“He was the one protecting the World Core when you attacked Earth?” Neo asked, surprised.
‘Yes.’
“That means, he is on our side—”
‘Not after you revealed me to him, fucker!’
Before Neo could say anything, he saw the man.
He was surrounded by hundreds of thousand-eyed pillars.
They rained him with countless mental attacks.
Maggots the size of fists writhed and crawled as they tried to tear his skin apart.
Not a single attack touched the man.
It was as if they were stopped by an invisible barrier surrounding his body.
The man turned to Neo, his smile gone.
“Why are you working with an Angel of an Outer?”
“I don’t see the need to answer you—”
“I asked you a question, Neo Hargraves!”
His voice exploded like a thunderclap, creating shockwaves.
The wreckages of Earth—broken chunks of stone, shattered steel, and dying flames—were scattered further by the force.
The thousand-eyed pillars and the writhing maggots burst apart like overfilled balloons.
Neo felt as if he were standing in the eye of a hurricane.
His skin began to peel in thin, stinging strips, and the man’s enormous pressure bore down on him like a mountain.
“Answer me.”
In an instant, the man appeared before Neo.
His speed was overwhelming.
Before Neo could react, the man’s greatsword pierced through his chest, pinning him to the cracked, blood-soaked ground.
“You want an answer?” Neo asked.
Blood bubbled from his lips as he coughed violently.
Still, he grinned.
“Then make me answer you.”
The man’s anger momentarily dissipated when Neo used his words against him.
He raised his sword to strike again when suddenly Neo’s body dissolved into shimmering particles of light.
“Intent?” the man muttered, his brows furrowing in disbelief. “He can make a physical clone with Intent already?”
“Don’t be surprised just yet.”
The man’s head whipped around at the sound of Neo’s voice.
Hundreds of Neo’s clones surrounded him.
“That’s quite the number of clones” the man commented.
Neo shrugged, maintaining his silence.
He could create only one clone if it was to be as strong as himself.
On other hand, he could create countless weaker ones.
“What are you trying to do?” the man asked.
“Did you forget what I said?” the clones spoke in unison. “If you want an answer, then make me answer you.”
As soon as Neo uttered those words, a screen appeared before his eyes.
[Hidden Conditions met]
[Quest ‘Survive’ will be upgraded to Quest ‘Challenging the Insurmountable’]
[Details: Successfully land an attack on ???]
[Reward ‘Absolute Chaos World Core Condensation Technique’ will be upgraded to ‘Primordial World Core Condensation Technique.’]
There was no time to read the screens.
The clones rushed at the man from all sides.
Seeing their fervor, the man’s anger dissipated, replaced by a resounding laugh that echoed across the wasteland.
Shockwaves created by his laughter tore through the air, killing several clones instantly. Their forms disintegrated like dust in the wind.
“That way of talking, you really are that bastard’s son.”
“You aren’t the one to talk, Duke Bael!”
Countless sword attacks flashed from every direction.
Grinning, Bael gripped his massive sword with both hands.
His muscles tensed, and an immense aura exploded from his body like a tidal wave.
The force alone caused the cracked earth to split further, sending tremors through the battlefield.
His slash tore apart everything around him in a blinding arc of destruction.
“How did you know who I was?” Bael asked, his voice calm but laced with curiosity as another wave of clones appeared.
“Your Intent is the same as the [All-Seeing Eye] that hangs in the sky.”
The new wave of clones rushed at Bael again.
“Velkaria, use mental attacks on me!” Neo called out.
‘Okay!’
Only a few maggots survived Bael’s devastating attacks.
Those that remained writhed grotesquely. Their forms shifted and expanded.
They began transforming into gigantic thousand-eyed pillars.
Mouths appeared on the pillars, and they began to vomit an endless swarm of maggots.
The ground became a seething carpet of writhing insects as they surged forward.
The thousand-eyed pillars turned their gaze toward Neo.
An intense headache pounded against his skull, as Velkaria used her mental attacks.
“Is that supposed to be an attack?” Bael asked.
Instead of answering, Neo activated Necrotic Touch.
The skill had reached Peak mastery long ago, and its power was absolute.
Neo grabbed at the air itself.
The atmosphere began to rot, decaying visibly as tendrils of necrosis spread outward.
Anything the rotting air touched began to dissolve.
Wreckages, Space, Time, Life.
Nothing was spared.
Neo unleashed Dawn of Despair and Death Elemental after Necrotic Touch.
The world around Bael was plunged into impenetrable darkness.
The light was devoured, leaving an oppressive void that suffocated the senses.
For a brief moment, giant bolts of condensed red lightning erupted in the darkness, illuminating the scene in blinding flashes.
The harsh light revealed Bael’s figure, standing unharmed amidst the attacks.
“Not bad,” Bael mused.
No attack touched his body.
The barrier surrounding him remained impregnable.
He clenched his fist, and the space around him warped.
It crushed Neo’s clones and their attacks effortlessly.
The distorted space around Bael swallowed them without resistance.
Bael was about to taunt Neo when suddenly he felt something grabbing his leg.
A clone held him.
Only the upper half of its body had survived Bael’s devastating attack.
Its form was barely holding together.
Instead of tending to its wounds, the clone used Empathetic Bond skill.
A faint, pulsing glow emanated from it as it transferred the rage and pain it was feeling directly into Bael’s mind.
“So this was why you told that filthy thing to use the mental attack on you? So that you could transfer that attack to me?” Bael asked. “But it doesn’t—”
“I know it doesn’t work on you!”
Neo suddenly appeared before Bael while his attention was momentarily divided.
Neo’s body was covered in cracks.
However, something felt off.
Bael hadn’t injured him to that extent.
‘Was it due to World Energy?’ Bael thought.
He frowned when he couldn’t sense any World Energy within Neo’s body.
It took him a moment to realize Neo had transferred all of his World Energy into his sword.
By the time Bael noticed, the sword in Neo’s hand glowed with an unearthly brilliance.
Divine Swordsmanship Seventh Form: Tenraizen
The world was engulfed in a blinding flash of light.
The brilliance was so intense that it consumed everything, casting stark, surreal shadows across the ruins.
Moments later, the flash disappeared, along with the darkness created by Black Dawn of Despair Spell.
Neo, bloodied and battered, lay unconscious on the cold ground.
His body was limp and his chest rose and fell faintly with shallow breaths.
“Too bad, Neo. You lost,” Bael said with a smirk. “Now it’s time for you to wake up and answer me.”
Bael crouched.
He raised his hand, ready to slap Neo awake.
He suddenly froze mid-motion.
His eyes narrowed as he looked down at his abdomen.
A faint, line-shaped dirt mark stained his shirt.
It was subtle but it was there.
“His attack reached my body?” Bael muttered in disbelief.
Bael was a Stage-5 God, while Neo’s strength was only that of a Stage-1 God.