The portal flared behind as I stepped through it, the familiar distortion of space folding away as the battlefield ca into view.
Another Hollow Star base floated ahead.
Like the others, it had been carved into a drifting asteroid. The long black tower rose from the center of the rock, surrounded by smaller structures arranged in a tight circle.
The mont my feet touched the ground the alarms began.
Red lights flashed along the tower and the surrounding structures as the mbers of Hollow Star realized soone had arrived through the portal.
Phantoms poured from the buildings almost imdiately and along with them were two Eternals.
The phantoms launched forward the mont they saw standing alone on the platform, their bodies surging across the ground with deathmist trailing behind them.
As I watched them rush toward , a strange sensation ca over . It felt as though I had sohow moved away from the mont itself, like soone observing events from a higher vantage point rather than standing within the battlefield.
The feeling ca suddenly.
The world around seed to slow almost to a crawl.
I saw the Eternals' black glass-like eyes scanning carefully. The deathmist drifting around the phantoms moved like slow curling smoke, and the faint horizontal glow across their faces brightened as their energy gathered. I could sense the laws churning around the base, subtle currents pressing against one another in the space around us. Even the constant struggle between the System and the barrier surrounding the base beca clear to , the invisible force of the System pressing against it again and again while the field resisted its entry.
For a mont I simply stood there, observing everything with perfect clarity.
Then I understood, it was because my level had finally reached four hundred and ninety-nine. I was standing at the threshold of Saint rank. The realization passed through my mind just as quickly as the strange awareness had appeared.
And then, in the span of a single blink, everything returned to normal.
I raised my hand slowly.
A faint ripple spread from , subtle but absolute, and the entire asteroid trembled under the pressure of my will. The defenders felt it instantly as their movents slowed under the invisible force pressing against the space around them.
I muttered.
"Stop."
Every phantom, abomination and even the Eternal stopped where they stood. So had been mid-charge, others were already forming attacks. All of them locked in place as if their bodies had been trapped inside solid stone.
I did not even need to summon my domain this ti. The pressure of my will alone spread across the battlefield and held everything in place. The charging abominations halted mid-movent, their twisted bodies locked exactly where they had been rushing a mont earlier. The traitors scattered across the base found themselves frozen as well, their weapons half raised and their expressions still caught between rage and surprise.
Millions of abominations stood motionless across the ground. Hundreds of traitors remained trapped in the sa stillness. Not one of them could move even an inch.
For a brief mont I simply stood there and felt the extent of what I had beco.
Power coursed through in steady waves, calm and overwhelming at the sa ti. The space around obeyed without resistance.
In that mont I felt powerful. For that brief instant, I felt almost invincible.
A strange feeling rose within my chest, quiet at first but growing stronger with each passing second. It was not sothing I had planned, nor sothing I had consciously thought about doing. It was simply a desire that appeared from sowhere deep inside .
And without questioning it, I followed it.
"Return," I muttered.
The effect spread instantly.
The frozen bodies across the battlefield began to change. One after another the abominations and traitors locked in place started to crumble, but this ti they did not turn into dust. Instead their forms broke apart into countless tiny particles of pure Essence that drifted through the air like glowing grains of light.
Even the phantoms were affected.
The deathmist that ford their bodies suddenly collapsed inward, breaking apart and releasing a vast amount of Essence as the mist dispersed. What had once been dark and corrupted now transford into streams of raw energy that joined the rising flow around .
With a small wave of my hand, the drifting Essence responded.
The particles gathered together and surged toward in a swirling current. Green light poured into my body and flowed directly into the Dawn Core where the Abyss Core waited.
The mont the Essence entered, it was absorbed.
The process happened almost instantly. The enormous quantity of Essence vanished into the core, disappearing as though it had always belonged there.
Within seconds the entire base was empty. I stood there quietly, staring at the silent battlefield, still processing what I had just done. The alarms continued to echo across the structures, but the defenders who had triggered them were already gone.
I turned my focus inward and looked into the Abyss Core.
The core burned like a black sun inside the Dawn Core, its surface churning constantly as thick streams of deathmist surged outward and folded back into it again. The motion never truly stopped, like a dark ocean caught in an endless storm.
But now there was sothing new inside it. A very small spot of green essence floated within the vast sea of swirling deathmist. It was tiny compared to the enormous energy surrounding it, almost insignificant, yet it remained clearly distinct instead of dissolving into the black currents around it.
I blinked in surprise.
"What is going on…" I murmured quietly.
To test it, I raised my hand and drew in natural essence from the surrounding space outside the asteroid. The green currents responded easily to my will, gathering in front of my palm before flowing into my body. I guided that energy directly toward the Abyss Core.
But the mont it reached the core, sothing unexpected happened.
The Abyss Core simply ignored it. The natural essence drifted there for a mont and then passed by without being absorbed, as if the core had no interest in it at all.
I frowned slightly.
"Are they different?" I muttered.
Until now I had assud that the green essence I absorbed earlier had simply been natural essence released from the bodies of the enemies. But perhaps it wasn't. If the Abyss Core accepted one and rejected the other, then the energy I had just devoured must have been sothing else entirely.
"I will need to test it further," I said quietly.
The thought lingered in my mind as I pushed the observation aside for the mont. Whatever that green essence truly was, it clearly behaved differently from the natural essence that filled the environnt.
But that was a question for later.
I turned away from the empty battlefield and looked toward the force that had arrived with through the portal.
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