Extra's Death: I Am the Son of Hades - Chapter 735: Solus
Chapter 735: Solus
The ship rattled lightly as the stabilizers adjusted, preparing to land.
“Be prepared to be attacked as soon as we set foot—” Neo’s words cut off when he felt a tug at his leg.
He looked down and froze.
A penguin stood there, flapping its stubby wings.
“What are you doing here?” Neo asked, recognizing it immediately.
The little bird tapped his leg several times in quick succession.
“You want the Darkness Firmament?” Neo guessed.
The penguin, Solus—Moraine’s soul weapon manifestation—tilted its head and tapped his leg again, harder this time.
Like the current Moraine, it rarely spoke.
But somehow Neo always understood what it meant through its gestures.
Solus tapped him again.
Neo raised a brow.
“Why would she be angry if I didn’t give it to you?”
Still, he sighed and extended his hand.
He drew out the Darkness Firmament Seed from his core and placed it in Solus’ stubby flipper.
The penguin held the floating seed above its palm, staring at it with wide, gleaming eyes.
For a moment, it almost looked happy.
Then, without a sound, it turned around and waddled away, disappearing deeper into the ship.
Neo shook his head and immediately began forming another seed using the Shadow Core Concept.
Unlike the original Darkness Firmament, this one did not have a consciousness for obvious ethical reasons.
“Now that I think about it,” Jack said, watching him curiously, “did Morrigan know about the Darkness Firmament until a few minutes ago?”
“Maybe?” Neo admitted. “I told her I had created a new element, but I think I forgot to mention what it was exactly.”
The ship settled onto the surface of the skull with a heavy thud.
At the instant of contact, the empty surface shifted.
A desert spread outward unnaturally, forming from bone dust that thickened into dunes.
Neo and Jack stepped out onto the brittle surface.
The air shimmered faintly. It was dry and heavy.
Neo’s device buzzed.
He glanced at the message.
[Morrigan: I’ll stay in the ship and watch of the tapestry of Fate. I’ll warn you guys if danger shows up or if something unusual happens.]
[You: Got it.]
Neo lowered the device.
The Fate element was powerful.
It didn’t let someone control outcomes directly, but it nudged probability, bending events toward or away from disaster.
The problem was, it was notoriously difficult to master.
Some even said it rivaled Darkness itself in difficulty.
The two of them spent several days scouring the wasteland, searching for signs of the Ancient Dragons.
The dunes shifted constantly, the landscape almost alive in its desolation.
Yet, no matter where they looked, the dragons were nowhere to be found.
“Where are they?” Jack muttered on the fourth day, frustration building in his tone. “Do you think they’re hiding in some kind of special space?”
Instead of answering immediately, Neo’s eyes flicked toward the small, chubby dragon perched lazily on Jack’s head.
Nyxtharion tilted his head under the weight of Neo’s stare.
“I’ve told you before,” the little dragon said, his voice rumbling despite his tiny body. “Ancient Dragons have techniques to hide themselves, even from higher senses.”
Neo nodded. “That’s why I created techniques specifically to counter their hiding techniques. But even with them, I still can’t sense anything. Which means…”
“They might have left already,” Jack finished, frowning.
The thought made them both uneasy.
“Why would they leave? Aren’t they still afraid of being hunted by the Monarch of Death?” Jack murmured.
Neo’s expression hardened slightly.
The dragons had remained hidden for centuries precisely because of that fear.
So why abandon safety now?
“I don’t like this,” Neo muttered under his breath.
Without hesitating, he pulled the Eyes of Echoes Firmament from his Cosmos.
The purple energy shifted in his hand.
“Hey, sorry about calling you so late, but can you—”
Before he could finish, the energy condensed and took form.
A cat of pure purple lightning leapt from the mass, slammed into his leg, and sank its teeth into him.
“…What are you doing?”
“Meow!”
As if insulted by the question, the cat bit down harder.
Neo sighed and crouched, prying her off gently before pulling her into his arms.
He scratched under her chin, her fur crackling with static.
“I wanted to meet you and everyone else as soon as possible too. But things here have been… complicated.”
“Meow?”
“Yes,” Neo said with a straight face. “Too many problems piled up, and I couldn’t meet anyone sooner because of them.”
Through their mental link, Obitus sent a sharp wave of emotion. Liar.
Neo ignored it.
“Can you help me now? We’ve got a problem.”
“Meow.”
“Yes, I promise. I won’t leave you without telling you again.”
The cat narrowed her glowing eyes, then finally released a short snort.
Purple lightning surged around her body, building in strength before lashing outward and embedding itself into Neo’s eyes.
Complex runes and sigils formed across his vision.
The Eyes of Echoes Firmament was awake.
Neo focused, letting the power show him the vision of the past.
The desert flickered in his sight.
Its surface reversed. The dunes peeled away, and their cracks sealed shut.
He pushed farther, traveling back weeks until he finally saw what he needed.
Two Ancient Dragons.
Their massive bodies coiled inside the skull.
But they weren’t alone.
’Who is that…?’
Before them stood a figure.
His entire body was concealed beneath swirling black smoke.
Neo’s eyes narrowed.
That wasn’t his real body.
It was some kind of technique, masking not only appearance but existence itself.
Even looking directly through the flow of time, Neo couldn’t pierce it.
He should have been able to hear their voices, but when the dragons and the shrouded man spoke, the sound was erased.
Another technique.
The entire conversation had been wiped from the timeline itself.
Neo’s grip tightened on the cat in his arms.
The dragons roared as if warning the man before all three of them left together.
The vision faded, and the desert returned to its present, crumbling form.
Neo stood still, his mind racing.
Whoever that figure was, he had techniques designed to counter not only observation in the present, but retrospection into the past itself.
That wasn’t normal.
’Did that guy know I was coming here?’
’No, maybe he was just being cautious.’
’But who was that?’
Neo’s thoughts churned.
He didn’t gave a good feeling about this.
The prideful Ancient Dragons followed someone.
Was that person an Ancient Dragon too?
