CHAPTER 309: EX 309. INFINITY

Alexander leaned back on his throne, his eyes dimmed by memory. "The Hallow, was once a place of great reverence. It is where the Beast God fell after it was slain by the first professional in Pandora."

Leon’s eyes flickered, his voice calm but certain as he finished the sentence for him. "Julius Arman."

Alexander gave a faint nod. "I see you know your history."

Leon did. He’d read every account of the first human emperor, the man who unified the fractured races, who rose from mortality to legend. Back in the Shantel Library, the stories had painted Julius as a god among men, his name whispered with reverence even after millennia.

Alexander continued, his tone steady but shadowed by something heavier. "The Hallow became sacred ground for all of Pandora. It was the place where the races stood together for the first time, where they fought the beasts under Julius’s banner. He forged arts that resonated with each race, harmonizing their powers. And with that harmony, they turned the tide."

His gaze drifted toward the table’s surface as though seeing the blood-soaked battlefield through time. "When Julius defeated the strongest of the beasts, the one we called the Beast God, that site was forever marked by its death. And it came to be known as the Hallow."

Leon listened silently, piecing together the fragments in his head. A sacred battleground turned into a cursed one. A legend’s triumph that later birthed their greatest nightmare.

Alexander’s voice grew somber. "It was there that the first cluster emerged. No one knew what corruption was back then. We mistook it for the land mourning the death of the Beast God. But it wasn’t mourning, it was feeding."

Leon’s expression hardened, realization dawning in his mind.

"And because it was the first to be tainted," Alexander said, "it grew unchecked. It devoured the remnants of divine and beastly essence left behind until the entire land became what we now call a dead zone."

Silence followed, heavy and cold.

Then Alexander added one final truth, his tone grim. "And the worst part... is that the Hallow isn’t just corrupted land."

Leon looked up, sensing the shift in his tone.

Alexander’s eyes met his. "It’s alive, Leon. The Hallow is a living tether, and acts as bridge between our world and whatever lies beyond corruption itself."

A chill ran down Leon’s spine. For the first time since stepping into the chamber, he understood why the rulers looked so grave.

****

Leon’s brow furrowed. Something wasn’t adding up. He glanced at the rulers one by one before finally speaking.

"So... how are you all still alive?"

The chamber fell quiet again, the question sharp enough to cut through the thick air.

Leon wasn’t asking out of ignorance. He knew what a living tether was, from Alexander himself. Unlike an environmental tether, which only required a guardian and its minions to defend it, a living tether infected everything within reach. It didn’t just corrupt land; it consumed reality. Such tethers were supposed to be sealed instantly the moment they formed. But the cluster in the Hallow had festered far longer, long enough to become something that shouldn’t even exist anymore.

Alexander’s expression confirmed it before he even spoke. His jaw tightened, his eyes dimmed, and his voice carried the weight of something deeply personal.

"You were going to find out sooner or later," he said quietly. "So it’s better I tell you now."

He paused, deeply breathing once, before the truth left his lips.

"The reason Pandora still stands is because of a sacrifice made by my mother, Cleopatra. The previous ruler of the Arman Empire and the former Empress of Humanity."

The words hung in the chamber like a mourning bell.

Leon didn’t speak right away. He just looked at the emperor, then down at his own hands. He understood loss. He could imagine the helplessness that came with it. ’If it were my mother,’ he thought grimly, ’I wouldn’t be sitting here talking. I’d be in that cluster, sword blazing.’

Elaine’s voice broke the silence, soft yet certain. "It’s still possible to save her."

Leon lifted his head. "Save her?"

Alexander didn’t respond, his composure had started to waver so Elaine continued for him.

"Cleopatra Arman was no ordinary ruler," she said. "She was a mage of unparalleled brilliance, living proof that the arts truly were crafted by human hands. When the Hallow began to stir, she used the law she had comprehended as a Rank 9 professional to form a temporary seal, one strong enough to hold where all others failed."

Leon frowned slightly.

"A law?"

Elaine nodded. "A law is a concept, an essence that defines a Rank 9’s power. It’s what separates mortals from the true apex. The moment one grasps a law, they no longer use power. They become it."

Leon’s expression was thoughtful but uncertain. He didn’t completely understand and Elaine could tell.

"Don’t worry," she said, her tone reassuring. "You’ll understand when you reach that stage yourself."

Leon gave a faint nod, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to wait that long. Inside his mind, he reached out to Originus.

’Any simpler explanation?’ he asked. ’What exactly is a law?’

The dragon’s voice rumbled through his consciousness, half amused, half nostalgic.

’I have no idea,’ Originus said. ’Seems I’m a little old-fashioned. In my time, we didn’t have ’arts’ or ’laws.’ We only had Origin.’

Leon blinked. That didn’t help. At all.

He decided to ground himself back in the conversation. "Then... what was the Empress’s law?"

Elaine didn’t hesitate. Her voice was clear, filled with reverence.

"Her law," she said, "was Infinity."

****

Elaine’s voice carried a soft, almost mournful cadence as she spoke, her blindfold shimmering faintly under the dim light of the chamber.

"When the cluster within the Hallow first appeared and was left unchecked for such a long time, it was only be a matter of time before it consumed all of Pandora."

Her words drew the attention of every being in the room, even Eragon, who had been lounging casually moments before.

"The Empress," Elaine continued, "understood this better than anyone. And so, she made a choice. She decided to create a spell one born from her Law of Infinity."

Leon’s eyes narrowed, listening closely. He could almost picture it the air thick with magic, the land trembling under the might of a single woman standing before an abyss.

"Using that law," Elaine said, "she shaped an endless barrier around the Hallow, a wall without beginning or end. It became a loop in space itself, a construct that would never collapse on its own. That is the only reason Pandora still exists today. Cleopatra’s spell sealed the corruption, not by force, but by eternity."

The weight of her words sank into the room. The idea alone was staggering, a barrier that had no end, forged by a single will.