Bog

Back at his apartment, Neo removed his bloodied hoodie and mask.

While walking towards his room, he left some red footprints behind from the blood of the people he killed.

Yes, the masked man who killed the two ruffians in the alleyway was Neo.

As soon as the mask left his face, it revealed a pair of golden eyes, and as the hood was lowered it revealed a complete white hair, without a single inch black like it was just a few hours ago.

Entering in his bedroom, he threw the clothes and mask at the side and went to the bathroom to take a shower and get rid of bloody stench in his body.

With a cold and emotionless face he turned the shower on and stayed beneath it, letting the water wash his body.

"You got out of control..." He said with a low and clearly angered voice.

"..."

"If I hadn't stop you, both the souls would be gone. I warned you before to leave one soul behind because I had some use for it."

"..."

"No excuses. Just stay quite and I'll feed you from time to time."

With those words the mysterious conversation between Neo and an unknown entity was over.

Neo closed his eyes and slowly washed his body, and with the help of his mana he swiftly got rid of the blood stench in his body.

In less than 10 minutes, Neo showered himself and got dressed.

Looking at the clock in his room, he saw that it was still about 8 pm.

"I have time..." Neo sat on his bed and opened his hand.

A small gray sphere could be seen hovering on top of his hand.

It was one of the ruffian's souls, the only one that Neo haven't absorbed.

"Hm?" Neo was about to start some experiments when he suddenly felt something coming from the living room.

Neo closed his eyes and used all his senses to feel his surroundings.

In no time he realized that something wasn't right.

Silence, complete silence all around him.

There was no more sounds of the neighborhood and neither of the cars in the streets.

Neo felt a shiver down his back.

Not because of the situation he found himself into, but rather because someone or something was using some kind of spell that isolated his room from the outside without him even noticing.

He just felt that something was wrong after the faint pulse of mana that came from his living room.

Neo stood up and walked towards the door.

The moment he got near, his shadow started to twist and turn as it slowly climbed out of the ground towards his hand.

It stopped moving once it reached Neo's hand. As soon as he tightly grasped it, the formless shadow transformed into a pitch black sword that immediately absorbed all light from the surroundings, making his room fall into complete darkness.

With one hand grasping the eerie sword and another at the door's knob, he slowly left his bedroom and entered in the living room.

It appeared to have nothing wrong with the room.

On the dark living room, the one source of light that could be seen were Neo's bright golden eyes that carefully scanned his surroundings.

"Show yourself." Neo said in a low and threatening tone.

Even though he had look everywhere and seen nothing, he could still feel a presence lingering in the living room.

"Heh.. that's a surprise." A voice could be heard coming from all directions.

Neo tried to locate the source but it was fruitless.

He maintained his guard up and his shadow beneath his feet twisted and moved to one side and the other, clearly it showed that it would move at the moment's notice.

Neo closed his eyes and listened to the sounds around him.

It was complete silence inside the apartment.

"You should be-"

"...!" At the small shuffling noise that came from his right, Neo didn't hesitate to immediately control his shadow to become deadly spikes and pierce at the source of the sound.

With the familiar noise of his spikes piercing flesh that he knew very well from his uncountable times he killed using the same strategy, the voice was cut off.

Neo opened his eyes and approached what he had just hit.

Even in such darkness Neo could see clearly as day.

At the corner of the living room, next to the apartment's door, there was single humanoid figure pinned at the walls by pitch black spikes.

Neo inclined his head to take a better look.

It was an extremely white young man, whiter than paper.

His hair had a green coloration just like his dull, lifeless eyes that were slightly opened.

He couldn't be considered handsome and neither a normal-looking person, he was... unique, or so to speak. He looked even better with that small smile on his face.

[Wait... smile?] Neo stared at the person's face.

"-Neo, am I right?"

Neo jumped back as soon as he heard the "corpse" speaking.

With a small smile on face, the green-haired young man glanced at Neo.

Despite the numerous spikes on his body that made his casual clothes be filled with holes, he looked completely save.

Neo glared at the figure and realized that even with the spikes piercing the man's body, there was not a single drop of blood.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Neo calmly asked.

Since he couldn't feel any malice or killing intent coming from the opposite side, and since he apparently unable to kill him, Neo decided to get some information first before following with other attacks.

The man's smile widened until it became so big that it looked completely abnormal and impossible on his face.

"Excuse my rudeness." He spoke casually while looking completely unaffected by the multiple spikes in his body, "I often forget that I should introduce myself first. I'm Bog, also known as the Scourge."

[Bog?] Neo frowned and thought about about the name. He searched Neo's old memories that he had access, but he couldn't find anything about the name.

[Wait... the Scourge?] After he heard the title of the man, Neo's face instantly fell.

While the name Bog didn't ring a bell, the title was something else.

Inside one of the souls that Neo absorbed during his time in the Underworld there was some information about the fiend known as the Scourge.

Scourge, the undying evil.

