Chapter 1201: Back To The Real World

Augustus and I stepped through the distortion together.

The moment we emerged, I found myself standing before the entrance of the Null Realm once again. The vast gate towered before us, its immense structure disappearing into the surrounding darkness.

Countless ancient runes covered its surface, glowing faintly beneath the endless blackness of the Soul Sea. Unlike the first time I had seen it, however, there was no unfamiliarity in my heart now. I had entered through this gate as someone seeking answers. I was leaving it as someone who had changed the balance of the Null Realm itself.

Augustus stood beside me with his hands resting behind his back, his black coat shifting gently in the nonexistent wind. His familiar black hat concealed part of his face, while those strange eyes of his continued to move like liquid darkness. He glanced toward the enormous gate and then back at me.

"This is where we part ways, Mister Ironheart."

I turned toward him.

"Thank you."

Augustus smiled faintly.

"Gratitude is unnecessary. I merely performed my duties."

He paused before lightly tapping the ground with the tip of his silver-tipped cane.

"Although, I must admit, you have made my duties considerably more interesting than they usually are."

I couldn’t help but smile.

"Is that a complaint?"

"Not at all." His smile widened slightly. "A boring existence is far more troublesome than a dangerous one."

His gaze lingered on me for a moment, and the amusement in his expression gradually disappeared.

"You have obtained something that many beings within the Null Realm have spent countless years searching for. You have also attracted the attention of people you would have been much better off never meeting."

I understood exactly who he was referring to.

"The Wardens."

"Among others."

Augustus adjusted his gloves calmly.

"So I will offer you the same advice I gave you before. Be careful about where you place your trust. The Null Realm has many rules, but rules alone do not make its inhabitants trustworthy."

I nodded.

"I’ll remember that."

"Good."

He looked toward the enormous gate once again.

"Once you pass through this entrance, the protection afforded by the Null Realm will no longer extend to you. Whatever happens afterward will belong to your world and your fate."

For some reason, those words felt strangely significant. I turned toward the gate.

Beyond it lay the real world. And everything that had been waiting for me while I was gone.

I took a slow breath.

Augustus suddenly spoke again.

"One more thing. Perhaps the next time we meet, you will no longer be a Saint at all."

With that, he stepped backward. The darkness around him began to distort.

I watched him disappear into the darkness, his voice reaching me one final time.

"Until we meet again, Mister Ironheart."

I gave him a final nod.

"Until then, Gatekeeper."

The distortion closed. I was alone before the enormous gate.

For several seconds, I simply stood there. Then I turned toward the exit and stepped forward.

And left the Null Realm behind.

***************

The moment I stepped out of the Null Realm, I found myself suspended within a random region of the cosmic void. For a brief instant, everything around me remained completely still, but then the surrounding space suddenly rippled outward from my position.

The distortion spread through the void like a stone dropped into a perfectly calm lake, except the ripples did not stop after a few meters. They continued expanding in every direction, carrying with them an almost tangible pressure as the countless forms of energy permeating the cosmos responded to my return.

I immediately understood what was happening. I had spent so long within the Null Realm that my body had become accustomed to an environment saturated almost entirely with Soul Force.

Now that I had returned to the real world, the deficiency of natural essence within my body became apparent. I was still a living existence, and my physical body, despite everything it had undergone, was fundamentally constructed from essence.

My Generator Core had continued producing essence during my absence, but the essence generated within me was fundamentally different from the naturally occurring energy permeating the cosmos. The moment I returned, that immense difference created a hunger within my body, and the surrounding environment responded accordingly.

Essence began surging toward me from every direction, carrying with it countless varieties of energy. A gigantic vortex formed around my body, growing larger with every passing second until its range reached the size of a small planet. The sheer scale of the phenomenon was astonishing.

If I had been standing within an ordinary planet, I suspected that I could have drained its natural essence almost instantly.

I did not allow any of it to enter my body directly.

Instead, I calmly raised my consciousness and redirected the entire torrent toward my Generator Core. The vortex immediately began spiraling inward, countless streams of natural essence converging toward me before being swallowed into the core within my body. I simply stood there with my hands behind my back, allowing the process to continue while my Generator Core greedily absorbed everything I sent toward it.

Minutes passed.

The enormous vortex continued feeding the Generator Core until, nearly ten minutes later, its intensity finally began to decline. The surrounding space slowly returned to normal as the final streams of essence disappeared into my body. Eventually, the vortex vanished completely, leaving behind nothing more than a faint distortion in the void.

I inspected myself carefully.

Everything was stable.

There was no damage to my body, no instability within my rank and no abnormal reaction from the Generator Core. In fact, I could feel that the core had benefited enormously from the sudden influx of natural essence.

Satisfied, I suppressed my aura completely.

There was no reason to announce my return to the universe.

I knew Vivi would realize that I had returned sooner or later through our connection, but when I reached through that bond, I immediately sensed that she wasn’t anywhere nearby. I was currently within the Blue Spiral Galaxy, yet Vivi was far beyond it. From the faint traces I could perceive through our connection, I knew that she had left together with Steve and North.

I couldn’t help but chuckle.

"Looks like they’ve been busy."

I already knew where they had gone. The vision I had obtained through the All-Knowing Eyes had shown me enough to understand that they had moved toward another galaxy to continue their conquest.

I shook my head lightly before turning my attention inward.

There was something else I had been waiting to do ever since returning.

After everything that had happened in the Null Realm, I wanted to know exactly what had changed within me.

My strength had undergone a qualitative transformation. My Soul Force had condensed. My major Laws had advanced. I had obtained the Twelfth Soul Current, absorbed an enormous quantity of Soul Force and even touched the boundary separating the Saint Realm from the Demigod Realm.

Yet I had not properly examined the extent of those changes. I closed my eyes for a moment.

Then I summoned the status window.

A familiar interface appeared before my eyes.