Chapter 110 (fixed)
Neo’s eyes widened as the pieces locked into place. The demons kept attacking the forest for one reason only. They wanted her. Nyx could not be killed. That single fact was why the other nine attribute women had never managed more than sealing her away. Everything the tribe had suffered, every raid, every death, traced back to that one unkillable existence sealed deep in the land.
A clear chime rang inside his head.
**Ding!**
Devil Asmodeus and a group of high-rank demons are preparing a raid to unseal Nyx and steal her away. Do your best to stop them.
Time remaining: 7 days.
Failure: your death and the death of everyone you love.
Rewards: Nyx’s blessings + title – Taking One of the Attribute Women’s Virginity.
Neo gulped hard. The failure condition hit like a fist to the gut. Everyone he loved. Sai. The others. All of them dead if he failed. He forced his voice steady and looked at Tara standing right in front of him. "What is Death Valley?"
Tara’s face changed. The usual sharp amusement drained away and left something colder. "It’s the place where Nyx is sealed." Her tone stayed flat, but Neo could feel the weight behind it. Safety was the thing she hunted hardest, yet she trusted almost no one and believed true safety only came when she controlled every variable herself. She carried old mistakes like open wounds and punished herself for them, chasing a second chance she quietly believed she had already lost the right to. And she would fight the world itself to keep the people she cared about close, even when holding them too tightly only made everything more fragile.
Neo nodded. The map inside his system already marked the valley in hard black lines. He slapped his own cheek once, hard enough to sting, and muttered, "Alright. I have a plan now."
He turned to leave. Tara stepped into his path before he could take a second step. "I’m coming with you."
Neo stopped and faced her fully. "Are you sure? Coming with me means crossing your own race. You’ll put yourself in real danger. I’ll kill a lot of demons on the way, and word will spread fast."
Tara laughed, the sound short and rough. "Don’t think demons stick together that tightly. Most of the time we’re busy killing each other. They won’t care that I joined you. They’ll just figure you paid me off with enough mana stones."
Neo studied her for a long second, then nodded. "Alright. Wait a minute."
He pulled a communication scroll from his inventory and wrote quickly. The message went to Sai and the rest of his harem back in the Nyx tribe. He told them another journey had come up, one that would probably take about a week. When he returned he would make it up to every one of them and take the whole group to the beach. He tore the scroll. It dissolved into a soft sprinkle of golden magic and vanished.
He turned back to Tara. "Let’s go."
Tara nodded once. The two of them left the town behind and walked straight into the forest.
The trees closed around them quickly. After a few minutes of quiet walking Tara’s eyes kept drifting to the necklace hanging against Neo’s chest. "What’s that necklace on your neck?"
Neo grinned. "This is the Necklace of the Salamander. It’s used to honor the spirits of the ancestors."
Tara’s eyes widened a fraction. "So you people actually believe in spirits?"
"I’ve already met them," Neo said, the grin still in place. "They have great personalities."
Tara laughed, catching the way his voice warmed on the last word. "I’ve talked with a spirit too."
"Really? Who was it?"
She grinned, sharp and a little proud. "During one of my trips toward the Dalia Kingdom. It happened at a water spring. She called herself a water spirit. I even took her scroll with me so we could keep talking later."
"Really?"
Tara nodded. "If I remember right, the most important thing she told me is that spirits always have ulterior motives." She pointed straight at the necklace. "You should be careful. That thing could be a way for them to possess you."
The warning settled heavier than she probably meant it to. Under the arrogance she wore like armor, Tara still searched for who she truly was. She reinvented herself again and again because some quiet part of her feared there might be nothing solid underneath all the masks. She hid every trace of fear behind sharp words and told herself that courage meant never admitting weakness. She wanted a life that belonged only to her, yet she still needed to be needed, and that push-and-pull never left her alone for long.
Neo’s eyes widened. He focused on the necklace and triggered a full system inspection. His heart started hammering the moment the text appeared.
**Necklace of the Pure Salamander King**
Alert: This necklace carries a spell that slowly corrupts the user and makes the body easier to possess.
Current degree of possession: 37%.
He grabbed the chain with both hands and pulled. Nothing moved. He braced his feet and yanked harder. The necklace stayed locked against his skin as if it had grown into him. Not a single inch of give.
His pulse spiked. "System. What the hell is happening?"
The answer came at once. The necklace was a parasitic item. Now that the possession rate had passed thirty percent, the only method with any chance of removal was entering Torch Man mode—and even then the odds were low. The best path was to reach Goddess Pyra, gain her permission to enter the heart of her main volcano, and use the full pyro leyline of the forest to burn the corruption out of him.
Neo stared at the words. The entire forest’s pyro leyline. That was how deep the problem ran. His mind jumped to the old chiefs. Almost every one of them had died before the age of forty. Sai’s previous husband had been a special case—poison had taken him—but the rest had all gone young. The necklace had been killing them one after another for generations.
His heart slammed harder. "How long until the possession becomes irreversible? How long until I can’t take it out at all?"
The system stayed silent for a full breath. Then it answered. The possession would lock in permanently once the rate crossed seventy percent. At the current speed of corruption, that left him ten days.
Neo cursed under his breath. Ten days. The Nyx quest had seven. The numbers were too close. He had to finish the raid, stop Asmodeus, and still reach Goddess Pyra’s volcano before the necklace finished claiming his body.
He looked at Tara. "We don’t have enough time. Let’s run."
Tara’s grin flashed bright and wild. She lunged forward without another word and left him standing in the dust.
Neo watched her go. The deeper wants that drove him rose up sharp and clear. He wanted a family of his own more than almost anything, yet every time someone got close he pushed them away, already bracing for the day they would leave. He wanted justice, but the line between justice and pure revenge blurred too easily when the people he cared about were threatened. He wanted to protect the innocent, yet his certainty that he knew the right path could end up harming the very people he tried to save.
He ran after her. His eyes locked on the powerful roll and clap of her ass cheeks with every hard stride. The distance between them stayed stubbornly solid. Neo grit his teeth. No way was he letting her beat him. Faster legs also meant reaching the valley sooner, and every hour mattered now.
He opened the system shop mid-stride, scrolled through the skill list, and found one called Running Form. The description was simple: it fixed his running posture and let the air itself help push him forward. He bought it, activated it, and felt the change at once. His form smoothed out. The air started working with him instead of against him. Then he grinned and layered Torch Man mode on top of it.
Fire wrapped his body from shoulders to heels. His broad back and thick arms cut through the trees like a living blade. Muscle packed his legs. Heat poured off him in waves. He became a streak of pure fire, a rocket carving a burning line between the trunks. When he glanced back, Tara was no longer behind him. He looked to the side and found her still sprinting hard, matching his pace through sheer force of will, her body lean and strong and refusing to fall behind.
They kept running.
And then both of them made their way reaching the death valley where both of them stopped at the entrance and then Tara beside Neo pointed to a dark giant triangle that was filled with dark mana and she Said that where nyx is sealed but...