The Eternal commander did not resist when the final remnants of his army vanished. The battlefield had already been reduced to silence, the endless swarm of abominations and phantoms erased until nothing remained except drifting fragments of unstable essence and the fading glow of the sealed rift.
Within my domain his authority had been completely suppressed, leaving him standing motionless in the void as if the weight of reality itself held him in place.
I moved forward slowly.
For the first time since the battle began the Eternal shifted his gaze directly toward me, the alien calm of his expression unchanged even as defeat settled around him.
I raised my fist and drove it forward with a single precise strike. The impact echoed across the void like distant thunder. The Eternal’s body folded under the blow and he collapsed instantly, his consciousness extinguished.
A moment later space distorted behind him.
A circular portal formed silently, its edges marked by the unmistakable aura of the System. Pale light flowed outward from the opening and enveloped the unconscious Eternal commander before pulling his body through the gateway. The portal collapsed as quietly as it had appeared, leaving no trace that the creature had ever been there.
I glanced toward the empty space where he had vanished.
The battlefield was already beginning to stabilize as the remnants of volatile energy settled. With the rift sealed and the invading army gone there was nothing left to hold my attention here.
A translucent window appeared before my eyes as I opened my status.
Merit Points: 45,000,000
The number made me pause for a moment. Closing three Grade Four rifts back to back had pushed the total far higher than I expected. The teleportation network across the bases had allowed me to move from battlefield to battlefield without delay, and the System had rewarded each closure generously.
"Still not enough."
I folded my arms and looked upward.
"Hey System, where is my Quest?"
The void remained silent for a moment.
Then another window opened.
[New Quest Available]
[Saint Advancement Quest]
"Finally."
The display expanded, revealing two objectives beneath the title.
[Objective One : Claim the Essence of a Planet]
[Status: Completed]
I blinked once before a small smile formed on my face.
"That was fast."
The requirement must have already been fulfilled during the past few weeks. With the world cores I had already claimed and the planetary essence of Abor responding to me almost instinctively, controlling the energy of a world had apparently satisfied the System’s condition.
The second objective appeared below it.
[Objective Two: Defeat Defender Aurora]
[Time Limit: 10 Days]
The countdown clock began ticking the moment the window appeared.
I stared at the name.
"Aurora?"
For a brief second the image of my own summon crossed my mind, but the idea made no sense. The System would not assign a quest that required me to defeat one of my own summons.
Besides, the title was different.
Defender.
I shook my head and dismissed the thought.
"Guess I’ll meet them soon enough."
The window closed.
Below me the demon forces were already reorganizing across the battlefield, their formations stabilizing now that the Eternal threat had been eliminated. A moment later the demon commander who had been overseeing the defense approached, his massive armored figure cutting through the void until he stopped a respectful distance away.
His expression carried a mixture of exhaustion and relief.
"Lord Ironhart."
He bowed his head deeply.
"You have our deepest gratitude. Without your arrival this rift would have consumed our entire force."
His voice carried genuine emotion despite the discipline expected of a commander. I could feel the weight of what had nearly happened here. Grade Four rifts were rarely simple battles; the longer they remained open the greater the chance that larger Eternal forces would push through.
"It’s fine," I replied calmly. "You held the line long enough."
The commander straightened, still visibly relieved.
"The Demon Monarch will wish to thank you personally once he hears of this."
I gave a small nod.
"Maybe later."
There was nothing else to discuss. The battlefield was stable and the demons had control of the region again.
I tore open space with a simple motion of my hand.
The void split before me. Without another word I stepped through.
A few portal shifts later, the cold winds of Abor greeted me as the portal closed behind my back.
I appeared outside the command dome overlooking the central operations hub of the base. The structure hummed quietly with activity as dozens of officers monitored the network of relay bases across the galaxy.
Inside the dome a massive projection filled the chamber, displaying several ongoing battle zones.
I walked closer.
One of the projections expanded automatically as I focused on it.
Steve and North moved through a dense swarm of abominations, their coordinated attacks cutting through the creatures with ruthless efficiency. Ragnar fought nearby like a living storm, his massive weapon smashing through corrupted bodies while Knight slipped through the battlefield like a shadow, eliminating phantoms that tried to flank the formation.
Another projection showed Ash and Silver operating in a different sector. Waves of sealing energy flowed through the battlefield as Ash suppressed the advancing creatures while Silver’s crimson mist tore through them like wildfire.
A third display revealed Aurora and Lyrate battling near another rift, elemental power flooding the region as lightning and living vines ripped through the Eternal forces.
"I guess this is good progress."
We were not just closing rifts. We were making sure the entire galaxy saw who was doing it.
The name of the Order of Absolute needed to spread everywhere, not only among the Eternals but also among the civilizations of this galaxy. If anyone ever considered targeting my bases or my organization, they needed to remember what happened to those who stood in our way.
Fear was a useful thing.
After watching the battles for a few more moments I left the dome and stepped outside. The ocean winds of Abor carried the scent of salt across the air as I opened another portal.
The world shifted.
When the space around me stabilized again I stood on a small isolated island in the middle of the vast ocean.
The island was completely barren with no flora or fauna. Across the surface of the island enormous runic formations glowed with violet light. Thousands of intricate symbols spread across the ground in massive concentric circles, each rune connected to the next through carefully balanced spatial calculations.
I looked over the formation slowly.
"Almost twenty percent complete."
The runes pulsed faintly beneath my feet.
This was not a normal teleportation formation. I was building something far larger.
A permanent long-range spatial gate capable of connecting this world directly to my home planet.
Vaythos.
With my current comprehension of space and the runic knowledge I had accumulated, the project was finally within reach. It would take time and precise control, but once complete it would allow instantaneous travel between the two worlds.
I raised my hand.
"Right to Insight."
The ability activated instantly.
The world shifted.
Every rune across the island expanded in my perception, their structures unfolding into layers of mathematical and spatial relationships that only my Psynapse could fully interpret. Streams of essence flowed through the formation as I began adjusting several of the outer arrays, refining the spatial anchors that would stabilize the portal once it activated.
The violet light intensified.
Slowly, carefully, I continued the work.