As soon as Iris finished her speech, which continued for around 10 minutes.

She simply talked about their future plans and how the kingdom would recover from this devastating attack.

As soon as this was done, her giant image in the sky disappeared into particles of light that scattered across the horizon, and she returned to the chamber where Leon was standing among the rubble and debris of what used to be a grand hall.

"That should be good enough for now, we need to improve the morale and start reconstruction as soon as possible," Iris sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping with exhaustion from the night, "Also deal with the monster hordes that are trying to breach the walls and the bodies that need to be properly handled and honored..."

There was a lot to do in the aftermath of the attack, but for some strange reason, Leon saw Iris smile despite the devastation surrounding them and the countless tasks ahead.

"Are you enjoying that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her unexpected reaction to the chaos.

"...It does get boring sometimes in here as queen, and though this is catastrophic and terrible, I’m sure I’ll be entertained for the next few months trying to fix everything," she winked playfully, a hint of her usual mischievous personality returning.

"Huh, why don’t you just visit other places in this domain, or in fact, the other higher domains, there’s 100 of them after all, there’s enough entertainment for several lifetimes."

"...I’m the queen," Iris smiled bittersweetly, her eyes holding a hint of sadness at the responsibilities that bound her, "Well, either way, now for your reward for saving my kingdom and my people..."

Fwoosh!

Something sparkled above Iris’ palm, and an item appeared inside of it, floating and emanating a powerful aura that pulsed with energy and seemed to warp the air around it.

"The most precious item I have, I was going to give you something else at first," Iris explained, her voice serious and her expression sincere, "But after saving the kingdom and everything... I think you can take this instead."

"Oh?" Leon said, his curiosity piqued by her words.

Leon observed the item in Iris’ hand and took it in his own before using [Appraisal] on it, his eyes scanning the description that appeared before him.

[Skill Copy Crystal (Divine): Can copy any skill you observe and understand once, you will obtain the skill at its full power, and any skill is copiable, up to divine-rank.]

Leon’s eyes widened so hard it almost seemed like they’d come out of their sockets, his jaw dropping slightly in disbelief at what he was holding.

"This is... Wow," he breathed, genuinely stunned by the gift and its incredible potential.

Even though it was a one-time use item that would disappear after being activated, the ability to copy a divine-rank skill was out of this world and something most players could only dream of obtaining in their entire time.

"Do note that actually copying the skill is impossibly hard," Iris spoke, her tone cautionary and serious, "This item’s rank and powers are amazing but... getting to use it is the difficult part, you need to properly observe and understand the skill first before you can copy it."

"Do you have any Divine-Rank skills?" Leon asked, a hint of hope in his voice, "Perhaps I could..."

"...I only have one, and I have the feeling you’d want to use it on something else, don’t you?" she said, giving him a knowing look that told him she understood his ambitions.

Leon listened to her, then he nodded in agreement, understanding her point and accepting her wisdom.

Even he didn’t have any divine-rank skills right now, and the amount of players who had them was definitely extremely low, making the crystal even more valuable and rare.

But once he was in the [Eternal Battlefield] or [Eternal Domain], there was a chance he could copy an ability from an incredibly powerful opponent or ally that would change the course of his battles and give him a significant edge.

And at that moment, his combat power would indeed rise tremendously, allowing him to face enemies he previously couldn’t hope to challenge.

So he simply decided to store it for later, like the many items in his storage space, to be used at the perfect moment when he found the right skill to copy.

"That makes me wonder," Leon turned toward Iris, his expression thoughtful and curious, "Is there a rank above Divine?"

As said before, Leon had never seen or heard of such a thing in the 15 years he spent inside of [Eternal Ascension], and the mystery had always intrigued him, gnawing at the back of his mind.

And, after a moment of contemplation, Iris shook her head slowly, her expression thoughtful.

"No," Iris shook her head, her voice certain and confident, "I do believe it exists somewhere, but I have never heard of it myself, thats why this is my most precious item after all."

"Alright, thanks for everything," Leon said, genuinely grateful for her generosity and the trust she had placed in him.

With that done, Iris gazed at Leon one more time, her eyes holding a mixture of respect and curiosity, wishing him luck before teleporting out of the chamber in a flash of light that illuminated the ruined hall.

She would have a lot of work the next few months rebuilding and restoring order, and Leon knew she was up to the task.

’Well, I can’t come back to the higher domains once I head to the [Eternal Battlefield], but perhaps once this is all over... I’ll unlock such an ability through other means,’ Leon thought as he saw the imperial queen disappear.

"Kaaa~" Alphox, who was beside Leon and running around the chamber excitedly, let out a happy sound, his tail wagging with joy.

Leon turned his gaze toward the baby dragon and analyzed his panel carefully, curious to see how much he had grown from the battle.