“Alright, but devouring human flesh is a bit….”
“Too late to cry about it,” Neo said. “Both of us are going to Hell either way.”
“Yeah…”
Jack was unconvinced.
Nevertheless, he relented under Neo’s intense gaze.
He convinced himself that devouring the finger with Darkness was not earing it and used Darkness.
An intense power surged within Jack’s core.
He felt something bubble inside him.
The new power started to devour the corruption.
Neo, on the side, stared at Jack’s transformation.
‘Seems like my guess was true.’
He was relieved.
While Jack was being purified, Neo checked his status.
He wanted to see how much his abilities were affected by losing Death.
[ Neo Hargraves ]
[ Rank: Grade 5 Mythic ]
[ Divine Energy Purity: Grade 2 Mythic ]
[ Stats ]
[ Affinity ]
[ Magic Spell ]
﹂ Necrotic Touch, Ocean’s Embrace, Essence Breath, Rewind Enchantment, Black Dawn of Despair
[ Incantations ]
[ Trait ]
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[ Quest ]
He noticed the new addition of the Tremor-ranked Spell ‘Black Dawn of Despair’ at a glance.
The spell, although Tremor-ranked, took only a few months to learn. It was thanks to Neo’s high mastery in the Darkness element.
“Let’s check the main thing.”
[ Death ]
Mastery: Adept (Peak) (Sealed) → None
Concept progress: 80%
Not even Apprentice rank mastery.
His mastery was None.
He tried to control and create Death.
Nothing happened.
It was as if he was trying to move the third arm he never had.
“This is weird.”
Neo could feel the two rings of Death around his heart.
The third one was used to attack Jack, leaving these two behind.
“I can control this Death.”
The rings of Death hummed under his control.
“I guess I can’t control or create new Death, but I can manipulate what I created already.”
It was a stroke of luck he had some Death elementals left under his control.
Back when he was creating these rings, he never expected this to happen.
“Two rings. Two attacks.”
Neo shook his head.
It was barely anything.
[ Darkness ]
Mastery: Adept (Peak)
Concept progress: 40% fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
“The concept progress increased from 20% to 40%.”
Neo’s brows creased.
He was sure the concept progress was only 20% before he fought Jack.
‘Helping Jack increased the concept’s progress.’
Neo had no idea what the concept was.
He struggled to understand how helping Jack was linked to his concept.
‘Let’s check other things.’
[ Time ]
Mastery: Apprentice (Peak)
“The mastery reached Peak.”
Neo shifted his gaze to other sections.
[Necrotic Touch]
Element: Death
Rank: Tremor
Mastery: Adept (Lowest) (Sealed) → None
“The Spell got fucked too.”
[O Death, Be My Hands, Crush My Enemies]
Element: Death
Harmony: Peak (Sealed) → None
[O Death, Be My Blade]
Element: Death
Harmony: Peak (Sealed) → None
“….”
Neo clicked his tongue.
‘Well, I can use the Willpower Pathway for Death element Incantations.’
[Eternal, Grade 5 Mythic]
Progress: 20% → 34%
Effect: Become ageless and gain resistance against status ailments (+10%).
[Mind Invasion, Grade 5 Awakened]
Progress: 50% → 96%
Effect: Allow you to enter the mind of your targets, look into their memories, and converse with their inner self.
The traits’ progress was as Neo expected.
Eternal’s progress increased when he was receiving different types of damage.
The harsh conditions inside Jack’s Soul Space – the mental attacks of thousands of vengeful souls and Darkness – boosted Eternal by a huge margin.
“Mind Invasion is about to rank up and reach Grade 4.”
By Neo’s calculation, the trait would rank up in four days to two weeks.
“I guess this counts as good news.”
Neo smiled ruefully.
He knew his situation better than anyone else.
Death’s loss affected his damage-dealing ability.
If not for Kane’s Sword stances and Willpower pathway Incantations, Neo would have lost all of his damage-dealing techniques.
“Look at the bright side. It was high time I focused on other elements.
“My current situation will give me a great boost of motivation.”
The Age of Gods was merciless.
If he didn’t find a way to recover his strength and go further beyond, he wouldn’t know which monster or Anomaly killed him.
“It’s been quite a while since I felt… weak.”
Despite his complaints, Neo did not feel a shred of regret.
He felt liberated.
Neo closed his status screen and stared at Jack.
His body was healing.
The power of Darkness that had been scattered around was fusing back into Jack.
Suddenly, Neo felt a tug within him.
His blessing called out to him.
‘…?’
‘I thought you were angry with me?’
The blessing ignored him and shook its head at the same time.
Seeing it do two different actions confused Neo.
‘It’s almost like it’s not one blessing.’
‘But two different blessings….’
Neo’s brows shot up.
‘Two different blessings?’
Neo recalled the time when he visited the Underworld for the first time, and his blessing had yet to be sealed.
Back then, the blessing healed his injuries.
‘No way…’
‘Why can the blessing of the God of Death heal injuries?’
Neo, suppressing the surging emotions, activated the third stage of the blessing he had unlocked partially.
The power – refreshing, yet sharp – coursed within his body.
It had always been there.
Just asleep.
The power flowed towards the injuries on his body.
Neo felt it.
As soon as he fused his Divine Energy with the power, his injuries would heal.
He would regenerate the lost finger and the shoulder.
‘What in the bloody fuck?’
The sheer absurdity of the situation gave Neo a pause.
His missing hand aside, the pinky finger was devoured by Jack.
It should never have been able to heal or regenerate unless Neo ranked up.
Even then, it was supposed to be a gamble.
“Ranking up is a rebirth of sorts.
“That’s why we can recover the body parts we lost to Darkness. Because we are creating new body parts when we rank up.”
Regeneration of parts lost to Darkness was impossible.
They could only be replaced by new parts.
“But my blessing can do that?’
Peak-level regeneration ability.
It used an absurd amount of Divine Energy, of course.
But it was useful nonetheless.
“This can’t be the blessing of a God who rules over Death. It’s…
“Mother’s blessing.”
Hades and Persephone.
Two gods.
Two blessings.
While Neo was buried in his thoughts, Jack coughed uncontrollably.
The pieces of flesh tying his limbs melted away, and he crashed on the ground, healed.
“Who were you talking to?” Jack questioned.
“Nothing. Just wondering about some things,” Neo answered as he helped Jack stand.
“Thank you,” Jack said. “I’ll open this place.”
Jack controlled the orb of Darkness they were inside.
He stopped just as he was about to open it.
“What happened?”
“What about your friends? Will they attack us?” Jack asked as he stood with his hand over Neo’s shoulder and used Neo’s support.
“You can sense them?”
“Yeah, two holy and light element users and one Darkness element user.
“The Darkness element user seems ready to attack us.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll talk with them.”
“You sure they will listen?”
“I hope they do. Or your neck is gone.”
Jack was exasperated at Neo’s bad joke.
He was wondering if Neo was forcing himself to be funny to help uplift Jack’s mood or if Neo was naturally, seriously unfunny.
Jack hoped it was the former.
“Since you’ve received your answer, open this place,” neo said
Jack hesitated.
“What?” Neo asked, seeing his expression.
“Can you give me some clothes first?”