal Fracture. He factored in the initial mob grind, the boss rush at the Gravesite Plain, the grueling thirty-five-minute duel with the Silent Aegis, and the final execution of the Void God.

The Battlefield Realm’s primary modifier was absolute: one hour spent inside equated to five days spent in the external world.

Four and a half hours multiplied by five yielded twenty-two and a half days.

"Twenty-two and a half days have passed in Sector 12," Leon murmured, looking up at the sky. He had entered the mist with exactly seventy-five days remaining on the system’s Elimination Cycle timer. "Which means I have fifty-two and a half days left before the purge."

It was a massive chunk of time to lose in a single grinding session. But the return on investment was completely unprecedented. He had entered the battlefield realm as a Level 57 Adept. He was now walking out as a Level 100 Steadfast entity, possessing a Level 245 Dimensional Guardian, a Primordial-grade domain, and a weapon that had tasted the core of a Realm Lord. The time lost was entirely justified by the catastrophic power he had acquired.

As Leon finalized his calculations, the environment of the Abyssal Fracture began to aggressively destabilize.

With Erebus dead and the anchor severed, the bruising black atmosphere choking the sky violently shattered like a broken mirror. The dense, swirling vortexes of highly compressed entropy evaporated into harmless gray smoke. The oppressive, localized gravity that had attempted to crush Auris out of the sky completely lifted.

The true sky of Sector 12 bled back into the realm. The vibrant sunlight pierced through the dissipating fog, casting a warm, ethereal glow over the shattered obsidian ruins of the Void God Palace. The bottomless ocean of liquid void energy surrounding the palace rapidly lost its viscosity, hardening into a flat, inert plain of dark glass.

The Void Mist was gone.

"Our work here is done, Auris," Leon commanded, turning toward the massive Glacial Sovereign.

The now Level 100 High-Dragon let out a resonant, thunderous roar of agreement, shaking the residual frost and ash from his sapphire scales. Auris lowered his massive neck, presenting his back to his master.

Leon vaulted smoothly into the air, as he landed perfectly on the dragon’s back, his heavy boots locking into the familiar grooves of the crystalline scales.

"Take us back," Leon confirmed.

Auris flared his massive Void-Piercer Wings, the Aether-magic igniting in blinding cyan streaks, and launched them into the newly cleared sky.

The flight south was drastically different from the flight in. Without the oppressive, suffocating density of the Void Mist constantly draining their momentum, Auris tore through the atmosphere at a terrifying speed. They crossed the vast, empty expanse of the Battlefield Realm in minutes, breaking through the fading outer boundary of the area and re-entering the standard airspace of the Prismatic Expanse.

Below them, the crystalline forests stretched out like a glittering, multi-colored ocean. The massive, glowing blue mana rivers pulsed with renewed vibrance, no longer choked by the encroaching gray rot.

Within half an hour, the sanctuary of the Azure Scale village appeared on the horizon, nestled securely against the base of the towering permafrost mountains.

As Auris banked sharply and descended toward the main cobblestone courtyard, Leon immediately noticed the change. The villagers were not huddled inside their bamboo-and-stone houses. The entire population of the Azure Scale had gathered in the central square. They were looking up at the sky, bathing in the warm sunlight that had not touched their valley in centuries.

Auris landed heavily in the center of the square, the localized wind from his massive wings rustling the silk garments of the gathered Dragonkin.

The villagers didn’t flee from the massive predator. They immediately dropped to their knees, pressing their scaled hands over their hearts in a gesture of absolute reverence.

Leon smoothly dismounted, his dark boots hitting the cobblestone. He dismissed the Blade of the Dragon God into his inventory, ensuring he did not project an aura of hostility.

Elder Vaelen pushed his way through the kneeling crowd. The ancient Dragonkin leaned heavily on his carved wooden staff, his reptilian eyes wide with a mixture of profound awe and disbelief. He looked at the clear sky, then back to Leon, sensing the fundamentally shift in Leon’s biological density.

"The sky... it is clear," Vaelen breathed, his deep, rumbling voice cracking slightly. "The suffocating rot that has plagued our borders for generations has simply vanished. You did not just push the fog back, Hero. You erased it."

