SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100 Chapter 492: Departure

After breakfast was finished, Leon, Seraphine, and Ira set out toward their destination, Leon leading the way.

Ira looked completely different in her new armor — the set he’d given her had transformed her presence entirely, the fit precise and the styling carrying the same confidence that Archon Vyra’s had. Seraphine’s armor was the one she’d had before, though Leon kept noticing it was a noticeably higher-quality piece than what most people walked around in. She’d selected it herself from the substantial collection of treasures the seventh supreme leader of the Middle Domain — little Isabella — had gifted Leon some time ago.

It was rare-ranked, increasing strength and speed both, the colors running in a mix of red and black that suited her features well. No fire enchantment like Vyra’s — he hadn’t had a fire-element option in that particular rarity tier — but the quality matched regardless, built for raw capability rather than aesthetics that happened to also look good.

Their actual destination was the outside world.

He’d asked Seraphine and Ira if they wanted to come along, and both had agreed immediately, Ira with visible excitement that she made no attempt to contain. This would be her first time stepping outside anywhere other than the realm she’d been born in — which no longer existed — and Leon’s own dimensional world, which was the only other place she’d ever stood. He’d instructed her clearly beforehand not to mention anything about this place to anyone outside it.

She understood exactly why. The absurdity of what existed here — a complete dimensional world, growing and expanding, populated and developing — was the kind of thing that would draw every dangerous form of attention imaginable if word ever got out. People would do anything to get their hands on something like it.

More importantly, Leon had told her something that had genuinely surprised her: his world was nothing compared to the real one. Compared to the true scope of what existed outside, his dimensional world was closer to a barren farmland than anything impressive. The outside world held far more.

That was part of why Ira was so excited. The other part — the larger part, if she was honest with herself — was her sister.

She didn’t know if her twin had ended up somewhere in Leon’s world or not. The portal had swallowed her years ago, pulling her away to some unknown destination with no way to track where she’d gone. Ira had searched within the limits of what she could search before, which had been nothing, because she’d never been able to leave her own sealed realm in the first place.

This was the actual first step, not just into a new place, but into a search that had been waiting years to begin.

She felt fortunate beyond what words could easily capture. If she hadn’t met Leon — if fate hadn’t arranged things exactly the way it had — she would have perished in that scorching dying world along with the rest of the Pyrans, her search for her sister ending before it had ever truly started. Instead, here she was, standing at the actual beginning of it.

Leon’s first stop, however, was not the outside world itself. There were things that needed handling before that — otherwise, he would have simply opened the portal where they stood and stepped through immediately. Some matters came first.

He teleported the three of them.

They arrived not where the Pyrans had gathered, but at the edge of the human settlement — the same area where he’d previously noticed humans clustering at a distance, curiosity drawing them toward the unfamiliar red-skinned arrivals.

The moment people noticed his arrival, several of them dropped immediately to one knee.

"Welcome back, our God."

Their eyes carried open reverence as they looked up at him, the kind of expression that left no room for performance or politeness — it was genuine, deeply felt, and slightly unsettling in its intensity.

Leon thought, the curse landing internally while his face remained completely composed.

He kept his expression steady, gave the order for them to rise, and maintained the bearing that the situation seemed to require. He understood the mechanics of it by now — the more reverence and worship directed toward him, the more holy energy accumulated as a result. It was a system that worked, however uncomfortable he found the experience of being on the receiving end of it. So he played his part, even when it felt like considerably more than he was personally comfortable with.

This wasn’t the first time he’d been greeted this way. His clone had experienced versions of this exact scene before and had relayed the context to him through their shared awareness. He knew the architecture behind it, and more specifically, he knew who’d built it.

A man stood slightly apart from the kneeling crowd, watching with the satisfied expression of someone observing a project they’d personally constructed. Middle-aged in appearance now, full of vitality despite the years, carrying himself with the bearing of someone whose lifespan had been extended well past what his face suggested.

James.

Or, more accurately, given the current circumstances, Pope James.

He’d become Ascendant rank since Leon had last seen him in any real capacity — which tracked, given how much time had passed in the dimensional world relative to here. More than that, he’d become the actual founder of an organized church. His idea, his execution, every step personally driven by him until the structure existed and the people within it had recognized him as their leader without hesitation. The transformation from what he’d once been — a tortured, broken instrument under the kingdom’s control, the very man who had once been forced to harm these same people as the kingdom’s enforcer — into the figure these people now called their spiritual leader was, by any objective measure, genuinely remarkable.

Leon had to admit that much. James had built something real out of nothing, against odds that should have made it impossible.

He just wasn’t entirely sure he liked the direction it had taken.