Neo covered his sword in Death Essence and stabbed upward.
The dark aura shot through the body of the wall guardian Nyxtharion. It came out the other side while doing internal damage.
The dragon stumbled, and the Infinite Void Prison preparation was interrupted.
But that was all.
It recovered, thanks to its exceptional vitality.
Neo moved away before the dragon could use Space Lock. From what he saw, Infinite Void Prison’s entrance was like a portal.
They would have to throw Neo inside it.
As long as he was not caught by Space Lock, they wouldn’t be able to imprison him within the Infinite Void Prison—
Neo’s thoughts were cut short when the Space Lock—far stronger than before—sealed the entire place.
[Space Lock (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Supreme) +0.1%]
The Space Lock was Supreme Mastery, unlike the Savant mastery one they used before.
‘Fuck. These bastards can make the Space Lock stronger if they work together.’
Neo could not move.
He could see the three wall guardian Nyxtharion focusing together.
Thousands of meters of area were sealed by Space Lock.
They kept him imprisoned by strengthened Space Lock and slowly started to create a new Infinite Void Prison.
“This is the end for you.”
The dragons picked up the sealed space along with Neo and threw it toward the entrance of Infinite Void Prison.
Mimicked River of Time. Mimicked Tyrant.
Neo was back to the beginning.
“I need a plan to defeat the wall guardian Nyxtharions. My attacks are almost entirely ineffective against them.”
The dragons must have a few powerful attacks.
Yet they did not use them, knowing Neo could copy the techniques and use them against them.
“I can copy Voidfang Rain and Space Lock if I bait them. Voidfang Rain is especially easy to copy. All I need is to let my Intent Clones get hit.
But I’m pretty sure they have a defensive measure against Voidfang Rain, seeing as how it was the only Spell they showed even while knowing I can copy it.”
Neo wondered what kind of defensive Spell they had against Void.
Suddenly, a thought came to him.
“Maybe… maybe they think I can’t copy Void.
I haven’t used any Void techniques in front of them. They probably believe my mastery of the element is low, and I can’t copy the Spells of the Void element.”
That was worth checking.
Still, chances were high he would fail.
The three-second time limit was up, and several smaller Nyxtharion rushed toward Neo’s location.
This time, Neo focused on devouring as many smaller Nyxtharion as possible.
He used the hivemind to sense their location and attacked them.
[Adamant Aegis (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Adept → Expert)]
“Just as I thought, the mastery increases when I devour multiple beings with the same Spell.”
He moved through the underground network of tunnels at his top speed.
[Adamant Aegis (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Expert → Savant)]
[Adamant Aegis (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Savant → Supreme)]
[Adamant Aegis Spell has been mastered.]
[One of your Spells copied in Abyss Mirror has reached Supreme mastery.]
[New function unlocked.]
[Merge Echo: You can overlap fully mastered techniques and raise their rank.]
As soon as the ability appeared, Neo instantly stopped devouring the dragons in front of him.
Since this was an Abyss Mirror ability, the technique’s rank would not increase by devouring them but by copying them.
He dismissed Obitus and entered melee with fists.
[Adamant Aegis (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Savant → Supreme) +0.4%]
[Adamant Aegis (Rank: Stage 1, Mastery: Supreme) total: 100% → 100.4%]
The new ability was groundbreaking.
Neo was gaining copy percentage even after the technique was fully mastered.
If he believed the Abyss Mirror, the technique would rank up after the copy percentage reached 200%.
‘This….’
‘I can get a way to damage the wall guardian Nyxtharions if increasing rank is possible.’
In truth, Neo had one Spell—only one—that could damage the wall guardian Nyxtharion.
[Ragnarok Exhalation Dragon Breath (Rank: Stage 3, Mastery: Expert)]
The Ragnarok Exhalation Dragon Breath was powerful.
But it took 3-5 seconds to activate.
Too long.
He needed abilities that could be activated instantly.
Of course, if he increased the Spell’s mastery, the activation time would decrease.
But he had already devoured almost fifty Nyxtharion, and the Spell’s mastery had yet to increase even once.
‘The growth speed is low, probably because it’s a high-ranking Spell.’
‘It doesn’t matter though. If my plan works, I won’t need the breath attack.’
Neo caught a small Nyxtharion.
He cut its legs and wings.
“How dare you insult me like this, vermin! How dare you!” the dragon glared at him with hatred.
“You really have the vitality of a cockroach.”
Neo jumped and climbed over the dragon.
