It was a problem he would confront when the time came.
Neo activated his Shadow Movement Spell without further delay.
He removed his bloodline debuff and activated his blessing.
His speed increased exponentially, and in the blink of an eye, he began his journey northward, cutting through the desolate landscape with swift speed.
Half a day later, Neo was forced to stop when the entire world shook violently.
The ground beneath his feet fractured with deafening cracks.
Oceans churned and boiled, releasing thick plumes of steam, while the frigid air grew sharp and bitter, freezing everything in its path.
An ancient cry tore through the air, echoing across the globe.
The sound carried a power that seemed to shake the very foundations of the continents.
Far beneath the Atlantic Ocean, the seafloor buckled and split open, creating an enormous chasm.
A colossal bone dragon, larger than the mountains, emerged from its depths of the chasm.
The dragon’s skeletal form radiated an oppressive aura.
It swam upward, breaching the ocean’s surface with a thunderous roar that sent shockwaves rippling across the seas.
In one swift motion, it soared into the sky, spreading its cracked, broken wings.
The creature’s bellow shook the world and shattered mountains.
Despite its injuries—broken wings, a missing leg, and a partially crushed skull—it exuded an aura of overwhelming menace and power.
The ancient bone dragon, Veldora, extended his senses across the globe.
His perception was vast and unrelenting, brushing over every living being on Earth like a suffocating wave.
The awakeners froze in place, paralyzed by fear.
Weaker ones collapsed to the ground.
Their bodies trembled as they felt the dragon’s gaze pierce their very souls.
Then, as quickly as it had come, the oppressive feeling disappeared when Veldora retracted its aura.
Having located his target, Veldora flapped his tattered wings, sending powerful gusts rippling through the air, and flew straight toward Neo.
Neo, who had already sensed Veldora’s approach, stood motionless.
He frowned, not out of fear but due to the arrival of Veldora’s on Earth.
Veldora was the guardian of the Forest of All Beginnings in the Underworld.
He wouldn’t leave his location unless it was absolutely necessary, not to mention coming to the world of living wasn’t something Veldora was allowed to do.
It didn’t take long before the dragon appeared on the horizon.
Neo saw Veldora, who seemed to cover the sky every time he opened his wings.
The giant dragon was flying towards Neo when suddenly its injured wings broke completely, and it crashed.
Neo’s eyes widened.
He rushed towards Veldora.
“Veldora! What happened to you?”
As he neared the giant dragon, he noticed purple cracks on its bones.
“Y-young master…”
Veldora’s voice was like an old tree. Ancient, but filled with wisdom.
He tried to raise his broken body and bow before Neo.
“Stop it. Don’t force yourself,” Neo said.
The giant dragon chuckled.
“I can’t not give a proper greeting to the Child of Monarch.”
He lifted his upper body with his single front leg and lowered his head.
“I’m happy to s-see you in health, O Great Child of Monarch.”
Veldora was one of the few people in the Underworld who knew Neo was Thanatos and that he was from the future.
Before Neo could ask why he had come to the world of the living, Veldora dropped shocking news.
“The Underworld has fallen, and the Monarch has been slain.”
“…”
Neo’s mind blanked.
He couldn’t process the meaning of Veldora’s words.
The god of the Underworld, the Monarch who had looked over the Afterlife since ancient times, had fallen…?
Veldora chuckled despairingly.
“I’m sorry.”
He lowered his head further.
“We couldn’t protect the Monarch. I came here to warn you o-of the incoming danger.”
Hades had sealed the Underworld to make sure ‘they’ couldn’t come to the world of the living.
No, that was only a half-truth.
The real reason the Underworld had been sealed was to protect Neo.
Hades and the Grim Reapers didn’t want Neo to participate in a battle that could endanger him.
But.
They had lost.
Disgustingly easily at that.
“I’m sorry,” Veldora repeated his words again, his voice choking. “The sole reason for my existence was to protect you. But I am leaving before you.”
It was as if Neo could see the tears flowing down the bone dragon’s face.
Regret was clear in his voice.
“Please, stay alive, young master.”
Veldora crumbled into dust before Neo’s eyes.
It wasn’t just his body that was destroyed.
His soul and his Seed of Existence – the core of one’s existence – disappeared too.
Veldora had died a true death.
Having his Seed of Existence erased, he couldn’t be revived, not even by Hades.
‘Veldora was completely erased,’ Neo thought mechanically with a blank face.
He knew who were capable of such feat.
As if on cue, the world shook again.
Giant pillars, as wide as cities, sprang from the ground all over the globe.
They emitted a nauseating presence.
Their purple surface looked like a mesh of decayed flesh of unrecognizable monsters.
The pillars shook.
They let out an ear-piercing noise, and suddenly hundreds of eyes opened on their surfaces.
The eyes looked around erratically.
Neo felt as if his eyes were set on fire when he met the gaze of one of the eyes on the pillar near him.
Blood began to leak from his eyes and a sharp pain stabbed into his head.
The air around him grew heavy and oppressive, filled with a thick, nauseating stench that seemed to cling to his skin.
The once-vibrant skies turned into a swirling mass of dark purple clouds, flashing ominous lightning.
[The Void corrupts you.]
His skin began to crack, and his Seed of Existence trembled.
The ground beneath him fractured, leaking an eerie violet light.
Neo sensed the living presences around him die helplessly.
Cries of help entered his ears.
But before he could move, those living presences were snuffed out with no hopes of revival.
A simple gaze from the pillars killed them.
The mental attacks caused the living beings to explode, or the corruption from the gazes erased them.
[The Void corrupts you.]
The eyes on the pillar nearest to Neo turned to him after killing everyone around him.
Under their focused gazes, the pain attacking Neo’s mind increased severalfolds.