Neo looked at Veya and held out his hand. "Give it to me."
Veya did not waste a second. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him through the castle corridors toward the laboratory she had built inside the walls. The air inside smelled of crushed herbs and charged mana. She stopped at a workbench, opened a small locked box, and took out a plain metal ring. Without ceremony she slid it onto Neo’s finger.
The moment the ring settled, Neo felt a quiet pulse of power travel up his arm. He closed his fist once, testing it, then turned to the others who had followed them in.
"I’m going alone," he said. "There’s a demon army coming. You stay here and put everything you have into the barrier. Keep the tribe standing. Don’t let it fall."
The girls nodded. No arguments. No pleas for him to take them along. They understood the weight of what he was about to do.
Neo bolted. The ring still warm on his finger, he raced out of the Nyx tribe grounds and into the forest beyond. Trees blurred past. Roots and undergrowth barely slowed him. He ran until the distant rumble of marching feet reached his ears, then dropped into a low crouch behind a thick bush.
Ahead, the demon army stretched across a clearing. Neo’s eyes swept the ranks. He counted quickly. At least five hundred. Maybe more.
He activated his transportation skill. The ring answered at once. He could feel the expanded capacity—it would let him move far more people than before. Still, five hundred was a lot. His mind raced. He opened the system interface.
"Can I upgrade the transportation skill with mana stones?"
The system confirmed. Neo dumped one million mana stones into the skill without hesitation. Power flooded through him as the upgrade completed. The skill stretched until it could handle the entire force in front of him. He set the destination coordinates deep inside a living volcano and triggered the transport.
In a single blink the army vanished. The clearing stood empty except for one figure who remained behind.
Neo’s heart sank as he inspected the last demon.
**Demon of Calamity – Strength: 8 Stars – Attribute: Space – Name: Valo**
Tara’s warning echoed in his head. A demon that gained an attribute was far stronger than others of the same level. Space was no ordinary power.
Valo turned and looked straight at him. A slow grin spread across the demon’s face.
"Managing to transport a whole army... I guess you aren’t half bad. But..."
Valo stepped forward. Space folded. In the next instant the demon stood right beside Neo and drove a fist into his side. Flesh and bone tore open. A gaping hole appeared where Neo’s ribs had been. Pain exploded through him. He dropped a hand to the ground, eyes wide, trying to understand how the attack had landed so cleanly.
Then Neo forced himself upright and entered Lord of the End mode.
The fight began in earnest. Neo moved with everything he had, dodging, striking, never staying still long enough for another clean hit. Valo pressed hard. Every time a blow got through, Neo’s healing skills knitted flesh and bone back together. Minutes stretched. Sweat ran down Neo’s face. He thanked the healing skill silently—without it he would already be dead. He refused to charge a full mana attack. Giving Valo even a second of free time could let the demon use that space trick again.
Three minutes passed.
Valo grinned wider. Space around Neo warped. The demon’s fist glowed with a faint, unnatural color. Neo felt his left shoulder simply cease to exist. One moment the arm was there; the next it was gone, erased cleanly from the joint. Shock and white-hot pain dropped him to his knees. He clutched at the empty space with his remaining hand, staring up at the advancing demon.
Valo walked toward him at an unhurried pace.
"I’m the reserve army leader," the demon said. "That hit of mine is my signature skill—Devil Step. Thanks to my racial skill I can choose to transport a part of your body away from you."
Neo understood at once. He tried the negation skill, pouring everything into it. Nothing. The transportation still worked. The skill could not stop it.
Valo’s grin sharpened. Both fists began to glow as he closed the distance.
Neo activated the simulation room.
Time froze around him. He stood in the familiar white space and faced the recorded image of Valo.
In the first run he went all out—every skill, every reserve of power. He died in under a minute, cut apart by space and raw strength.
In the second run he poured every remaining mana stone into the transportation skill, pushing it higher. Valo’s space ability still outranked it. Another death.
In the third run Neo swallowed ten of the upgrade pills Veya had made. Power roared through his body. He raised his base strength to eight stars. Combined with the pills the effective power climbed close to ten. He lunged. The new strength let him overwhelm Valo for a stretch of the fight, driving the demon back. Then Valo’s fists both glowed. Space folded. Neo’s body was torn apart again.
Neo wiped imaginary sweat from his brow inside the simulation and studied the pattern. Every time he pushed Valo hard enough, the demon used Devil Step with both hands. That was the opening.
He ran one more simulation to confirm. At the exact moment Valo committed to the double attack, Neo’s simulated self seized the spear, cut both of the demon’s arms off in a single blinding motion, and activated transportation while the hands were gone. The skill worked. Without intact hands, Devil Step failed. Valo vanished.
Neo exited the simulation room.
Reality snapped back. Valo was still advancing, both fists glowing. Neo moved exactly as the final run had shown. The spear flashed. Both of the demon’s arms dropped to the ground in sprays of dark blood. Neo triggered transportation the instant the limbs fell.
Valo disappeared.
Neo allowed himself a tight grin. He had sent the demon to Skull Island—a place so hostile that escape was almost impossible. Death was nearly certain there.
He opened the magic scroll. Sai’s letter waited.
The tribe army was already attacking the cow army. The advantage belonged to the tribe. It would not take long before the enemy force was wiped out.
Neo nodded once, then walked to the place where Valo’s severed arms and the residual energy of the transport still lingered. He inspected the remains carefully. His eyes widened. A small diary and a folded map rested among the debris. He stored both in his inventory without delay.
Then he entered Torch Man mode. Flames erupted across his body. He launched himself into the sky, burning as brightly as he could, and flew hard toward the Nyx tribe.
When he reached the tribe grounds the system chimed. Quest complete. Rewards waited in his inventory.
Ahead, Rose walked through the open space, blood covering her from head to toe. She laughed, the sound bright and wild.
"First time I could kill the cow bitches I hate without getting yelled or punished."
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