Chapter 297: First Requirement Done

Arthur blinked.

The white world was gone.

For a moment, he simply stood there, confused by the sudden return of weight, sound, and gravity.

Then he looked down. His hands were wrapped around something enormous.

Phanetium. The ancient hammer rested in his grasp.

Arthur stared at it. The weapon was even more massive than he remembered, its body made from a strange golden-white metal, covered in ancient markings that seemed to shift whenever light passed across them, a faint glow surrounding the hammerhead, carrying two distinct energies.

Light. And Creation.

Arthur slowly lifted it. It moved. His eyes widened. "I actually did it."

The moment Phanetium left the ground, the entire chamber trembled, golden light spreading across the floor, and a familiar sensation passed through Arthur’s mind.

[First Requirement] [Find the Continent Splitting Hammer: Phanetium — 1/1] [Requirement Complete.]

Arthur froze. For a second, he simply stared at the notification, then recalled the other requirement he had completed, the fifty of fifty Beast Chiefs also done.

[Synchronization Increased] [73% → 77%] [Additional Evolution Data Unlocked] [Goblin Genesis Emperor] [Requirement 3: Reached Level 50]

And now it seemed there was another requirement. Great!

Then his eyes widened. Vedas. He immediately turned around.

Vedas was lying nearby, one knee on the ground, breathing heavily.

Arthur’s expression changed. "Vedas!" He quickly moved toward him. "Are you okay?"

Vedas looked up, seeming surprised for a moment by Arthur’s concern, then chuckled. "I’m fine."

Arthur crouched beside him. "You don’t look fine."

"I’ve looked worse."

"That’s not reassuring."

Vedas laughed softly before looking toward Phanetium. "I didn’t think it would allow me to help you."

Arthur blinked, then understood. The trial. The boulder. The fact that Vedas had been allowed to enter it with him.

He chuckled. "Yeah." He looked down at the hammer in his hands. "I only did it because of you."

Vedas looked at him.

Arthur smiled. "Thanks, buddy."

Vedas’s expression softened. "Anytime."

Before either of them could say anything else, "ARTHUR!"

Arthur winced and slowly looked toward the entrance. Sun was charging toward him. "What were you thinking?!"

"Uh..."

Sun pointed directly at Phanetium. "You touched another ancient weapon!"

Arthur glanced down at the hammer. "Technically, I picked it up."

"That’s worse!"

Athena followed closely behind him, with Athy and Kong beside her. Mithra came next with Melo, while Luna hurried behind them.

Sun stopped in front of Arthur. "How many times are you going to do this?!"

Arthur gave him an innocent smile. "It worked last time."

"That’s not an excuse!"

"It worked this time too."

Sun stared at him. "That’s somehow even worse!"

Arthur laughed. Mithra covered her mouth, trying not to smile.

Athena shook her head. "At this point, I’m not sure whether we should stop him or simply accept that Arthur is going to touch every dangerous artifact we encounter."

Arthur raised a hand. "I vote for the second one."

"No," Athena replied immediately.

Athy nodded. "Definitely the first one."

Kong squeaked from beside her, pointing accusingly at Arthur.

Arthur looked at him. "Even you?"

Kong crossed his little arms.

Arthur sighed. "Fine." He lowered the hammer slightly. "I won’t touch anything else."

Sun narrowed his eyes. "You said that before."

"I meant it this time."

"That’s what you said last time."

Arthur laughed. "Okay, fair."

Vedas finally stood up, and Sun immediately looked toward him. "And you! You encouraged him!"

Vedas looked genuinely confused. "I did?"

"You were literally fighting beside him!"

Vedas shrugged. "He would’ve done it anyway."

Arthur nodded. "Exactly."

Sun stared at both of them. "You two are impossible."

Mithra laughed. "At least they’re alive."

Athena’s attention had already shifted toward the weapon, her eyes carefully examining Phanetium. "So this is it."

Arthur looked toward her. "The final weapon of Halburn?"

Athena nodded. "The one mentioned in the records."

Arthur looked down at the hammer. "Yeah." He tightened his grip. "I can feel the power in it."

The moment he said that, a strange sensation spread through his arm, and Phanetium pulsed. Arthur instinctively waved the hammer, and a burst of golden-white energy exploded from it. "Whoa!"

Light and Creation energy rushed outward, passing through everyone. Mithra’s eyes widened. Athena immediately raised an arm against the sudden brightness. Sun staggered backward. Even Vedas took a step back. A faint layer of energy coated everyone’s bodies, and for a few seconds they could feel something completely different from ordinary Beast energy. It wasn’t simply strength. It felt like something was trying to restore the world around them.

Then the energy faded, and everyone stood there silently.

Luna looked down at her hands. "I felt it."

Arthur nodded. "Me too."

Athena looked at Phanetium with growing interest. "Light and Creation..."

Before she could say anything else, RUMBLE! The entire chamber shook.

Everyone froze. A crack tore across the floor. Then another. Stone began falling from the ceiling.

