Neo’s brow creased.
He dashed forward. Shadow soldiers fought against the creatures of Blood Sea.
Chains of Hell warped around the opening in the sky through which the Blood Sea poured into the land.
The sealing magic shrank the opening and reduced the influence Blood Sea would exert at once.
Blood clashed against Death. Fist against blade.
Neo’s strikes were precise and filled with titanic power.
Vlad’s blood morphed endlessly into walls, blades, dragons, spikes, serpents.
Each strike they traded split mountains. Their battle flattened forests and boiled lakes. Storms howled in all directions.
Vlad formed a blood dome.
Neo shattered it with a downstroke. He kicked Vlad through the remains. The ground of Zone 8 crumbled beneath them.
He picked Vlad and threw him with enough force that when Vlad hit the dimensional barrier between Zone 7 and Zone 8, it shattered without any resistance.
He was already upon Vlad before he crashed.
Purple flames boiled within Neo’s throat.
He roared and used Ragnarok Exhalation Dragon Breath.
Vlad was burned to ashes.
But he recovered quickly.
His body regenerated with impossible speed, skin stitching together with pulsing blood threads.
He retaliated with a bloodstorm of razors spinning outward.
Neo raised his hand.
The Darkness surged, and formed a dense cocoon.
The bloodstorm passed, carving craters into the floating islands.
Neo stepped out of the darkness, his clothes tattered, his expression unreadable. Vlad grinned, but Neo was already gone.
A punch struck him in the ribs.
Then a slash to the back.
Another strike to the gut.
Neo’s movements were seamless, folding through shadows like water through cracks.
He used All-Shadow to teleport all around the battlefield and attack from unexpected directions.
He kicked Vlad downward again, smashing him through a floating mountain.
The impact cratered through to Zone 9.
Zone 9 was a wasteland of ash. Endless plains of black glass stretched around them.
Neo fell behind Vlad, catching up mid-flight. He grabbed Vlad by the throat and spun, driving him headfirst into the obsidian ground.
The crater was massive.
The shockwave blew away the entire nearby landscape.
Then Neo jumped down and drove his heel into Vlad’s chest. Bones shattered. Blood poured.
Neo didn’t stop.
He grabbed Vlad again and flung him high into the air, then appeared above him, fists blazing with World Ender Flame.
He rained down a barrage of punches.
Each strike twisted the air, and warped the light around them.
He slammed Vlad higher and higher, breaking the zone’s sky layer.
Then, with a roar, Neo smashed Vlad through the sky and against the dimensional barrier of Layer 4.
The crack spread like spiderwebs.
The Layer 4’s dimensional wall shivered.
Vlad coughed blood. His body, twisted and broken, hovered against the cracked sky like a puppet with cut strings.
Neo floated towards him. Vlad opened his mouth.
“Aren’t you… a bit too strong?”
Witnessing Neo’s silence, Vlad chuckled, trying to hide the pain burning through him.
“You were cautious when the battle started… How did you not know you were stronger? You made me think you were weak…”
Neo didn’t answer.
Vlad’s body pulsed. The Blood Sea surged upward from the three previous zones, pooling again beneath him.
The air turned thick. The sky turned red.
“You are enough,” Vlad rasped. “You deserve to see my World.”
The World
The Blood Sea exploded outward.
A rift opened in the sky, much larger than the previous opening.
The surroundings changed into writhing rivers of red, sentient waves, and beating hearts.
Blood lightning crackled. Everything reeked of slaughter.
Neo remained calm. Then, with a whisper, his hand ignited.
Dark blue flames curled from his palm. They swelled and spiraled, tinged with black at the edges.
He cast the World Ender flames forward.
It touched the World.
And the World screamed.
Flames spread unnaturally fast, devouring the rivers, boiling the hearts, cracking the sky.
Vlad screamed too.
His blood surged, trying to resist, but the flames weren’t just fire. They were ruin. They were end.
They were the end of the World.
Vlad fell to his knees as his World began to crumble.
Neo stood before him, looking down on him.
There was silence.
None spoke for several moments.
Then finally, Vlad broke the stillness.
“Are you not going to torture me? I killed your friends. Is that not the reason why you lost your temper and attacked me?”
“I don’t enjoy tormenting the weak.”
Vlad froze.
Weak? Him?
Vlad couldn’t retort.
Neo had defeated him, laughably easy at that.
He didn’t use most of his Concepts, or techniques.
Even the Eyes of Echoe, which was a trump card, was only used once, and his Death Sword was not empowered by Death Sword Firmament.
“You are saying you didn’t fight with all your strength?”
“I didn’t need to.”
Neo’s simple words left a wound that was far worse than any injury Vlad received in the battle.
The humiliation burned Vlad.
“You—”
Neo suddenly stopped speaking and looked above.
There, Kane appeared.
‘Shit!’
Before Neo could react, Vlad pushed him and flew towards Kane.
He reached Kane in an instant.
“What’s happening here?” Kane questioned.
“He is destroying this world,” Vlad said. “Help me defeat him.”
Kane looked down from the sky at Neo.
Neo kept Eyes of Echo prepared, but he didn’t regress.
There was no guarantee Kane had no technique to remember the pre-altered timeline.
Neo would regress only when he had gained some information and he was pushed back in a corner.
‘Kane is dangerous. Unless I know what kind of techniques he has, I shouldn’t show mine too.’
“Can you break my seal first?” Kane raised his hand and pulled his sleeves back.
Runes appeared on his arms.
It was a perfect chance to attack but Neo didn’t move.
This could be a trap.
Kane created the seal himself then gave the key to Dragon Clan Leaders.
Was it really true that Kane was not able to break the seal by himself?
That might be a lie, and he could attack Neo while Neo was trying to take advantage of the situation.