Martha walked behind him. Her gaze locked on the solid line of her son back, the width of his shoulders, the steady power in his stride. Desire burned steady in her chest. She wanted to crush the weak woman she used to be. She wanted to tear down every enemy and every barrier that stood between her and Neo’s love. She wanted the two of them to own a place by the sea, to walk the beach together, to rebuild the memories the years had stolen, to travel freely. Freedom sat high on her list.

Yet the old flaws clung: she still acted before thinking, hated being wrong, craved his attention like air, and lost patience fast. Underneath ran the harder conflict—she wanted to become more than just a body for him to fuck, yet feared he would see any strength she gained as a grab for control. She wanted him to remain her son, yet feared that if he stayed only that, the deeper bond she already claimed as wife would never fully open.

She nodded once and climbed after him.

They reached the cave mouth and stopped. Martha tugged Neo’s arm.

"Son, let me go check their numbers."

Neo paused. "Wait. You’ve got geo. Can’t you feel their footsteps through the ground?"

Martha hesitated. She could, but the range was only a meter without a real boost.

Neo’s mouth curved. His own mana sense stretched far. He stepped behind her, laid his broad hands on her shoulders, and said, "Put your hands on the ground."

Martha pressed her palms to the stone. Power flooded out from Neo’s touch, widening her sense like a sudden tide. Her eyes snapped wide. The mountain opened to her—caves, tunnels, living shapes moving deep inside. She focused on the cavern they stood near and found a cluster of wyverns in a deep chamber, tearing at each other. In the center something powerful and still pulsed with heavy mana.

She tried to push farther. A sharp feminine voice cut across her mind.

"Stop watching, intruder."

The connection slammed shut. Martha’s eyes closed. She pulled her hands back and told Neo everything she had seen.

Neo rubbed his jaw. "Wyvern queen, most likely."

He tapped her shoulder. "We move."

They advanced into the deeper chamber until the arena came into view. A shimmering barrier ringed the floor. Dozens of wyverns locked in savage combat. Each time one fell, its blood streamed straight into a blue gem at the center. The gem pulsed brighter with every death.

High on a massive rock sat a female wyvern, wings folded, watching. She sighed.

"The plan is holding. Two more hours and the gem will be charged. Then I erase that dragon-queen bitch’s tribe."

Neo read the status hovering above her: Wyvern Queen Esa, level Tribal God. He had been right. She wanted revenge on the dragons. How the gem fed that thirst was still unclear.

One wyvern suddenly broke free of whatever hold kept it fighting and bolted for the edge of the arena. Esa’s eyes narrowed. She sneered, snapped her wings wide, and four dense water spheres formed at the joints.

She paused, then smiled coldly. "Rare chance. Let’s test the gem."

A thin thread of mana shot from her core into the blue gem. Instantly the water spheres swelled to monstrous size.

Neo’s eyes widened. He focused on the gem and read its true name: Water Eye. The entire forest’s water reserve, now under Esa’s grip.

She was draining the forest’s own source. The killing arena existed only to charge the gem and lock her control.

Neo counted the time left—roughly one hour. No more thinking. He had to strike now.

He vaulted from the rock ledge into the arena and shouted back to Martha, "I’m giving you a skill—geo spears from the ground. Hit the wyverns from range. Keep them busy."

Martha nodded hard.

Neo charged Esa. Recognition and pure hate lit her face. The necklace she once gave her husband had shown her Neo’s face the moment he killed the male. She had carved that face into memory and sworn to destroy him.

Neo ignored the rage pouring off her. He drove hard with his legs and rammed his spear straight through one of her wings. The membrane tore. Esa’s reaction came a fraction late.

She recovered fast. Her heavy tail whipped around and smashed into Neo’s side, launching him across the chamber. He slammed into the far wall and dropped, a thick line of blood running down his face and chest.

The copper taste filled his mouth and dragged every buried drive to the surface. He wanted to pull his women free of their deepest wounds. He wanted the whole forest under one rule, though that needed strength he still lacked. He wanted the full truth of why wyverns and dragons were eternal enemies. He wanted to stand as the strongest. He wanted every race in the forest living in peace. The flaws rode him just as hard: constant comparison, zero forgiveness for betrayal, reckless risks, hatred of looking weak. The conflicts cut deeper—he wanted the top seat yet knew the price would be steep; he wanted to lean on Martha and the others yet feared it was only running from his own fights; he wanted to become better yet feared the change itself might twist wrong.

Neo forced himself upright, eyes snapping open, already shaping a new plan. Then he cursed. Esa was racing straight for the blue gem.

Martha saw the shift in Neo’s face. She had kept half an eye on him the whole time while geo spears erupted from the stone and punched into the swarming wyverns. Watching Esa charge the gem, Martha exhaled once and spoke to herself, quiet and steady.

