Second World

Jack and Diana went directly to the underground ruin under Malva's private warehouse. When Severus saw Jack again, he was surprised but not as unpleasant as the first time they met.

"Your Majesty, what brings you here?" Severus asked.

"Good Severus, I'm here to finally relieve you from this never-ending task," Jack announced.

"Haha, Your Majesty truly likes to joke."

"No, seriously. I'm here to take back the Boundless Cache for the kingdom."

Severus gave Jack an exasperated expression. "Your Majesty, you do know that we only have one artifact powering the rune diagram now, right? If you take the Boundless Cache, we won't be able to…"

Severus stopped when Jack showed him the Portal-closing Stone. His eyes were wide.

"This… How do you come to the possession of this stone?! Our faction's archive said that this stone can only be produced in the underworld."

"Hehe. I got it from the underworld, of course," Jack answered with a grin.

"You… You get it from the underworld…?" Severus couldn't tell if Jack was joking.

"There is no time to waste. Severus, open the dome! It's time we shut this portal for good!" Jack exclaimed.

Although Severus found it hard to believe, he couldn't deny the stone in Jack's hand was authentic.

"We still need to prepare in case there are strong demons behind the dome," Severus said.

Diana was ready. Behind her was a platoon of elite soldiers with Dimitri leading. Jack also summoned all his royal agents, Arlcard, Therras, and his spirit weapon.

Severus informed the mages around the dome to be ready for combat. This time, they won't only open a small gap in the dome. They would open the entire dome, so there was no need to limit the combatant.

Under Diana's instruction, the platoon encircled the dome with a battle-ready pose.

"Is everyone ready?" Severus asked.

"Tear the dome down," jack ordered.

Severus did as Jack instructed. He and the other mages then retreated to behind the soldiers, ready to cast their spells. The dome, after losing its power supply, started dissolving. It started from the top and slowly diffused downward.

When the dome was completely gone, the soldiers were confused since they saw no enemy. They had the same reaction as Jonathan when he last entered the dome. They didn't have mana sense so they weren't aware of the hundreds of demons staying inert and being invisible.

"Stay alert!" Dimitri warned. He was with Jack when they first entered the dome, so he was aware.

"I'll land the first strike!" Jack exclaimed and used the Judgement of Past Kings.

The second Thenodeep's great flood hit, the demons around the portal turned visible. The soldiers were surprised by the reveal.

Their surprise lasted only an instant. Those with ranged abilities sent their attacks at once. Severus and the mages also cast their spells, adding the damage output.

As everyone attacked, a roar was heard and a winged demon jumped out from the horde. It had a long neck and a serpent head. It was a level 60 mythical-grade demon.

Arlcard had sensed this mythical-grade existence. Once the demon jumped out, Arlcard turned into a shadow. The shadow slammed into the demon mid-flight. An enormous Dark Lord's Sword then materialized from above. It impaled this serpent-head demon and nailed it to the ground.

Duke Alfredo then cast Pyramid Prison and locked the serpent-head demon in place. Arlcard and Therras joined forces and entered the prison. They bullied the trapped mythical demon while the others wiped out the demons outside with incredible efficiency.

Jack rushed forward after the Judgement of Past Kings ended. There were still some demons left but he didn't wait until all the demons were wiped out. There could be another archdemon waiting behind the portal. He didn't want to risk it claiming the corrupted mana freed from the slain demons.

His royal agents followed him and helped him open the way. Diana, upon seeing Jack rushing forward, also ordered the platoon to press forward.

After Jack was around five meters from the portal, the stone in his hand finally reacted. An interface appeared saying it detected a demonic portal. It asked whether Jack wanted to use the stone to close the portal. Jack agreed without hesitation.

The stone shone a bright red before bursting apart into countless red stars. These red stars then rushed into the portal. A soft red glow enveloped the portal. With each star entering the portal, this red glow intensified and slowly shrunk the portal.

When all the red stars were gone, the portal was pressed to the extent that it was only a narrow slit in the air.

Jack felt a powerful throb from the portal before it completely vanished. He then sensed it no more. The demonic portal was finally gone.

Jack heard a system notification then, "Congratulations to have closed the demonic portal in Themisphere. Receive rewards of 6,000,000 exp, 100 gold coins, 3,000 mana cores, and 250,000 merit points."

"Wow! Even though I don't have a quest for closing this portal, I still got rewards from the system," Jack remarked.

Peniel also had no idea about this. Jack surmised that maybe the closing of this portal was supposed to be part of the main quest. Even when he didn't go through the proper channel, the system still granted him the rewards.

The exp point leveled up his Time Sage to level 67. The number of gold coins and mana cores generated was also generous, but what excited him the most was the merit points. It was more than double what he got from perfectly solving an affair.

These merit points pushed his Sovereign level to level 6, acquiring 10 ruling power. He could now send Laurent an invitation to be his royal agent.

They finished the few remaining demons. The mythical serpent-head demon dropped a few things. Jack didn't use his Runestone of Luck when Arlcard finished the demon because he was still absorbed by the notification at the time.

The mythical demon dropped coins, mana cores, two gemstones, and some equipment. The equipment was nothing to speak of, the highest grade dropped was only super rare. What Jack was interested in was the gemstones. A unique emerald and super rare amethyst.

Jack used the super rare amethyst on his runestone of luck and the unique emerald on his runestone of marching. Unfortunately, the elemental energy was not enough to upgrade the two runestones. Both runestones were still far from upgrading.