Chapter 12: Chapter12-Rebuilding Dalton Town

“…”

After sending off the overjoyed Lilith, who could not wait to run to Elarielle to share her happiness, the smile on Leo’s face slowly faded, replaced by a profound calm.

The garden was silent. A few withered flowers bloomed again with faint, glowing light.

Outside the window, the sky had returned to normal—blue skies and drifting clouds—while beyond the walls, the townsfolk remained caught between shock and ecstasy.

But Leo knew. Beneath this brief peace, the continent’s storms had already been stirred beyond repair. Countless gazes—greedy, fearful, curious—were already cast upon this once barren frontier.

Dalton Town, the small settlement he had nurtured for forty years, could no longer remain hidden in obscurity.

It needed change.

It needed absolute power.

“System,” Leo spoke with quiet resolve.

“I want Dalton Town to be reborn as a city that will never fall—one that transcends the mortal world!”

[Command confirmed.]

[Activating large-scale Reality-Warping Module. Coverage: Dalton Town and surrounding airspace. Mode: localized time-space stasis with creation-grade reconstruction.]

Booooom—!!!

A deep, resonant hum filled the world.

In that instant, everything froze.

Dust hung suspended in the air.

The joyous expressions on the faces of the townsfolk, their open mouths, their falling tears—all locked in place.

The wind, the currents of mana, the path of light itself—everything pressed into pause.

The world became a flawless painting, vivid yet lifeless.

Only Leo remained as the sole variable in this frozen time.

The old earth, timber, and crude stone were instantly compressed, transformed, and replaced by materials of the rarest kind.

The first to rise were the towering city walls.

Forged from abyssal source-stone, black-gold and glimmering with chilling light, the walls loomed indestructible.

The colossal gates bore exorcism runes and defense matrices, while gargoyles carved from netherstone turned their heads slowly, crimson light flickering in their eyes.

Within the walls, the town was utterly remade.

Streets were paved with shadowstones, their surfaces threaded with veins of violet crystal that shimmered with blue light in certain angles.

Gone were the lowly wooden huts; in their place stood ornate Gothic buildings, every rooftop adorned with runes and miniature gargoyles.

At the heart of it all rose Dalton Town’s most awe-inspiring creation—the Transcendent Spire!

Its foundation was vast and immovable, talon-like buttresses gripping the earth. Countless spires and towers branched from its core, jutting upward like a crown of thorns.

The surface of the tower was alive with arcane runes, glowing and fading like breaths.

These runes were etched from flowing starlight-crystals, weaving chains of silver across the tower’s body.

Above, suspended in the heavens, appeared a floating city!

Mythical materials, seen only in legend, manifested in abundance.

Bricks of Sunfine Gold flowed like molten sunlight.

Luminous starstones mapped energy circuits across the city.

Walls of Titansteel loomed skyward.

Dragon-breath crystals crowned the towers.

Life-emeralds paved the plazas.

From the city’s center sprouted a colossal young World Tree, its roots sinking into the void.

Surrounding it grew wonders: dragon-breath roses, stellar oaks, lilies of fate, ferryman’s lanterns…

Monuments rose beside them—the Hall of the Void-Whale’s Song, the Eternal Pendulum Library, the Mana Crystal Obelisk, the Ancient Arcane Throne…

Tens of thousands of rune-gargoyles came to life, weaving a defense network through the city.

Encasing it all was the Composite Arcane Barrier—layer upon layer of different attributes, warping even the air around them.

Mana density surged to an unimaginable level.

When the final Sunfine Gold brick settled and the last energy circuit lit up, the system prompt echoed:

[Ding!]

[Dalton Town reconstruction complete!]

Leo hovered between the twin cities, surveying his masterpiece with satisfaction.

Below—an impregnable Gothic city, solid and flourishing.

Above—a floating citadel of mystery and divine might.

Both bound together by the Transcendent Spire, forming the glorious new Dalton Town.

Snap!

Leo clicked his fingers.

“Time, flow again!”

Colors returned. Motion resumed.

“…”

“So many stars falling down… it must be the gods’ blessing—huh? W-wait, where is this?”

“What just flashed before my eyes—what’s happen— by the stars?!”

What greeted the townsfolk was a city utterly alien yet dazzling beyond imagination.

“Th-this… where are we?!”

“Wait, look at the ground—it’s glowing, is that… is that gold?!”

“Heavens above! Am I dreaming? This place—it’s too dreamlike!”

“Ow, ow! Trin, why are you pinching me—are you mad?!”

“Wait! Look below! A-are we… are we in the sky?!”

They peered through the gaps between bridges and towers.

Far below stretched the endless earth.

Their questions and cries lasted barely a heartbeat, before the overwhelming grandeur around them drowned all thought.

Shock overtook them all.

“This… who can tell me what happened? The world changed in the blink of an eye!”

“Did the gods bring us here? But why is no one else around?”

“Or… did the falling stars kill us, and this is heaven?”

“!!!”

At that, expressions shifted.

For truly, what else could compare to this perfection, if not paradise?

Their familiar homeland had vanished.

In its place stood a dream-forged city, one no emperor could even imagine.

They stood upon star-streets that shimmered with gentle light, the very ground infused with mana.

The air was no longer the North’s dry cold, but rich mana-mist, thick as honey-wine, seeping into their lungs, filling their bodies with vigor.

Above them was not open sky but a dome of shifting rainbow light, translucent and magnificent.

Beyond it, blue sky and drifting clouds reminded them—they were indeed in the heavens.

“Goddess above! We’re truly flying!”

“Look at these houses! Perfect—are they built of silver?!”

“So this is heaven? It’s beautiful… shame my old cow won’t be joining me here.”

“That tree! Look at that enormous tree!”

The young World Tree’s branches spanned the city like a canopy, yet sunlight still streamed through, blessing the sky-city with warmth.

“It looks hundreds of years old—bigger than Leo’s house a hundred times over!”

“Haha! Even if I died, to arrive in heaven is enough!”

“Where are the angels? I want to see the angels!”

After the shock came a tide of joy, confusion, and bliss.

Townsfolk touched walls inscribed with glowing runes, felt the warmth of moonstone streets, gazed at fountains where liquefied mana erupted in arcs of starlight.

Many collapsed to their knees, weeping, offering the simplest, truest prayers of gratitude.

They had leapt from the hardships of the North’s borderlands straight into a divine kingdom no mortal emperor dared dream of.

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