Chapter 98 – "The Return from the Void"
The Void was breathing.
For the first time in millennia, this breathless place felt… alive.
The darkness no longer whispered — it faded gently, like a beast finally satisfied after a long hunger.
Valen crossed his arms, eyes half-closed.
— Well, since we're stuck here, I'll get us out.
His pupils Red shone , his star-shaped irises began to spin.
— I'm opening a path with my Eye of Chaos!
Zarion grabbed his hand before he could do anything.
— Put that down. Look — Elyon's handling it.
Valen sighed.
— Tch, shame. You just robbed me of a chance to show off.
Elyon slowly raised his hand.
The energy thread linking the group vibrated, and the fabric of the Void opened before them, revealing a silver rift.
— Let's go home, he said calmly.
Valen made an exaggerated sign of the cross.
— Finally! I was two seconds away from becoming a quantum particle.
Zarion: — You were already halfway useless, wouldn't have changed much.
Valen: — Hey! Without me, you'd probably have sliced the universe in half instead of saving your neck!
Naël: — Can't you just… enjoy the silence for five seconds?
A low rumble shook the Void.
The rift widened abruptly.
Orvyn frowned.
— Is that your portal?
Elyon: — No… It's something else.
Behind them, a fragment of the Broken Throne detached, slowly spinning in the air.
Its silver surface shimmered like a living mirror.
Inside, they saw… other versions of themselves — distorted, blurry, like reflections from neighboring universes.
Valen leaned in, intrigued:
— Wow. I'm way more muscular in that one.
Elyonna: — Yeah, and you seem to have a brain too.
Valen: — …Ah, so it's fiction.
Elyon brushed the fragment's surface.
— These reflections… they're the worlds the Void couldn't consume. Echoes of what we could've been.
Zarion: — Don't lump me in. I'm one of a kind.
Orvyn raised his hand, and the fragment slowly dissolved.
— Let them go. What must exist will exist. What must vanish… will vanish.
The portal opened wide.
A golden light enveloped them.
---
**The Return**
They reappeared above HQ — literally, hundreds of meters in the air.
Valen screamed:
— I SAID A GROUND PORTAL, NOT FREEFALL!
Naël, eyes wide:
— Elyon! Tell me you've got a plan!
Elyon (calm): — I've got something better. Trust.
Valen: — Trust in what?!
Elyon: — Gravity.
The group crashed into HQ's courtyard in a burst of silver energy.
A shockwave shook the entire building.
Lya burst from the command room, furious:
— WHO BLEW UP THE MAIN COURTYARD?!
Valen, covered in dust:
— Technically, it was gravity.
Lya: — Technically, I'm going to bury you alive.
Valor (exhausted): — You couldn't just… fly?
Valen: — Elyon said to trust gravity.
Lya: — And gravity trusted you back. Bravo, Einstein.
Nova, arms crossed:
— Did you bring anything back from the Void again?
Elyonna: — No, just a throne and two traumas this time.
Valor sighed.
— I'm ordering cement.
---
At the center of the crater, the silver Throne rested, intact.
But now it radiated a calm energy — neither destructive nor corruptive.
Elyon approached, placing his hand on it.
Orvyn spoke in a quiet tone:
— It's bound to you now. Not as a weapon, but as an extension of your being.
Elyon: — I know. The Void accepted balance.
Orvyn gave a rare smile.
— You did better than I did, son.
Valen, under his breath:
— Yeah, but you're still scarier.
Zarion stretched, his sword dissolving into black particles.
— Well, we saved reality again. Anyone want coffee?
Naël: — I want a new brain. Mine melted.
Lya: — You're cleaning HQ before any coffee talk.
Orvyn shifted back into Liora, clapping her hands:
— Alright, Lya, you and the others — clean and rebuild HQ. With cement. Lots of it.
Lya (stunned): — Wait… what? YOU broke everything!
Liora (coldly): — Are you defying the commander's orders?
Valen, mocking: — Don't act smug. We fought in the Void. You held meetings.
Zarion looked at Naël:
— This is what we call…
Naël, without hesitation:
— …Abuse of authority.
---
Elyon gazed at the sky, where clouds slowly reformed.
The world seemed… finally able to breathe.
— Come on, he said simply. Time to rest a little.
The group followed him — between laughter, sighs, and threats of cleanup.
Behind them, the Throne glowed softly —
peaceful,
but not asleep.
Chapter 99 – "Silence and Restoration"
The sun rose slowly over HQ.
Its rays slid across the still-smoking ruins, brushing cracked stones and the silver gleam of the Throne.
For the first time in ages, there were no screams, no alarms, no unleashed magic.
