Neo nodded once, sharp and sure. He turned to Pinky.

"Where are they?"

Pinky raised a finger and pointed straight at a stretch of the barrier. Neo followed the line. Three robots stood there, pounding the glowing wall with steady, heavy strikes. Each one looked different. The red one moved with thick, crushing force. The blue one carried a long sword that hummed with strange pressure. The green one stayed farther back, quieter, watching.

Neo studied them for a quiet second. Then he looked at Pinky again.

"Go help Tara and Pyra. They’re over there." He pointed toward two distant figures—one marked by a bright yellow glow, the other by a deep red.

Pinky gave a short nod and took off without another word.

Neo shifted into torch-man mode. Heat rolled across his skin. Fire wrapped his legs and arms. He shot forward, cutting through the air in a straight line toward the three robots. The moment he reached them he dropped into dark-monarch mode. The three crystals answered him at once. Power flooded his body—eight times his normal strength. He did not hold back.

He locked onto the red robot, the one that felt strongest. He gathered everything into a single strike and named it the only name that fit.

"Black hole."

Darkness roared out of his fist. The red robot vanished into the pull, crushed and gone in less than a breath.

The blue robot’s eyes flared. It raised its sword and came at Neo in a hard slice. Neo answered by shaping darkness mana into a black blade of his own. The two swords met in the air with a sharp metallic crack. To Neo’s surprise the force threw him backward. He slammed into the barrier hard enough to feel the impact in his bones.

He floated free again, frowning. Then the system voice cut in, calm and clear.

"That robot is not using simple hydro. It is using anti-water gravity. Every time you clash, its force adds to your own gravity. It is always stronger than you in a direct hit."

Neo grinned. "So you built it after the gravity room. Not bad, Veya. You really outdid yourself."

The thought of her skill only made him want her more. A mind that could drop anti-gravity into a machine like it was nothing belonged at his side.

He remembered the negate skill and triggered it. The blue robot’s advantage flickered. Neo poured more darkness into his sword until the blade itself began to collapse inward. The system chimed again.

Ding. Sword of the Nothingness acquired. This sword pulls with the user’s gravity multiplied by one million.

Neo’s eyes widened. Even light bent around the edge. The blue robot charged once more. Neo met it head-on. This time the blue sword shattered. Neo’s next swing cut straight through the robot’s body and the machine came apart in pieces.

He turned toward the green one, ready to finish the fight. Before he could move, thick veins shot out and locked around both wrists, both ankles. His strength drained in a sudden rush. The green robot laughed, wrapping three extra veins around the hand that still held the Sword of Nothingness.

"I saw what that blade did to my friend. I’m not letting it free."

It pulled. Neo dug his feet into the ground, but the closer he got the faster his power bled away. He felt the drain reach deeper—toward will, toward soul.

"Torch-man," he muttered, and switched modes.

Heat exploded through him. The veins blackened and burned away. Free again, Neo raised one open palm. He called morningstar, but this time the energy formed inside his hand instead of a spear. A high-intensity pyro beam blasted out. It struck the green robot square in the chest and blew the machine into smoking chunks.

Neo hovered in the sudden quiet. Only twenty minutes remained. Veya’s army still stretched across the field. He needed something bigger—and he needed Pyra for it.

He flew in torch-man mode until he found her. He laid out the plan in short, clear words. Pyra’s eyes lit up. She leaned in and kissed him hard.

"My chosen one is crazy," she said against his mouth. "I like it."

Neo scooped her into a princess carry. Over his shoulder he called to Tara and Pinky.

"Run. Get as far from the army as you can."

They nodded and sprinted toward the forest line.

Neo carried Pyra straight to the center of the robot ranks and set her down. He formed a thin thread of power from his core to hers. Hydro mana blocks flooded into him; he flipped each one into pure pyro. He drained them dry, pulled in a deep breath, and slammed both hands to the ground.

A wave of fire exploded outward in every direction. The circle grew wider and hotter until the entire army stood inside a ring of pure sun-heat. Metal glowed, joints melted, and the robots collapsed one after another.

The system spoke once more.

New skill created: Circle of the Sun.

Neo grinned. Pyra reached up, cupped his face, and kissed him long and deep. He answered by giving her ass a firm slap. Then he shook his head.

"Not now."

His eyes found Veya across the field.

Veya stared at the wreckage. Her robots had fallen like insects under the combined attack. She watched Neo leave torch-man mode and walk toward her. Recognition hit hard. Her face tightened with shame and something sharper.

"It’s you," she said.

Neo stopped in front of her and rested one hand on her shoulder.

"I know Alvina owns part of this. She said things that hurt you. But be honest—that wasn’t the only reason you attacked."

Veya’s shoulders dropped. He was right. Alvina’s words had stung, yet the deeper wound was different. A woman like Alvina stood beside the chosen one while Veya—stronger, smarter, fuller in every curve—did not. Days of that quiet envy had driven her to build the army. She had wanted to knock Alvina down and force Neo to see her strength.

Neo’s mouth curved.

"How about this. We go on a date. Just you and me. After that I’ll make Alvina apologize."

Veya looked at his face for a long moment. Then she nodded.

"When?"

"Now."

He lifted her into a princess carry the same way he had carried Pyra and took off toward the human kingdom Tara had once mentioned.

As they flew, a small knot of guilt twisted in Neo’s chest. He had promised nothing would keep him from returning to the Nyx tribe. Veya had just broken that promise. Yet he knew the choice was necessary. An enemy who could invent machines like these was too dangerous to leave free. An ally with the same mind was too valuable to refuse.

The air rushed past them. Neo’s thoughts stayed on the path ahead—until a sudden realization hit.

He cursed under his breath. He was still in torch-man mode. Veya’s body should have been burning.

He looked down at the woman in his arms.

She was completely unharmed.

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