He placed his palms on the ground.
The cold, cracked earth trembled beneath his touch, and the stifling scent of ash filled the air.
The Darkness hidden within his shadow bloomed, writhing like a living entity.
It crept onto him, tendrils of black seeping into his flesh.
Devouring his skin, muscles, and reaching his bones.
Neo kept his mouth shut despite the flaming pain burning through his body.
Suddenly, a familiar voice entered his ears, echoing faintly.
How long are you going to keep that up?
Neo swiftly reacted.
His head snapped upward as he saw the clouds parting, revealing a sky painted in shades of crimson and violet.
“Zeus—”
The words were stuck in his throat when the pieces of a broken moon fell through the clouds.
Shattered fragments drifted downward.
Their pale luminescence was both beautiful and terrifying.
Thousands of gigantic ‘meteors’ — pieces of moon — descended, each leaving trails of silver light as they tore through the sky.
A giant piece was flying toward his location.
“Fuck—”
Neo’s eyes widened as the massive fragment struck near his position.
The impact was deafening.
A heartbeat later, a powerful gust of wind smashed into him, lifting dust and debris in a wild storm.
The ground quaked violently, cracks spiderwebbing beneath his feet.
Then everything went black.
[12 hours have passed since your Death.]
[You will be forcefully revived.]
Neo groaned as consciousness returned.
His body ached, and he found himself buried under a mountain of weight.
The scent of stone dust filled his lungs, choking him.
When he tried to stand, the wreckage pressed him further down.
He was about to call upon the Darkness to devour everything around him when the entire area trembled once more.
Dust rained from above.
It was as if gravity had disappeared.
The wreckage began to lift, weightless, rising steadily into the air.
Only then did Neo notice Beelzebub.
The massive creature’s form was injured.
His gigantic maw was wide open, devouring the debris piece by piece, consuming the broken shards of the moon as he searched desperately for Neo.
Beelzebub’s body was bleeding.
Its elemental blood oozed from multiple injuries in sluggish, glowing streams.
“Did he try to protect me?” Neo thought.
The creature let out a strained cry when it finally spotted him, relief evident even in its damaged state.
But it couldn’t hold on any longer.
With a final, weak sound, Beelzebub lost consciousness, shrinking into a small caterpillar form.
“Thanks for helping me.”
Neo gently picked up the tiny form and placed it inside his pocket.
“Rest well and heal.”
He patted his pocket gently.
Beelzebub let out a faint, weak cry as if assuring Neo he would be fine before falling into a deep slumber.
After making sure Beelzebub was resting, Neo scanned the surroundings.
The world was silent, save for the distant crackle of fire and the whisper of ash drifting through the air.
The once colossal fragments of the moon lay shattered across the desolate landscape, bathing everything in an eerie, pale glow.
“I’m sure it was Zeus’ voice. Where is he?” Neo said.
He leapt up.
The place had become a disaster after a few pieces of the falling moon hit around the area.
The ground was scarred with craters, glowing faintly with residual heat, and smoke curled from the fractured earth.
Fragments of celestial rock jutted out like jagged monoliths, some still crackling with purple energy.
Their meteoric descent cleared the sky, allowing Neo to look into space.
The void was endless, a canvas of blackness dotted with countless stars.
He could see several pillars, too tall, reaching into space.
They had been growing since the first day.
But he never expected them to reach so far.
“I guess I know how the moon fell.”
He looked around.
The wreckage of the moon had purple cracks within.
The Corruption of Void must’ve destroyed it, which ended up causing this catastrophic disaster.
Neo’s thoughts were cut short when he saw a golden lightning bolt descend in the east.
It split the sky with a deafening roar, illuminating the ruined landscape for a moment.
“He is alive?”
Neo moved quickly.
His steps were light and eager, kicking up dust as he raced toward the lightning’s source.
The wind howled around him, carrying the scent of scorched stone and ash.
As he neared the area, Neo noticed something.
His Death affinity was reacting differently.
He couldn’t sense a ‘living person’ in the location where he was heading.
Neo’s brows creased.
He increased his speed, moving so fast that afterimages blurred behind him.
The ground trembled with each step, yet he felt weightless.
Just as he reached the source of the constant thunderbolts, he found ‘Zeus.’
“…”
A headless corpse was fighting the maggots, as if possessed by a vengeful ghost.
It was unmistakably a corpse.
The neck bore jagged, torn marks, as if a maggot had chomped down and bitten off the head.
The once-mighty Zeus was dead.
Yet his body still fought.
His corpse, perhaps controlled by muscle memory or the lingering will of Zeus, battled on.
Golden lightning arced from his hands, striking the maggots repeatedly.
Yet the maggots were unharmed.
Their writhing forms were barely fazed by the attacks.
Neo didn’t move.
He was left stunned by the sight before his eyes.
Hours passed as he stood there, watching the corpse fight, though it couldn’t damage the maggots.
It summoned bolts of lightning to attack the maggots again and again.
Although the attacks were useless, the maggots couldn’t destroy the corpse either.
Their teeth failed to bite through its flawless skin, no matter how ferociously they gnawed.
They let out ear-numbing screams, high-pitched wails that echoed across the desolate battlefield.
Soon, the ground trembled.
Cracks spread across the barren battlefield as three gigantic pillars erupted from the earth, radiating a sinister aura.
Hundreds of eyes blinked open on their surfaces, all fixated on Zeus’ fighting corpse.
They stared unblinkingly, attempting to corrupt him with an unnatural force.
However, nothing happened.
“Crazy bastard.”
Neo didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Zeus might’ve been killed, but he wasn’t defeated.
Watching him, Neo felt a surge of strange emotions.
Appreciation. Respect. Pride. Sorrow.
The sense of weight behind Neo’s gaze changed.