Alright. This is your chance, Martha. Don’t disappoint your son.

As Martha raised both hands toward Esa. Geo energy flared from her palms, and thick stone pillars erupted from the ground on every side, slamming together to form a sealed room around Esa.

Esa smashed through the wall with one clean strike. Neo cursed under his breath and shot a thread of energy from his core straight into Martha. He spent a hundred mana stones on Rapid Transfer—the skill was cheap only because it forced him to pour his own power into a weaker ally and left him unable to move while it ran. The moment it activated, Martha’s pool and control jumped to match his.

The stone room tightened around Esa. The locks held firmer. Martha drew a long breath, clenched her fists, and forced the chamber smaller and smaller until it was no larger than a ball.

Martha’s desires burned clear in that moment. First, she wanted Neo proud of her. Second, she wanted to become someone he could lean on without hesitation. She wanted to be his home—the place he returned to and belonged. She wanted to learn every depth of him as his woman. Those wants lived alongside her flaws: she measured herself against every other woman around him, she never forgave betrayal, she took risks she didn’t need to take, and she hated looking vulnerable. The conflict inside her cut deeper. She needed to grow stronger for his sake, yet she feared that strength would push him away. Every woman near Neo chased power; if she said the same, he might decide it wasn’t truly her wish. She wanted to claim him as hers alone, but the thought of asking him to stay away from the others made her afraid he would call her manipulative and turn cold.

Blood leaked from a crack in the stone ball. A system alert flashed in Neo’s vision:

*Caster Esa has died. Seal the blue gem at once or it will explode and destroy the forest by overflow.*

Neo scooped Martha into a princess carry and ran for the gem. He stopped short when the system offered no further hint. The only path he saw was to drain the mana until the gem went dormant, then buy a sealing skill. His inventory already held empty slots that could store mana as solid blocks, each one holding ten times his own pool. He had tested it before.

He pressed both hands to the blue gem and pulled. The flood hit like an ocean collapsing on him—wave after wave slamming into his body and vanishing into the system. Without Rapid Transfer still active he would have ruptured in seconds. Blood ran from his mouth. His eyes turned red. He felt the edge approaching.

Martha’s hand settled on his shoulder. She leaned in and kissed the shell of his ear.

"Don’t worry, son. I’m right here with you."

Neo nodded. Motivation locked into place. For his wife and mother he would not break.

He drained the gem dry, bought the Sealing skill, and locked the gem away. Only then did he turn fully toward Martha. His eyes widened. Wounds were opening across her body one after another. Her core had cracked under the strain.

The system listed the conditions required to heal it.

*Have sex with her atop the Six Path Mountain while your cores are linked through penetration. Transfer mana through that connection to repair her. Flying monsters and dragons will sense the dense mana and attack. Raise a barrier. If the healing succeeds, her core will purify and rise in quality.*

Martha’s face twisted with pain. Neo lifted her again in a princess carry, then strapped her into a baby carrier against his chest so both hands stayed free for the climb. He grinned and gave her thick ass a firm squeeze, the old joke flickering through his mind—who was the mother and who was the son right now?

A quest-complete notice appeared. He ignored it and started up the mountain.

A flying monster dove straight at them, beak aimed like a spear. Neo twisted aside at the last instant. The creature smashed into the rock face and tore a huge chunk away. He cursed under his breath. One slower reaction and both of them would have died before he could finish what he needed to finish.

His own desires rose with the fear. He wanted to become an unstoppable king. He wanted his women to understand the wounds he carried and find real happiness with him. He wanted a home he could always return to. Those wants sat beside his flaws: he underestimated dangerous enemies, he shut down emotionally when it mattered, he threw everything away without thinking, and he chased revenge without looking sideways. The conflicts twisted tighter. He wanted to own their love completely, yet feared that ownership would become control they resented. He tried to balance every duty and every relationship, yet the constant dread remained that one day the whole structure would collapse on him at once.

Another swarm came screaming in. Neo kept leaping and weaving, thanking whatever luck still held that the creatures had only primitive instincts. After a long, brutal climb he finally reached the peak.

The summit was barely five meters across—little more than the size of a bed. One careless hard thrust and he could send Martha flying off a drop measured in miles. He forced the thought down, opened the system, and bought the highest-grade barrier for twelve thousand mana stones. The shield snapped into place around them.

He set Martha on all fours and moved in behind her, hands settling on her shoulders.

She looked back over her shoulder.

"Don’t get sad about me, son."

Anger flashed hot through Neo. He brought his open palm down hard across her thick ass.

"Who the fuck allowed you to talk like that? I’m going to heal you, okay!"

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