Neo lowered his hand.
"You...!" Alia’s voice cracked, but her glare burned with fury. "How dare you do that!?"
Layla had already slipped behind her.
Her fingers flashed through a quick series of hand signs.
Neo noticed it and frowned.
He opened his mouth to speak but paused when sothing felt wrong.
"Huh?"
His eyes fell to his hands.
They... felt different.
He looked around him and his brows creased.
The Sky Barrier was intact.
The area he had torn apart monts ago by him was completely restored, as if his attack had never happened.
And yet, he was still standing inside the Sky Barrier.
Alia stood far in front of him.
Her shoulders were straight, and her expression calm.
She was uninjured.
More than that, she hadn’t even deployed her World yet.
Far behind her, Earth floated quietly. Perfectly unhard.
Neo’s mind ran in circles.
Had ti been turned back?
No... he could guarantee it hadn’t.
He had prepared for that very possibility.
If Alia or Layla tried to drag things to the past to save Earth, he was ready to intervene.
But what he was seeing now didn’t match that.
It was as if ti had been pulled to an earlier point, the mont he first entered the Solar System after breaking through the barrier.
And yet... it wasn’t exactly the sa.
Not everything had reset.
The Sky Barrier was perfectly fine, even though it should’ve been damaged.
Nullhour Firmant remained trapped in his Shadow Space.
Sothing was off.
"You can defeat us," Alia said evenly.
She raised her hand, and her World flared to life around her. "But you can’t win."
"Is that so?"
He clenched his fist.
Space around Earth bent violently, compressing with crushing force.
The planet was obliterated instantly.
Alia scread as backlash struck her body.
Blood spurted from her lips.
But before the last fragnt of her Divine Energy burned away, she finished another set of hand signs.
The sa strange feeling swept past Neo.
Then Earth was whole again.
Alia stood uninjured, as if she hadn’t been bleeding since a few seconds ago.
"It happened again."
He had destroyed Earth twice.
And yet... the result was denied.
He lifted his hand and snapped his fingers.
Nullhour Concept rippled outward.
The Solar System was erased into nothingness.
And then—
"Again, huh."
The Solar System reappeared.
Planets circled the sun as if nothing had happened.
Alia’s eyes locked onto him. She was wary of him.
Neo’s thoughts raced.
’This ti, Earth and everyone else was destroyed before they could use hand sings.’
It ant...
"So the hand signs are not necessary," he muttered.
Alia and Layla had pretended the hand signs mattered.
The cycle repeated whether they were used or not.
Then why use them? Why make him think they were part of it?
’The hand signs were a distraction.’
’They wanted to waste ti on thinking that hand signs mattered.’
Why?
Even the smallest distraction was still ti bought.
"You’re stalling . Who are you trying to buy ti for, Alia de Beaufort?"
"...!"
She faltered for the first ti.
"How do you know my na?"
Alia’s brows creased.
The man before her looked young.
But Alia knew such strength ant he had lived for a long ti.
He was an apex predator who was acting to be young.
Neo froze, reading her thoughts.
Her suspicions, her guesses.
She had the sa thoughts the very first ti they t thousands of years ago in the Divine Energy Pond cave.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
His bloodlust dimd, settling like coals cooling after a blaze.
’This much should be enough.’
Earth had survived multiple assaults from him.
Its defenses weren’t flimsy.
He had seen what he needed.
Alia, still braced for another strike, tilted her head slightly.
Confusion edged into her features as she watched him lower his bloodlust.
Neo opened his mouth and froze.
What was he supposed to say?
He literally destroyed Earth several tis to check the defenses.
He wasn’t worried because he could reverse the damage, but would the other side accept his lousy explanation?
Neo spoke, "Uh, so I’m here—"
"The World."
The words weren’t Alia’s.
They rang from sowhere else.
A voice, familiar yet foreign, cut through the still air.
Space twisted.
The Solar System’s quiet scenery warped and bent.
Sun dimd.
A graveyard spread out across the void.
Gigantic black trees rose.
Their trunks were jagged and scarred. Their branches were twisted and barren.
Their shadows stretched endlessly.
Neo turned slowly towards the source of voice.
His expression tightened.
There he was.
That bastard.
"Jack Hanma."
Neo’s emotions surged again.
Unaware of Neo’s thoughts, Jack kept chanting at a rapid pace.
The shadows at his feet surged outward, stretching across the graveyard-like world.
From them, the dead rose.
Undead creatures dragged themselves from black soil.
The ground split apart as skeletal hands clawed free.
Behemoths of bone and rotting flesh lumbered forward.
Dragons with skeletal fras and empty eye sockets descended from the skies.
Liches appeared. Their hollow gazes glowed with sinister light.
Dullahans rode headless horses with their blades raised high.
One after another, countless undead poured forth like an endless tide of death and decay.
Neo’s eyes narrowed.
Jack was still only Stage 4.
And yet... among the summoned army, so of the undead pulsed with far stronger power.
Their presence revealed their strength of Stage 5.
Jack hadn’t created those undeads alone. Soone must’ve helped him.
Reinforcents, knowledge, resources, or whatever it was, he had borrowed help from a greater hand.
Alia’s shoulders eased.
Relief washed over her features for the first ti.
The army kept growing.
Trillions of undead soldiers filled the transford space, until the graveyard was no longer a backdrop but a battlefield.
Entire species of monsters, twisted and corrupted, stood among them.
Hundreds of the towering figures radiated Stage 5 strength.
Jack’s t Neo’s gaze.
Jack’s face was calm. There was no hint of fear in it.
Then he turned his eyes briefly toward Alia.
He gave her a small nod, signaling he would handle everything from here.
Reviews
All reviews (0)