Neo had placed his last hopes on Martha. His own mother would understand. She always had. And the letters he had already sent to Sai kept stacking up in his mind. One more, and she might finally answer. One more, and she might come herself.
He sighed, tore the scroll in half, and watched it vanish into ash. Then he turned to Tara.
He explained everything in a few short sentences. The three-day limit. Beelzebub. The castle. The goddess locked inside.
Tara did not hesitate. "I’ll help."
Neo nodded once. Gratitude sat heavy in his chest, but there was no time for more words. They ran.
The distance stretched ahead of them like a threat. Three days was not enough at normal speed. Neo triggered Torch Man mode. Heat and force flooded his legs. Tara activated her speed skill in the same breath. The ground blurred under their feet. Trees became streaks. Wind howled past their ears. They shot forward like two arrows loosed from the same bow.
Four hours later the dark mountain rose in front of them.
Beelzebub’s castle sat on its peak, black stone wrapped in thorns. Every tower looked like it had been grown rather than built. Evil clung to the place the way rot clings to wet wood.
A dark barrier covered the entire structure. Neo saw flying monsters drift too close and simply come apart. Wings, limbs, bodies—split into nothing the moment they touched the edge.
Tara cursed under her breath. "Hell Barrier. High-end piece from the Devil Kingdom. Made by some scientist who never gave his name."
Neo went still. For a second the name Veya flashed through his mind. She was the only person crazy enough to cut a deal with devils and then refuse to claim the credit. He kept the thought to himself.
Tara kept talking. "The barrier tears anything that gets near it apart at the molecular level. That’s what the scientist claimed, anyway."
Neo swallowed. They were royally fucked.
Still, he grabbed Tara’s wrist. "Closer look. Now."
She nodded and followed.
They stopped just short of the barrier. Neo studied the surface. It pulsed like living shadow. Tara’s eyes suddenly widened.
"Right. I forgot the biggest flaw."
"What?"
She grinned. "Hell Barrier always needs an energy source outside the field. That’s why it never sold well. Price dropped the moment people found out."
Neo’s mind raced. Find the source. Kill the source. Barrier falls.
He slapped his own forehead, then dropped straight into Dark Monarch mode.
Darkness exploded out of him. His senses sharpened until the world felt raw. The barrier itself trembled under the sudden pressure. Neo dialed the output down just enough to keep scanning. Dark energy signatures lit up in his mind like stars. One stood out—strong, steady, outside the wall.
He dropped the mode, turned to Tara, and said, "Found it. Move."
They ran again.
Inside the castle, Beelzebub’s eyes snapped open.
He sat up in bed, heart hammering. That darkness. That exact flavor of darkness. Something had just bloomed near his home.
"What kind of demon did I cross?" he muttered.
Then the old habits kicked in. He had survived longer than stronger devils for one reason only: he was careful. Traps. Minions. Information.
He walked to the tall mirror in his bedroom, laid his palm flat against the glass, and spoke.
"Release the Fly King. Order him to kill the intruders."
The mirror shivered and obeyed.
Beelzebub swiped again. The glass shifted to show the basement prison. Goddess Pyra sat inside the cell, still sealed, still untouched. He had never laid a hand on her. A virgin goddess sold better on the black market. Money had been tight for a hundred years. This was his solution.
His pulse jumped. Were the intruders after her?
Outside, Neo felt the Fly King launch.
The creature tore through the air toward them at brutal speed. Neo kept running. The energy source came into view—a massive open box packed with dark crystals that pulsed like living hearts.
Neo skidded to a stop, pulled his spear, and raised it high. One clean strike would shatter the crystals and drop the barrier.
A dark beam lanced out of the sky and cut his arm off clean at the elbow. The spear fell with the severed limb. Blood sprayed.
Tara’s head snapped up. A monstrous fly the size of a carriage hovered above them, glowing crown fixed to its head.
She snatched a rock and hurled it with everything her speed skill could give. The stone hit an invisible barrier around the Fly King and bounced away useless.
Before she could move again the Fly King blurred. It slammed into her side. Ribs cracked. The impact launched her through a line of trees, snapping trunks like dry sticks until she vanished into the wreckage.
Neo used the half-second she bought him. He forced healing through the stump. Flesh and bone knitted. The arm returned. Pain stayed, sharp and clean.
He dropped into Dark Monarch mode again and locked eyes on the Fly King.
Star Level 1.
The rank after Transcendental.
Neo was peak Transcendental. Same dark attribute. The Fly King had flight, centuries of experience, and raw power that sat one full tier above him.
Neo’s heart hammered once, hard. He opened his system, scrolled past every useless skill, and found Moon Eclipse. The description was simple: pour everything into one strike. Heavy damage. High cost.
He bought it. Mana stones dropped to zero. He cursed under his breath.
Plan formed in the same instant. Stay in Dark Monarch. Hit with Moon Eclipse. Then switch to Torch Man for the surprise finish if the first blow only wounded.
Neo lifted the spear. Darkness coiled around the shaft like living smoke. He poured every scrap of power he had left into the skill.
Moon Eclipse fired.
The Fly King’s reaction was fast, but not fast enough. The strike caught part of its body. Black blood sprayed. The creature crashed into the ground hard enough to crack stone.
The Fly King reaction time didn’t allow him to fully evade it and he was hit by a part of the strike and he fell on the ground.
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