"The Abyssal Fracture has been cleared," Leon stated, his tone grounded and factual, avoiding any unnecessary arrogance. "The Realm Lord anchoring the mist is dead. The corruption will not return to this valley."

Before Vaelen could offer a formal bow of gratitude, a small blur of motion darted out from behind the Elder’s robes.

"Lord Hero!"

Little Kaelia scrambled across the cobblestones, her small tail swishing frantically behind her. She didn’t stop to bow. She ran directly up to Leon and practically collided with his leg, throwing her small, scaled arms around his shin in a tight hug. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

"You did it! You scared the dark fog away!" she chirped, looking up at him with massive, brilliant eyes. "The sky is pink again! Grandfather said you were going to burn super bright, and you did!"

Leon’s icy blue and golden eyes softened completely. The ruthless, calculating executioner who had just dismantled a Level 245 Guardian and a Level 99 Void God vanished, replaced by a quiet, protective warmth. He knelt down, bringing himself to her eye level.

He reached out and gave her a gentle, reassuring pat on her scaled head.

"I told you I’d be back before dinner," Leon said softly. "The Sun-Apple you gave me did exactly what it was supposed to do."

Kaelia beamed, releasing his leg and puffing her small chest out with pride.

Elder Vaelen stepped forward, tears of genuine gratitude pooling in his ancient eyes. He lowered himself to one knee, bowing his head deeply.

"You have saved our culture from slow, inevitable suffocation, Hero," Vaelen proclaimed, his voice echoing across the silent, reverent square. "Words cannot express the depth of the Village’s debt to you. We possess little in the way of high-tier artifacts or weapons of war, but my authority as Elder is absolute. If there is anything within this valley you desire, you need only name it. I will offer you anything you demand."

Leon stood back up, his gaze sweeping over the tranquil, beautiful village. He looked past the gathered crowd, past the main hall where he had slept the previous night.

His eyes locked onto a specific location at the edge of the sanctuary.

It was a beautiful, two-story house constructed of polished dark wood and sturdy bamboo, positioned perfectly beside a cascading, glowing blue mana-waterfall that fed into a crystal-clear natural pool. The house was slightly isolated from the main thoroughfare, offering absolute privacy and a direct view of the entire valley.

"If you insist," Leon said, pointing a finger toward the structure. "I would like to claim that house by the waterfall as my own."

Vaelen looked up, following Leon’s gaze, before breaking into a wide, relieved smile.

"If that’s what the chosen hero demands, so shall it be!" Vaelen declared instantly. "It is the finest estate in our sanctuary, built over a natural convergence of leylines. It is yours, for as long as you wish to remain with us."

Leon offered a brief nod of acknowledgment. He turned and walked through the parting crowd of villagers, making his way directly toward the waterfall estate.

He stepped up onto the smooth wooden porch and pushed the sliding bamboo doors open. The interior was pristine, smelling of fresh pine and ozone from the nearby mana-falls. It was a place of absolute peace, a stark, jarring contrast to the infinite slaughter of the Battlefield Realm.

Leon walked into the center of the main room and took a seat on a woven silk cushion resting on the floor.

He let out a long, slow exhale, the adrenaline of the past four hours finally bleeding completely out of his system. He closed his eyes, centering his mind.

He was now Level 100. He had crossed the threshold of the Steadfast rank.

The rules of Eternal Heaven had fundamentally changed for him. If he wished to continue leveling up and expanding his power, he could no longer farm standard monsters for Experience Points. The system explicitly stated that he now required Essence Points (EP)—a metric harvested directly from high-tier entities.

To gain Essence Points, he needed to enter a Steadfast region. He needed to find, hunt, and execute monsters that were Level 100 and above. The Adept zones of Sector 12 were now nothing more than trivial playgrounds to him.

Before he could plan his next move, before he could map out the Steadfast regions of Eternal Heaven, he needed to understand exactly what his new baseline was.

"System," Leon commanded softly, his dual-colored eyes snapping open in the quiet room. "Panel."