It was an existence older than the Primordial Gods.

There was some tales that all the Gods united and fought the Scourge, but they were unable to kill him.

Everytime he was destroyed, somehow he would be back again in no time.

So, they threw him in the Void Realm...

Unfortunately, that was all the information that Neo had about the existence of the Scourge.

But it was enough for him to realise that fighting against him would be simply suicidal.

Would be suicidal if the green-haired man was really that old being that fought against Gods.

If the tales were true, the Scourge was still aprisioned in the Void Realm, the inescapable prison.

Or so was what Neo would believe if he hadn't met with a being that was capable to take someone out of there.

[The Mad God...] Neo lifted his eyes and stared at the young man that had an ominous and creepy wide smile on his face, [Maybe...he was helped by the Mad God?]

"No, I don't think I know this... Mad God." Bog suddenly said.

Neo face changed once again.

[He can read my-]

"-mind!" Bog casually finished Neo's thought.

Neo unconsciously took a step back.

"No need to be so afraid..." Bog's smile somehow got wider, "I can only read your supercial thoughts, not your mind. Your mind is surprisingly tough and hard to penetrate, just like your darkned soul."

Even with what Bog said, Neo didn't relax a bit because he knew that one of the hardest people to deal with where the ones that could read minds or thoughts, just behind the ones that could predict the future or manipulate time.

Bog's emotionless and dull eyes lowered as he looked at the pitch black spikes in his body. With his smiling face he asked, "Can you take these out of my body? I'm kinda in a uncomfortable position right now."

Neo narrowed his eyes and lifted his hand seemingly ready to dispel the spikes.

{Tier 2 Dark Spell: Shadow Blade}

With a fast chant, Neo ruthlessly sent a Tier 2 spell towards Bog's way.

Seeing Neo's action, Bog's face didn't change a bit.

The moment Neo finished chanting, a pitch black blade was immediately went for it's target.

With blinding speed, the blade cleanly cut where Neo was aiming for.

A thud sound could be heard following a dead silence.

Neo emotionlessly stared at the head that just dropped on the ground.

Despite it being cut off by Neo's spell, Bog's head still had that humanly impossible wide smile plastered on its face.

The pinned body just motionless dangled on the wall.

"That was rude." The cut off head that was on the ground said casually.

Neo watched as those dull green eyes slowly moved until they met with his own golden eyes.

Neo wasn't surprised that Bog didn't die, in fact, he expected such result. He was suspecting on whatever or not the person in front of him might be or not the Scourge.

While Bog being alive after his head was cut off, proved a few things to Neo, he wasn't completely convinced of the other's identity.

"Cutting someone's head off as far as I remember isn't something cool." Bog still had the casual tone and playful tone in his voice as he spoke, "Has the world changed so much?"

"Yes, nowadays it's normal to cut people's head off as a form of friendship action, such as high-five, fist bump, etc."

"Oho~ You surprisingly know how to joke around..." Bog playfully spoke until his eyes gleamed with an unknown light as he uttered these last words, "...Daemon."

Neo's eyes flashed with surprise and killing intent as he heard his name, his original name.

"What's the surprise? I know a lot more than you think." Bog said, "it's really strange to have my head and body separated from one another. Let me fix this real quick."

Right before Neo's surprised eyes, Bog's head started to melt into a purple liquid along with the pinned body in the wall.

Neo lifted the sword in his hand and carefully looked at the what was happening.

As both body and head became nothing more than a strange purple liquid, they slowly combined with each other.

In no time, the purple liquid transformed itself into the humanoid Bog with green eyes and green hair, just like before, but without the holes made by Neo's spikes and neither a severed head by Neo's spell.

Bog opened his dull eyes and his face broke into the humanly impossible wide smile once again.

"That's better." He said while freely moving his limbs around before glancing back at Neo and saying, "Gorgon Province, huh? You really killed every single being around there and was only stopped once the Gods decided to put you down."

Neo kept silent, but his killing intent was rising after every letter, every word uttered by Bog.

"What is the name of that loving-war-manic God?" Bog thoughtfully scratched his chin, "Ares, I think... that's the one. It was Ares that killed you and gave your soul to Hades lock you up in the Underworld."

"That didn't worked out in the end, right?" Bog said jokingly, "You completely made the Underworld chaotic, and also the Tartarus. Your tenacity and determination is outstanding, I have to say. Hades and Tartarus aren't easy to wound, but you still managed to do so. I'm genuinely impressed."

Once he saw that Bog stopped speaking and was looking at him, Neo said nonchalantly, "That's why you came here? Just to narrate my past to me?"

"No, I don't have that much free time and death wish." Bog said, "I'm here to..." The smile splitted Bog's face in two, "...kill you."

"I thought so." Neo readied his sword. Even knowing that he has no chance against Bog, he was ready to fight to death.

In the face of death, Neo emotionlessly stared at it while his golden eyes slowly became of a cyan color.