Only 30 seconds were left before a wall-guardian Nyxtharion came. He had to hurry.
“What are you trying to do, vermin—”
Neo used Kane’s Transfer Technique and gave the dragon his Death Sword technique.
The dragon roared in pain and rage. The information being embedded into its brain was titanic.
Its head swelled, seemingly about to burst if not for its exceptional vitality and natural regeneration.
Neo jumped back and waited.
He flexed his hands, unable to summon the Death Essence and wrap it around his sword or use it as a sword.
‘I guess I lost my technique.’
He was not feeling down in the least. Knowing himself, he needed seconds, minutes at best, to re-learn his Death Sword.
‘This is all thanks to my shitty talent.’
‘Almost everyone learns the technique through enlightenment. They have high talent, and they get a feeling for how to do things correctly.’
‘It’s like shooting a bullet. Some people are natural talents and can hit the bullseye in one go.’
‘But I can’t do that.’
‘To hit the bullseye, I need to learn a good stance to hold the gun, learn to calm my breathing, and then practice thousands of times to improve my aim.’
‘Since I know how to get good enough to hit the bullseye already, I can do it easily again.’
The dragon stood on its hind legs and roared.
Death elementals started to coalesce into its head. They transformed into a pitch-black metallic sword with red lightning flickering around it.
The dragon roared once again before swinging the sword toward Neo.
Neo took the attack head-on.
It sunk into his shoulder slightly, unable to leave a deep wound due to his nigh-impenetrable defense.
However, Neo could feel his regeneration slowing in the area where the attack landed.
A notification appeared.
[Death Sword (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Supreme) +0.5%]
[Death Sword (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Supreme) total: 0% → 0.5%]
‘First step is a success.’
‘Now the second step.’
Neo exhaled.
He asked Beelzebub to stop time. Meanwhile, he grabbed Obitus and wrapped it in Sword Intent.
‘A sword kills.’
‘That’s my sword.’
He recalled the steps he had taken to learn Death Sword.
Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.
Seconds passed, and a wall guardian Nyxtharion arrived.
Instead of punching, it slashed a huge black sword toward Neo—the hivemind allowed it to learn the Death Sword technique.
Neo did not block or dodge.
His focus was on re-learning the Death Sword.
The Sword Intent surrounding Obitus started to turn a shade darker.
[It has been detected you already have Death Sword (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Supreme)]
[Mirror Echo will now apply to Death Sword (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Supreme) total: 100% (+0.5%)]
The attack from the wall guardian Nyxtharion landed on Neo. He was flung away.
A gash appeared on his back. Due to Death Sword’s nature, the healing factor did not work properly on the wound.
Yet a small grin adorned Neo’s face.
[Death Sword (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Supreme) +0.6%]
[Death Sword (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Supreme) total: 100.5% → 101.1%]
‘It works!’
Neo clashed against the smaller Nyxtharion and the wall guardian Nyxtharion until two more wall guardian dragons came.
He regressed before they could activate Infinite Void Prison.
“Show me the progress of copied techniques.”
[Death Sword (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Supreme) total: 101.1% → 103.4%]
[Voidfang Rain (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Savant) total: 11.9% → 30.78%]
[Space Lock (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Savant) total: 9.1% → 11.2%]
[Space Lock (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Supreme) total: 0.5% → 0.6%]
Neo rushed toward the nearest dragon.
He caught one of them and transferred Death Sword to them.
Just as the dragon learned it, the information was spread throughout the hivemind, and all the dragons gained it.
Neo felt it was ironic how he copied the dragon’s techniques earlier, and now he was teaching them his techniques.
“Vermin! How arrogant of you to teach us your techniques! You think of yourself as undefeatable!?” the first dragon roared.
“This will be your mistake! You will die due to your arrogance!” the second, third, and fourth dragons spewed purple flames.
They flew toward Neo, giant swords in their hands.
Neo swung his Death Sword in return.
Their weapons clashed.
The Formless sword zipped through the space, ignoring distance. It allowed Neo to block the sword attacks of the dragons from all directions.
[Death Sword (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Supreme) total: 103.4% → 105.6%]
[Death Sword (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Supreme) total: 105.6% → 107.3%]
Neo fought relentlessly.
He did not kill a single Nyxtharion, and instead taunted more of them to attack him.
The more interactions he had with enemies’ Death Sword. The faster his copy percentage increased.
‘Faster. I need to do this before the wall guardian dragons find me.’
Neo could regress if the larger dragons came.
But for unknown reasons, he felt an ominous premonition.