Just… silence.
Naël, slumped on a pile of rubble, sighed:
— I think I've run out of mana, energy, and even the will to live.
Valen, trying to straighten a wall with a shovel:
— Don't worry, it'll come back. Or not.
Zarion, arms crossed:
— If you hadn't jumped into the rift with the grace of a wounded pigeon, we'd probably have less work.
Naël:
— Oh, your ego survived too. Miracle.
A little farther off, Lya surveyed the site, notebook in hand.
— We'll never finish before the end of the century.
Valor:
— Then we'd better get moving.
Lya:
— Easy to say when you didn't spend three hours scraping divine soot off the ceiling when you could've just used magic.
Valen dropped his shovel and raised his hands to the sky:
— Seriously, we faced the Void itself, and it's cleaning that's killing us.
Liora (calm but sharp):
— Keep complaining and I'll handle it myself.
Silence fell.
Then Elyonna, smirking:
— Safe to say she's kept the same energy.
Valen:
— That's the real Void. Liora's authority.
---
Elyon, a little apart from the others, stood before the Throne.
Since their return, it no longer shone with violent light, but with a soft, steady glow.
He felt peace there… and a new kind of responsibility.
Liora approached, hands clasped behind her back.
— You feel the bond, don't you?
— Yes. It no longer rejects me.
— Because you stopped trying to dominate it.
She paused, then added:
— You now carry balance, Elyon. Not as a king, but as a guardian.
He nodded silently.
A quiet smile formed at the corner of his lips.
---
Not far away, the rest of the group had improvised a makeshift table — crates, a few cups of coffee, and plenty of sarcasm.
Zarion:
— Alright, to our health.
Valen:
— To our traumas.
Naël:
— To our cement debts.
Elyonna:
— And to our favorite commander, without whom we might've had a day off.
Liora (dryly):
— Keep going and you're mopping the main hall.
Valen raised his cup:
— To benevolent tyranny, then.
---
The wind blew gently, carrying laughter and the scent of warm coffee.
HQ was still a field of ruins, but it pulsed with a new energy: the energy of return, of exhaustion… and a rare feeling.
The feeling of having survived.
Elyon looked up at the sky. The world was breathing again.
But deep down, one certainty remained:
This calm… wouldn't last forever.
Chapter 100 – "Light on the Ruins"
HQ was nearly unrecognizable.
Rebuilt walls, laughter between orders, traces of ash left untouched — perhaps out of respect, or maybe just laziness.
But amid it all, life was returning.
Morning light slipped through the cracks, as if blessing every stone.
Valen surveyed the site with a proud look:
— I'm not saying we did a great job… but it's standing, so it counts.
Zarion: — Until you sneeze.
Naël: — Or until Lya runs another magic test without warning.
Lya, rolling her eyes: — It was one explosion!
Valor: — Yes, but it erased the kitchen.
Nova: — And my lunch.
A burst of laughter rippled through the group.
Even Elyonna, leaning against a pillar, allowed herself a quiet smile.
Moments like this were rare: peaceful silence, no threats, no Void, no divine screaming.
---
Elyon stood alone on the HQ rooftop.
The wind stirred his silver hair as his gaze drifted toward the horizon.
The sky looked clearer… but something still lingered, like a whisper between worlds.
Liora climbed up behind him slowly.
— You didn't sleep, she noted.
— No need. The Void is silent… but I still feel its breath.
She stopped beside him, watching the Throne glowing in the distance.
— The power you carry is a fragile balance. You know that.
— I do. But this time, I won't run from it.
— Good, she said gently. Because one day, you'll have to choose again. And when that day comes… I hope you remain who you've become.
A faint smile touched Elyon's lips.
— I've changed, Mother. But not completely.
— Good, she whispered. Because it's that imperfection… that makes you human.
---
Below, Valen, Zarion, and Naël had staged what they called a "strategic break."
In other words: pretending to fix an antenna while drinking coffee.
Zarion: — You think we'll ever get a real day off?
Valen: — Don't worry, if Elyon messes up another portal, we'll end up on forced vacation in another dimension.
Naël: — As long as there's a bar, I'm in.
Elyonna, passing by: — Want a brain with that too?
Valen: — I… no thanks, I like my natural stupidity. It protects me from responsibility.
Lya, from a distance: — And gives me migraines!
---
At dusk, the group gathered before the silver Throne.
It glowed like a sleeping heart — peaceful, still.
Elyon placed his hand on one of its energy lines, closing his eyes.
— The Void is no longer an enemy, he murmured.
Liora: — No. It's a mirror.
Valen, half-serious: — And if that mirror breaks?
