The sky over the Himalayas didn't just clear; it healed.
The bruised purple rifts and the golden cracks of the Higher Heavens vanished as Arthur stepped through the final gateway. To the billions of people watching through satellite feeds, it looked like a star was falling from the heavens. But it wasn't a star. It was a man—a man who had left as a hunter and returned as something the universe didn't have a name for yet.
Arthur's boots touched the jagged rocks of the mountain peak with a soft thud, but the impact sent a tremor through the entire tectonic plate.
[Ding!]
[100x Multiplier Passive: 'Presence' multiplied x100!]
[The Earth recognizes its Sovereign.]
Arthur took a deep breath. The air of Earth felt different now. It didn't smell like the divine incense of the heavens; it smelled like cold snow, old blood, and the sweat of billions of people who were still terrified.
He looked down at his hands. The dark violet glow was fading into his skin, but he could feel the power of Zeus's lightning and Hades's shadows pulsing in his veins, tamed and multiplied by his Void core.
"I'm back," he whispered.
The Coward's Trial
In the secret bunker in Switzerland, the silence was deafening. The world leaders and the elite S-Rank hunters who had betrayed Arthur were staring at the screens in horror. They had watched him erase the King of Gods like he was deleting a stray file.
"He's coming for us," Sterling whispered, his voice cracking. The European #1 hunter, who had once looked down on Arthur for being a 'low-level porter', was now shaking so hard his armor was rattling. "He knows what we did. He knows about the Soul-Poison."
Suddenly, the heavy blast doors of the bunker—designed to survive a nuclear strike—began to groan. The twelve-inch thick titanium didn't explode; it simply turned into fine grey dust, blowing away in a cold, violet wind.
Arthur walked in. He didn't look like a warrior. He looked like a tired man who had just finished a long day of work. But the pressure he radiated made it impossible for anyone to stand. One by one, the most powerful men on Earth were forced to their knees, their faces pressed against the cold concrete floor.
"You guys really have a lot of free time, don't you?" Arthur said, his voice casual but sharp as a razor.
He walked toward the conference table and picked up the empty casing of the 'Soul-Poison Spike'.
"You traded humanity's future for a shiny rock that the gods gave you," Arthur looked at the American President, then at Sterling. "Do you have any idea how many porters died in the dungeons this morning while you were planning my assassination? Do you even know their names?"
"We... we did it for stability!" one politician stammered, his face turning purple under the pressure. "Without the gods, the mana economy would collapse! We were just trying to save the system!"
Arthur's eyes flared with a sudden, violent violet light. "The system was a cage. And you weren't trying to save humanity. You were trying to save your seats at the head of the table."
[100x Multiplier Activated!]
[Skill 'Monarch's Truth' multiplied x100!]
A wave of energy passed through the room. Suddenly, the traitors couldn't lie anymore. Their deepest, ugliest thoughts began to spill out of their mouths uncontrollably.
"I just wanted to live forever!" Sterling screamed, tears streaming down his face. "I hated Arthur because he was a nobody! He was a porter! He was supposed to stay in the dirt! How dare he be stronger than me?!"
The world leaders began to confess their crimes—the bribes from the Council of Shadows, the intentional dungeon collapses to drive up crystal prices, the secret deals to sacrifice low-rank hunters for profit.
And the whole world was listening. Arthur had linked his 'Voice of the Void' to every television, smartphone, and radio on the planet.
The New Law
Arthur turned his back on them. Their confessions were enough. He didn't need to kill them; the world they had built was already crumbling.
"From this moment," Arthur's voice echoed across the globe, "The Rank system is abolished. There are no S-Ranks. There are no 'Useless' humans. The mana that flows from the broken rifts belongs to everyone. Not as a currency, but as a right."
He walked out of the bunker, stepping back onto the snowy peaks. He could see the cities in the distance. They looked so small from up here.
"Level 1100..." Arthur checked his status.
[Status: Arthur (The Sovereign of Void)]
[Level: 1100]
[Mana: Infinite]
[Current Objective: Rebuild.]
But he knew it wasn't over. The Great Twelve were gone, but the 'Origin'—the source that created the gods and the system in the first place—was still out there, watching. And it wasn't happy that its favorite 'farm' had been liberated.
"Let them come," Arthur said, looking up at the stars. "I've got a lot of 100x rewards saved up for whoever is next."
The People's Monarch
Back in the slums of India, the old man whose arm Arthur had healed was looking at a flickering screen. Around him, thousands of people—the forgotten ones, the cleaners, the porters—were cheering. For the first time in their lives, they didn't feel like 'cattle.' They felt like they had a protector.
Arthur appeared in the center of the slum, his armor disappearing, replaced by the simple, worn-out clothes he used to wear as a porter.
He sat down on a plastic chair next to the old man.
"You're him," the old man whispered, his eyes wide. "The King."
Arthur smiled, a tired but genuine smile. "I'm just a guy who got tired of carrying other people's gear, old man. You got any tea?"
The world was changing. The gods were dead, the traitors were exposed, and the 'Porter' was finally home. But in the deep reaches of space, something ancient was stirring. A new rift was forming—not golden, not blue, not red. It was a rift of pure, white light.
The 'Origin' was coming. And Arthur was the only one who could stand in its way.
[Ding!]
[Hidden Quest Triggered: 'Defy the Source'!]
[Rewards: ???]
Arthur took a sip of the tea the old man gave him. It was bitter and weak, but to him, it tasted better than any divine nectar in the Higher Heavens.
"I guess the 100x multiplier works on tea too," Arthur joked to himself, feeling the warmth spread through his chest.
The real war was just beginning