I worked in silence and placed a pocket space, then moved forward and created another, laying them out carefully like hidden anchors along my path. Once I was satisfied, I made one final jump and landed on the second layer itself.
This place felt different the moment I arrived.
Unlike the demon defenses, this layer was not built for recovery or order. It was packed with abominations and phantoms, layer upon layer of them, waiting in restless clusters. There were no barracks, no structure meant for living beings. Everything here existed only to delay, corrupt, and kill.
The defenses were far stronger than before.
Deathmist saturated the entire layer, so dense it felt almost alive, flowing in slow, heavy currents through the void. It pressed against my Essence like a hungry thing, trying to seep in through the smallest cracks. Anyone without a powerful Essence shield would be corrupted within moments simply by staying here.
This was not a place meant to be held.
It was a place meant to rot everything that entered it.
I hid my presence completely, this time following the advice Saleos had given me. I did not just suppress my aura or Essence. I muted my soul signature itself, pressing it inward until it was almost indistinguishable from the background noise of the battlefield.
The next phase depended on this.
We had already shattered the first defense layer, but breaking it was only the beginning. Holding it was what truly mattered. From what Saleos had learned through years of fighting here, the second layer of the Eternal defenses, the one I now stood on, was nothing more than a sacrificial zone.
It existed to bleed attackers dry.
The real danger was not the abominations or the phantoms alone. It was the environment itself. The deathmist here was not passive. It moved, reacted, and pressed against everything that entered, constantly testing Essence shields for weakness. Even Transcendents could not fight here for long without paying a heavy price.
A prolonged battle on this layer would be suicide for the demon forces.
If we allowed the fight to drag on, the deathmist would slowly eat away at them, weaken their coordination, and turn their own strength into a liability. That meant the plan hinged on one thing.
We had to clear this layer fast.
And before the demons could step fully into it, the deathmist itself had to be dealt with.
For me to clear the deathmist properly, I needed the Eternal to come out of its tower and engage Saleos directly. As long as it stayed hidden, anchored behind layers of defense, the moment I would begin it would notice and interfere.
But its patience was remarkable.
Other than releasing its aura, heavy, oppressive, and constant, it had not moved at all. No countercharge. No manifestation. Just silent pressure, as if it was watching, measuring, waiting for the exact moment to strike.
It needed more push.
I was just forming that thought when Saleos moved.
His aura surged suddenly, sharp and blazing, no longer restrained. Fire laws flared around him as he advanced and arrived above the shattered remains of the first defense layer. The void around Saleos warped under the pressure of his presence, heat bleeding outward in slow waves as if space itself was being scorched.
Saleos drew his arm back, fingers curling as countless fire runes ignited along his forearm and shoulder. The laws of fire, destruction, compression around him aligned with brutal clarity, stacked and refined into a single purpose.
He swung.
"Hellrend Crescent."
A colossal crescent of blazing fire tore free from his motion and surged forward, perfectly horizontal, stretching across the void. It raced away from the first layer and toward the second, cutting through the empty space between them like a burning sunblade. The void screamed as it passed, space warping and thinning at its edges.
As the crescent traveled, deathmist in its path was forced apart. Some of it evaporated outright, some was crushed and dispersed, and some was violently pushed aside, forming massive swirling currents. Abominations drifting between the layers were erased instantly, their forms collapsing into nothing before they even understood what had hit them.
The second layer loomed ahead.
Defensive structures began to react too late. Shields flared. Deathmist thickened in hurried response. The layer itself trembled as if sensing the coming impact.
And then, halfway between the layers, the void changed.
The crescent slowed.
Not because it was weakening, but because something had stepped into its path.
Space above the second layer folded inward as an overwhelming presence manifested. The tower’s aura surged violently, no longer content to observe. Deathmist roared outward in a dense tide, coiling and compressing as if drawn by an unseen will.
The Eternal arrived.
It emerged above the second layer, vast and suffocating, its presence pressing down on everything beneath it. The crescent of fire slammed into the edge of its influence, laws grinding against laws, fire screaming as it met an opposing force that refused to yield.
The collision froze the battlefield for a heartbeat.
Then the shockwave erupted.
I felt it even from my position, a deep tremor that did not travel through space so much as through existence itself. The void rippled, layers of law bending as the Eternal’s presence descended above the second layer. Fire and deathmist collided, and for the first time since I arrived here, the battlefield felt truly unstable.
My eyes narrowed as I watched the Eternal fully reveal itself.
And that was when something unexpected happened.
Something deep within me reacted.
I hadn’t summoned anything. I hadn’t willed Essence. I hadn’t even shifted my stance. Yet the space around my body changed. It was subtle, almost polite, as if the Prime universe itself was adjusting its posture in my presence.
A faint pressure spread outward from me, invisible yet unmistakable. The deathmist closest to my body hesitated, its flow stuttering as if unsure whether it was allowed to exist here. The surrounding laws did not retreat, but they aligned, straightening as though acknowledging an authority they did not recognize but could not ignore.
My chest tightened.
The Executor’s Halo had activated without my will.