Elyon opened his eyes, a golden glint in his gaze:
— Then we'll reforge it. Like always.
The wind rose, lifting dust, light, and memories.
They were all there — tired, bruised, but standing.
And somehow, that was already a victory.
---
When night fell, Elyon looked up at the stars.
Each point of light seemed to breathe in sync with him.
He inhaled deeply.
— The world is alive.
A familiar voice whispered on the wind — perhaps Liora's, perhaps the Void itself:
— Yes. And so are you, at last.
Chapter 101 – "The Portal to the Lost Dungeon"
The next morning.
At HQ, sunlight pierced through the dirty windows of the main hall.
A few hunters were still dozing in chairs, others trying to hide their dark circles behind sunglasses.
That's when Valor walked in, grinning from ear to ear, hands in his pockets.
— Morning, folks! So, how was the night?
Ryn, still half-asleep, yawned:
— Fine… and you?
Valor stretched, looking satisfied:
— Honestly? Haven't slept that well in ages!
Nova, without lifting her head from her coffee mug:
— You lie like you breathe. Bet you spent the night complaining about the mattress again.
Valor feigned outrage:
— Hey, not my fault HQ spends all its budget on Lya's explosions!
Lya, sitting on a crate, rolled her eyes:
— You exaggerate. And you could've slept outside — rocks are comfy.
Ryn laughed:
— Let him be, Lya. He probably meant it's been a while since we've been useful.
Valor crossed his arms:
— Meh… don't push it. I can't save the world every day — gotta rest sometime, right?
A voice rang out behind them — calm, but sharp:
— Interesting. So you consider doing nothing a form of training?
Everyone turned.
Liora had appeared in the hallway, arms crossed, radiating the aura of someone who absolutely wasn't joking.
Lya, whispering to Ryn:
— Oh no… the commander's awake before ten. That's never a good sign.
Liora, unfazed:
— Today, I have a special mission for you.
Lya: — Please don't say it's more reconstruction…
Liora: — No. This time, it's a portal. One that leads to a dungeon.
The word made every head lift.
Nova, smiling:
— A dungeon? Interesting… it's been a while.
Lya: — Rare that we're called in for those these days.
Liora, dryly:
— Exactly. You've had it too easy lately. Time to stretch your legs.
Valor: — Hey, what do you expect us to do? If there's no threat, it's not our fault!
Liora's icy stare silenced the room.
— Even without threats, you could've trained, she said slowly.
Lya, quietly to Ryn:
— She's bold. She never trains, and she wants us to.
Liora: — I hear you, Lya. And it's not the same between us.
Lya (hissing): — Oof. Busted.
Liora summoned a hologram above her hand. A map materialized, marked with a red dot.
— Here's your destination. A portal appeared here. You'll inspect and secure it.
Valor groaned:
— Seriously… couldn't you assign this to someone else?
A voice called from the back of the room:
— Valor, stop whining.
Elyon had appeared, leaning against the wall, arms crossed, looking amused.
Liora: — Don't worry, Elyon. He complains, but he'll go. And that's an order.
At that moment, a blue light shimmered, and Zarion appeared, coffee in hand.
— I'll go with them, he said simply.
Liora nodded:
— Alright. You're free to join.
Then another voice joined the mix.
Valen, with miniature Elyonna on his shoulder, raised his hand:
— I can go too!
Liora, without hesitation:
— No. You're staying here.
Valen raised an eyebrow:
— Why the favoritism?
— Because if another threat arises, we'll need you here.
Valen: — Seriously? You've got yourself, your son, Naël, and half of HQ!
Liora, unmoved:
— You're still staying.
Valen threw his arms up:
— Discrimination!
Elyonna, chuckling:
— Looks like you lost your "main adventurer" privileges.
Valen: — I'm writing a formal complaint.
Zarion approached the designated group: Lya, Nova, Valor, and Ryn.
— Let's go. And try not to fight before we arrive.
Valor, teasing:
— Look at the pro — acting like the boss now!
Zarion snapped his fingers.
A bright blue magic circle formed beneath their feet.
— Off to the dungeon.
Valor: — Wait, did you check the destination?
Zarion: — Nope. But if we end up in a volcano, at least we'll be warmed up.
Lya, rolling her eyes:
— Great… another "Zarion-style" mission.
A burst of light enveloped them, and the group vanished in a surge of energy, leaving Valen, Elyon, and Liora staring at the empty space.
Valen, arms crossed:
— I bet they'll come back covered in mud and excuses.
Elyon, smiling:
— Or with a pet dragon.
Liora: — As long as they don't bring a cursed portal into the living room, I'm fine with it.