Neo teleported out of the ship.
He appeared in the silent void just outside the Sky Barrier.
The massive construct shimmered faintly. It was a thin but impenetrable wall of divine energy spanning the Solar System.
To most, it was an unbreakable shield, the final defense keeping outsiders away.
Neo drifted forward slowly.
He didn’t use any technique, or even Energy.
He pressed his hand gently against the invisible surface.
The barrier reacted instantly.
At first it only rippled, like water disturbed by a pebble.
But as he continued pressing forward, the structure itself began to give way.
Cracks spread out from his palm. Thin fractures formed in every direction.
He moved forward steadily while his arm remained extended, and the barrier bent inward as though bowing before him.
A sharp tremor ran through the construct.
Its light flickered violently, and then it shattered at the point of contact.
The soundless collapse reverberated across space. Fragments dissolved into streams of broken energy.
Neo flew through the gap without slowing.
Then he froze.
She was there, waiting for him near Neptune.
White hair drifted around her in the void. Her crimson eyes glowed faintly with an unyielding aura, and her expression was cold.
Her beauty was undeniable, yet there was something heavier about her presence that made his chest tighten the moment he saw her.
She looked too much like her.
’Amelia,’ he thought, the name ringing in his head before he could stop it.
"Who are you?" Her voice carried no warmth, unable to recognize him.
Neo said nothing.
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"This sector is under the protection of the Forgotten Suns. If you don’t want to die, then leave now, rogue God."
Her words pulled him out of the reminiscence he was going through.
He shook his head faintly, forcing himself to see her properly.
’Stage Five?’
He was surprised.
Becoming a God could lift someone’s rank by three stages.
An Exalted Awakener could become a Stage 5 God.
However, becoming a God at such a high rank required countless years of effort, patience, and extraordinary luck.
That was why becoming Stage 4 in fifteen thousand years had been considered a near-impossible record.
’She reached Stage 5 in the time I was gone.’
’Stage 5 in only 15,000 years.’
More than surprise, sadness invaded his heart.
What had Earth gone through in the years he had been absent?
What trials could have forced Amelia to climb so high, so quickly, against the natural pace of growth?
’I should’ve stayed,’ he thought clenching his fist. ’I should’ve stayed with them.’
Amelia, knowing nothing of his thoughts, simply looked at him with the same cold detachment.
"If you’re not going to leave, then you will die here, rouge God. Choose."
She lifted her wrist.
At her gesture, the void around them quivered.
Space itself fractured with cracks spiderwebbing outward like glass shattering under pressure.
Through those cracks came something dreadful.
Blood Sea.
It poured out from the tears in reality, not rushing wildly but moving with deliberate control.
Rivers of crimson spread through the void, twisting into shapes.
Spears, blades, arrows.
The weapons formed seamlessly from liquid blood, all aimed at him.
"Will you leave, or will you die?"
Neo remained silent.
For a moment it seemed she might wait, but then her gaze sharpened further.
She flicked her fingers and spoke in a calm, steady voice.
"The World."
The stars and the planets disappeared.
Light bent and reshaped itself until Neo found himself standing on a vast ocean of blood.
The air, if it could be called that, shimmered red beneath a sky that burned like dusk.
The stench of iron and rot filled his senses, and beneath the waves of the ocean he saw movement.
Countless corpses shifted and writhed, trapped forever below the surface.
And behind Amelia, something else appeared.
How much had she wept for her mother that her figure appeared in Amelia’s World?
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