Neo opened his eyes beneath the dark sky.
He met a person who was directly related to the rebellion.
Since it was Clara, the original plan had to be changed.
The job became easier.
He could skip most of the steps, and heal the Queen while stopping the rebellion.
Neo knew Clara had the ability to use curses.
But he never expected her to betray Elizabeth.
There was an important reason behind his oversight.
In the novel, the resurrection ritual was attempted by the protagonist and Amelia to revive the Tyrant Queen.
They used the Divine Water pond for the ritual.
During the ritual, the Queen refused to be resurrected.
She told them to revive Clara who died during the battle with the villain that destroyed the Mermaid Country.
For Elizabeth, Clara was like her own daughter.
She raised her and his brother, Paul, with love and care after she saved them from the pirates.
A feeling of disgust rose in Neo's heart.
Not only did Clara stab Elizabeth in the back, she took care of Amelia and replaced her mother.
Was it Clara's way of apologizing for her mistakes?
"O Great Child of Monarch, you returned earlier than what we had decided."
The grating, yet somehow soothing, voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
He looked ahead and saw the Grim Reaper.
"A situation happened and I was sent back here."
Neo noticed something.
The Grim Reaper was not surprised he came to the Underworld without using the resurrection ritual.
'Does he know about the Immortal skill?'
As if reading his thoughts, the Grim Reaper spoke,
"It is fine if you came early. You have evolved and your soul has been strengthened. The limit of corruption your soul can endure has increased."
The Grim Reaper continued.
"And with your skill, you should be able to enter the Underworld at your discretion.
"However, do keep in mind you have to return eventually."
The Grim Reaper was not looking at Neo but above him.
Neo followed his gaze and noticed the screen.
[Time Remaining: 11 hours: 58 minutes]
Time passed slower in the Underworld.
Two days in there were equal to one day in the world of living.
The time on the screen was how long he could stay in the land of death.
When the timer reached zero, he would be forcefully revived.
He could return before time was up if he wanted.
"Can you see this screen?" Neo asked.
"We cannot, O Great Child of Monarch."
After receiving the answer, Neo thought about what he should do.
Returning right now was useless.
His body would be with Clara.
She would kill him again after he revived.
Immortal gave him the chance to resurrect once per day, he used the chance already.
If he died again tonight, he was dead.
[Time Remaining: 11 hours: 55 minutes]
Six hours in the world of living.
Neo died around 3 pm.
After spending six hours (of real world time) in the Underworld, he would be revived at 9 pm.
He would gain the revival chance at 12 pm.
"I can't risk dying as soon as I revive."
"Or I'll die permanently."
Neo had to somehow stay alive for 3 hours after he returned.
He tried to think of a way but nothing came to his mind.
In the end, it all boiled down to luck.
If he was revived in a dangerous place or a safe place.
"What will you do now, O Great Child of Monarch? Will return or will you wait?"
"I will train in the Underworld."
There was a high chance the rebels had his body with them.
After the revival, he would need to fight his way out of their lair.
He was weak right now.
His progress in the Underworld would decide if he could hold out his own against the rebels or die without achieving anything.
Standing up, he noticed the surroundings properly for the first time.
The sea of blood red colors stretched beyond the horizon and something large continuously moved under the sea.
His Death affinity blared alarms as soon as he thought about stepping into the water.
Don't go there, his senses were telling him.
The beach, made of black sands, had a putrid odour.
Bones of unknown animals jutted out at irregular intervals.
At the far end, a white fog hid everything.
The sky was covered in eternal darkness, and three gigantic eyes looked down from above like moons.
Underworld was as unpleasant as ever.
However, he felt comfortable there.
As if he had returned home.
After completing the survey of the surroundings, Neo came to a conclusion.
"There is nothing to train with here."
His only Magic Spell was Necrotic Touch.
It needed a target to activate.
Since he could not use it on the Grim Reaper for obvious reasons, he was left with no way to train.
He clenched his feet.
He needed to increase his strength urgently.
It was impossible without training.
"O Great Child of Monarch, do you perhaps need our assistance?"
"I need a target to train. Can you help with it?"
Neo decided to be shameless and made the request.
"It will be our pleasure."
Clouds of smoke rushed out of the Grim Reaper's hand and formed a scythe.
He thumped butt of the weapon on the ground.
A simple action from the Grim Reaper brought an earthquake.
The tremors quickly died down but Neo noticed something was off.
…the bones protruding out of the ground were moving.
"They are ancient warriors of the Underworld, the Gulwaks, created during the Titanomachy war.
"After the war, they outlived their purpose and were allowed to rest. Now, thousands of years later, all of them have disappeared.
"That doesn't mean they were destroyed, the creation of the Monarch are not so feeble to be defeated by time.
"They still sleep beneath the Underworld, waiting for the day they are to be called again; beware their thirst for battle and blood has only increased after years of hunger."
An arm crawled out of the beach.
Neo could feel the aura of death multiplying by dozens of times.
His own aura was a joke in front of it.
His throat was parched.
Slowly followed by the arm, a head and torso appeared.
It looked similar to a human skeleton except for the two horns, green flames burning in its eye sockets, and the sword in its hand.
Its cracked, dirty bones made it look old and ferocious.
His senses were screaming at him to run away.
'What is this? It's getting hard to breathe.'
A thick aura of Death covered the skeleton.
When he used his Death affinity to sense it, all he saw was a human shaped darkness with emerald eyes carrying a sword wrapped in dried blood and flesh.
"Would my Necrotic Touch work against it?" Neo asked.
"It will, O Great Child of Monarch."
There was no time to ask why the spell that corrupted one's life force could work on a Gulwak.
The skeleton rushed at Neo with a blitz.
Neo crossed his arm to protect himself.
Something snapped when the attack connected and he was thrown away like a rag doll.