The Shadow monsters noticed Jack’s presence.
They dashed towards him.
With nowhere left to go, Jack was forced to fight them.
He continued to cast Spells without break.
But it was not enough.
Injuries piled up on his body.
His exhaustion grew.
And finally, an attack managed to go past his guard.
The claws of Shadow monster stabbed deep into his shoulder.
The monster grabbed him.
It raised Jack and smashed him into the ground.
The air was knocked out of his lungs and blood poured out of his wound non-stop.
His vision blurred.
The monsters rushed at him from all sides.
Jack could not move, let alone resist.
He closed his eyes, not wanting to see his own death, when suddenly the presence of Death erupted inside the hall.
He opened his eyes in shock.
The monsters were cleaved into two halves with their upper torso separated from their legs.
Dead, their bodies fell to the side and he heard the familiar voice.
“Stop crying like a bitch already.”
Those blood red eyes stared at him.
“Neo….?”
“It’s team leader.”
Suddenly, Jack laughed.
It wasn’t the laugh of hopelessness.
He laughed cheerfully.
“You are late, you damned team leader.”
“I had to take care of some issues on the way.”
Neo approached him.
“Good work surviving until now.”
“I know, right? I’m pretty awesome.”
Hope returned to Jack’s eyes.
“Only someone like me could’ve survived so long in this hellhole.”
He grinned.
A wave of relief washed over him and he lost consciousness.
…
Jack woke up with a groan.
His body seized up.
Where were the Shadow monsters?
He prepared to fight as soon as he recalled where he was.
Depth Level 5.
It was the deepest part of the Window.
The place closest to the World of Treacherous Shadow.
The Shadow monsters there were highest in numbers and the strongest across all Depth Levels.
“Calm down.”
Neo’s voice flowed from his side.
“I’ve dealt with the Shadow monsters.”
“Neo? Wait, that wasn’t a dream? You are really here!?”
“Yes, I came to rescue you–”
“Are you stupid?! Now, you are trapped with me! You are just throwing your life by coming to save me!”
“…”
Neo sighed.
He didn’t take offense to Jack’s words.
He definitely didn’t.
“Stop shouting and wear something. Jr. Jack has breathed enough air for one day.”
Jack froze.
He looked down and screamed like a girl.
“You shamed on me when I removed my shirt during the Salamander mission and you now you are going commando?”
“Hey, I didn’t do it in front of girls!”
After wearing a robe of shadows, he calmed down, but his ears remained beet red.
Neo stood up and dusted his clothes.
“Follow me.”
The two roamed the castle.
Jack realized there were no Shadow monsters.
He could sense a faint presence of death — probably due to how many Shadow monsters Neo’s killed — but there was no corpse.
‘Did he devour everything?’
They reached a door.
Neo pushed it open.
The two entered the office.
“Cough! Cough! There is a lot of dust here. Why did we come to this room?”
“I wanted to show you this.”
Neo pointed at the briefcase on top of the table.
Unlike everything in the room, the briefcase was not broken or covered in cobwebs.
“This is?”
“It’s a God Relic. I tried to open the briefcase, but I couldn’t, so it’s not from my bloodline.”
“And?”
Jack wanted to ask why Neo was so sure it was a God Relic, but he asked another question first.
“Why are you showing this to me?”
“Try to open it. Maybe it will react to your bloodline.”
“Huh?”
Jack looked at Neo, perplexed.
God Relics could only be used by the bloodline of the person who owned the God Relic.
What were the chances the random God Relic they found inside a Window belonged to Jack’s bloodline?
He placed his hand on the briefcase.
“There is no way it will react to my blood….”
Jack stopped speaking when the briefcase unlocked itself with a click.
He looked at Neo, stunned.
“Seriously?
“Wait a second, did you know this God Relic belonged to my bloodline?”
“Yes, I did. Actually, you were supposed to be trapped in this place for months if I did not come to rescue you.
“You would’ve found this God Relic during your time here.”
“Okay, okay, stop. Sorry for that weird question.”
Jack raised his hands when he thought Neo was giving a nonsensical answer.
“Of course you could not have known that this God Relic belonged to my bloodline.”
Jack shook his head.
He opened the briefcase.
There was a map and a key inside it.
Jack touched the key.
The key crumbled into motes of black dust and seeped into Jack’s finger.
“A…agrhhh…”
He fell to his knees and clutched his head, groaning in pain.
While Jack was absorbing the key, Neo took a look at the map.
The key was a God Relic and he could not use it, nor did he want to, however, the map was different.
He memorized the map.
Jack stood up after a few minutes.
He was huffing and covered in sweat.
“Neo, is the Window closed?”
“It should be by now.”
“If that’s the case, I have good news and not so good news.
“The key.
“I can open the Window with it.
“But I need to increase my mastery over the key first.”
“How long will it take you to master the key?”
“I don’t know.”
It could be days, months, or even years.
There was nothing to eat inside the Window.
Neo and Jack could devour the Shadow monsters to sustain themselves.
But doing that for a long period of time was bound to turn them insane.
Suddenly, a powerful roar echoed.
Neo looked out of the broken walls.
“Seems like their patience is running thin. We might need to leave this place soon.”
“What are you talking about…”
Jack’s voice was caught up in his throat.
Outside, the entire landscape was covered in a blanket of shadows.
Looking closer, Jack realized the ‘blanket’ were Shadow monsters.
Hundreds of Shadow monsters.
They had surrounded the castle.
“Why aren’t they entering into the castle?”
“Look carefully.”
Jack followed Neo’s advice.