Confused, Zeus destroyed the shadow.
At the same time, a hand came out of Neo’s shadow and pulled him into the shadows.
Zeus stared at the spot from where Neo had disappeared.
“It must be his partner who saved him.”
Zeus was about to chase after Neo when suddenly Apollo coughed blood.
He decided to give proper treatment to Apollo before hunting down Neo and Jack.
…
Neo appeared beneath a giant tree.
His body was on the verge of falling apart.
His head was barely clinging to his neck, and his Divine Energy reserves were about to hit rock bottom.
The battle with Apollo did a number on him.
Facing Zeus after that only made things worse.
Neo looked around and noticed an undead before him.
The undead had used Shadow Jump to carry him away from Zeus.
“Did Jack command you to save me if I was in danger?”
The skeleton nodded. It crouched and dug its bony hands into Neo’s pocket.
“What are you…”
The undead took out the package Jack had given to Neo.
It was Jack’s hand.
The message Jack left for him through the undead was clear.
Devour the hand.
Recover your Divine Energy.
And breakthrough to the next rank.
‘That is the only way we can win,’ the undead’s eyes seemed to say.
“….”
Neo stared at the package.
“Can Jack hear me?”
The undead nodded. freewebnσvel.cm
“How is his battle going? I can tell he is fighting the Sovereigns.”
“…”
The undead stood motionless.
Its lack of actions answered plenty.
“So he is losing.”
Neo closed his eyes.
He burned his Divine Energy reserves to strengthen his blessing.
The boost of the blessing reinforced his body and the effects of his Spells, including Black Dawn of Despair.
‘Since this spell strengthens my allies and debuffs my enemies, it should help Jack if I reinforce the spell with the blessing.’
Neo could feel Jack glaring at him through the eyes of the undead.
“Give me a few anti-debuffs,” he told the undead.
“Make sure all of them are related to speed.”
Anti-debuff Spells – also known as reverse debuffs Spells – worked almost the same as buffs.
Additionally, if one was wearing an anti-debuff, they couldn’t be debuffed by their opponents, which was the main reason anti-debuff were preferred over buffs.
“You can use anti-debuff through this undead, right?”
The undead nodded.
It placed its palm on his shoulders and closed its eyes.
Black patterns began to materialize on Neo’s skin, and he could feel strength surging into his limbs.
Neo hadn’t been able to react to Zeus’ speed.
Speed anti-debuff would solve the problem.
After applying three anti-debuffs, the undead stopped.
It stared at Neo.
Neo understood its question and shook his head.
“I don’t need defense anti-debuff. Just give me speed ones.”
Defense anti-debuffs were a good option in normal circumstances.
However, seeing Zeus’ strength, Neo understood increasing his defense was useless.
The undead applied five anti-debuffs on Neo.
It nudged the packet with Jack’s hand towards Neo.
“….”
Neo picked up the packet.
‘Jack is right.’
‘I need to eat this if I want to break through and have a chance at defeating Zeus.’
‘Besides, I already made Jack eat my finger. Refusing to do it myself is being a hypocrite.’
His grip tightened.
It made sense in his mind.
But….
‘Yeah, I’m not using this.’
‘I might be able to win if I use this, but I’ll lose to myself.’
Neo had decided on his beliefs when he started walking on the path of power.
Now he had to sacrifice his believes if he wanted to keep moving?
No.
Neo would choose both.
He would keep his beliefs and win.
The rings around his heart hummed, and red lightning flickered around his fingers.
He used Death to disintegrate the packet.
The undead grabbed his shoulders and glared at him.
Its eyes were asking why Neo destroyed the object with which he could recover his Divine Energy.
“Breakthrough takes time. There is no way Zeus would leave me until then. He will definitely stop me,” Neo said and stood up.
“It will just leave me like a sitting duck if I do it now.”
He patted the dust off his clothes. Find more to read at empire
“But don’t worry.”
Neo walked towards the direction of Zeus.
His body creaked with every step.
Even though the third stage of blessing healed his injuries, he had overburdened his body.
It was like molding clay repeatedly—each time you reshape it, the material weakened.
Eventually, the clay would dry out and crack, becoming impossible to mend, no matter how much they tried to shape it.
The undead groaned.
It couldn’t speak due to the missing vocal organs, but Neo understood its question.
Why are you going back there?
“Because I do have a plan.”
Even as his body felt weak, his steps never stopped.
“I’ll surpass them.”
His eyes were firm.
“Right here, right now.”
“I’ll win.”
…
Neo appeared once more before Apollo and Zeus.
Zeus had just finished healing Apollo.
New cracks continued to appear on Apollo’s skin – a result of Sunshine’s overwhelming power he couldn’t contain – however he didn’t dare to deactivate the technique.
Doing so would unleash the full backlash, and Apollo knew it would kill him instantly.
Zeus wasted no time talking.
He lunged at Neo and his fist, imbued with the Storm and Lightning elementals, smashed into Neo’s chest.
The impact sent Neo careening through the shattered forest, uprooting trees and leaving a deep trench in the ground.
However, Neo rose again.
His chest, caved in from the blow, began to mend itself at a visible rate.
Bones snapped back into place, organs reformed, and torn flesh knitted seamlessly.
Zeus stared at Neo.
While he didn’t show it, he had attacked using the full force of Partial Divine Transformation.
‘I’ll need to overpower his regeneration by damaging him faster than he can heal.’
He entered in a swift exchange of countless attacks with Neo.
The sword and fist clashed repeatedly.
Zeus was faster and stronger.
Neo could keep up with him, thanks to anti-debuff, albeit barely.
As the battle prolonged, Zeus relaxed expression began to disappear.
He launched another barrage of strikes.
Each blow of his could shatter a small town.
Shockwaves rippled through the air and the air was repeatedly torn apart.
But no matter how many times Zeus pierced Neo’s body, melted his limbs, or struck with thunderous force, Neo regenerated, each time faster than before.