Sun looked upward. "Everyone out!"

Another violent tremor struck.

BOOM!

Arthur grabbed Phanetium. "Move!"

They rushed toward the entrance as the ancient ruins collapsed around them. Melo immediately shifted into her true fox form, her five tails spreading behind her, silver moon patterns glowing across her cosmic fur. "Luna!"

Luna barely had time to react before Melo lowered herself. "Get on."

Luna climbed onto her back, and Melo immediately sprinted, her paws striking the walls instead of the floor as she ran straight upward, using the ancient stonework as footholds.

Luna grabbed tightly onto her fur. "Melo!"

Melo’s ears flattened. "Hold on!"

They shot upward. Behind them, Arthur, Vedas, Sun, Mithra, Athena, Athy, and Kong followed as stone corridors collapsed behind them.

Arthur looked over his shoulder. "We’re not going to make it!"

"We will!" Vedas grabbed a falling stone and threw it aside. Athena’s Aegis smashed through another collapsing section. Mithra used her fox-like traits to leap across a broken passage. Sun and Kong moved together, Kong’s crimson-enhanced arm smashing through debris.

Arthur ran with Phanetium in hand. The deeper they had gone into the ruins, the more dangerous the escape became. Rooms collapsed. Ancient walls split. Entire sections of the underground structure folded in on themselves.

Then light appeared ahead. "The exit!" Arthur shouted.

Everyone accelerated. Melo was the first to reach it, leaping through the opening, and the others followed. Arthur jumped out last.

The moment his feet touched the ground, BOOM! The ruins behind them collapsed completely.

Arthur turned around. The entire forest was shaking. Trees bent violently. The earth split apart. Massive cracks spread through the ground.

Sun stared. "What is happening?"

Nobody answered. The forest itself began breaking apart. Trees shattered into fragments of light. The ground dissolved. The distant ruins faded. Even the sky seemed to distort.

Mithra stared in disbelief. "The forest..."

Athena’s eyes widened. "It’s disappearing."

Arthur slowly lowered Phanetium. "Was this place..." He looked around. "...even real?"

The last tree dissolved. The forest vanished. There was nothing left. Only the endless corrupted landscape remained.

Everyone stood silently.

Luna slowly climbed down from Melo. "What was that place?"

Athena shook her head. "I don’t know."

Arthur looked toward the spot where the forest had been. "Maybe it was a remnant."

"Of what?" Sun asked.

Arthur didn’t answer. He didn’t know.

Then the purple mist returned, rolling across the ground toward them. The Miasma. The Light Zone immediately flickered.

Luna’s expression became serious. "We need to move."

Arthur looked down at Phanetium, then at the approaching Miasma. He raised the hammer. "Let’s see what you can do."

Arthur swung Phanetium, and a wave of golden-white light exploded outward. The purple mist recoiled.

Everyone stared.

Arthur’s eyes widened. "It pushed it back."

Luna immediately stepped closer. "The Miasma..."

The mist was retreating. Not disappearing. Not being destroyed. It was simply being forced away.

Arthur swung Phanetium again, another wave of Light and Creation energy spreading across the ground, and the Miasma pulled farther back.

Luna’s eyes widened. "The Light Mirror!" Her Mirror suddenly began shining, golden-white light flowing into it, and the boundary around them expanded. Once. Twice. Then again. The protected area grew until it was roughly five times larger than before.

Sun stared at the enormous safe zone. "That’s..."

Mithra looked around. "We have that much space now?"

Athena slowly smiled. "The hammer is strengthening the Light Mirror."

Arthur looked between Phanetium and Luna. Luna was already staring at the hammer. Arthur met her gaze. Neither spoke. They didn’t need to. They understood.

The Light Mirror could create protection. Phanetium could push the Miasma away. Together, they could create something far larger than either one could achieve alone.

But then Arthur noticed something else. The Miasma wasn’t merely retreating from the hammer. It was being pushed back everywhere around them.

The purple fog pulled away from the ground, and trees that had been covered in Miasma were suddenly exposed, the corrupted mist retreating until a vast section of the forest became visible.

Arthur slowly lowered Phanetium. "This isn’t just the Light Mirror."

Luna nodded. "No." She looked at Phanetium. "The hammer itself is pushing it back."

Arthur looked across the newly exposed land. It wasn’t destroying the Miasma. It wasn’t cleansing the entire region. But it was creating something they desperately needed.

Space. A place where the Miasma couldn’t reach them.

Arthur smiled. "We can use it together."

Luna nodded. "The Light Mirror protects the area." Her eyes shifted toward Phanetium. "And Phanetium expands it."

Arthur gripped the hammer tighter. For the first time since entering the Darkness Region, the impossible landscape didn’t feel quite as hopeless. They finally had a way to fight the Miasma without simply running from it.

Arthur looked at Luna. Luna looked back. They both understood the same thing. They didn’t need to destroy the Darkness. They only needed to carve out enough Light to survive it.