Zeo: Limitless
Episode 4 — Raid of the Abyssal Titan
The arena had not yet stilled from Zeo's victory when the HUD pulsed again.
[New Mode Available: Raid Battle]
[Random Crew Assembled: 25 Fighters.]
The crowd roared. Whispers spread like fire.
"A raid already?"
"No spawn survives their first raid."
"This will be where the immortal cracks."
Zeo tilted his head, his crimson eyes glowing beneath the demonic mask. He said nothing. He touched the glowing words. Accept.
The ground beneath him fractured, glowing lines splitting outward like lightning across stone. Twenty-four other fighters materialized around him, each radiating fierce auras. Veyra. Jorn. Serik. And, unmistakably, Kael—still bloodied from their duel, but standing tall, eyes burning with electric rage.
Kael spat to the side when he saw Zeo. "So the spawn thinks he can raid."
Zeo's cloak shifted faintly as he looked at him, unflinching. "I don't think. I fight."
Before Kael could snarl back, the HUD flared with mission text.
[Raid Objective: Defeat Abyssal Titan of Shattered Flame]
[Enemy Level: ???]
[Failure Condition: Total Party Wipe]
The void bent.
The Raid World
The stone beneath their feet disintegrated, replaced by a battlefield unlike anything Zeo had yet seen.
They stood on a charred wasteland of broken mountains and rivers of fire. Above, the sky was cracked glass, bleeding magma light. The air tasted of sulfur, every breath heavy with ash.
And then came the roar.
The ground split open. A claw larger than a fortress emerged, obsidian plates glowing red at the seams. A horned head rose from the earth, molten eyes burning with hatred. Its body stretched into the clouds, scales glowing like fire-forged armor.
The Abyssal Titan. Its presence alone nearly buckled knees. Its level shimmered above its head, but the number was blurred with static. Unreadable.
The fighters cursed under their breaths. Jorn growled, his molten skin hissing. "That thing's level… it's beyond numbers."
Veyra's wings spread wide. "Then we bleed together."
⸻
The First Strike
The Titan swung its colossal arm, and the world shattered. Whole mountains crumbled like sand beneath its strike, the shockwave flattening ridges and throwing fighters like dolls.
Kael roared, lightning bursting from his body, striking upward at the Titan's arm. Sparks cascaded but left only faint burns on its armor. Jorn slammed both fists into the ground, molten eruptions clawing at the Titan's leg. Veyra's feathers sliced upward, dozens embedding themselves into the monster's face. Serik flickered into smoke, striking joints and tendons with ghostlike precision.
Zeo?
He simply vanished.
Teleportation blurred him in and out of sight. One instant he was at the Titan's ankle, fist cracking against the glowing plates. The next, he was at its shoulder, heel smashing downward. His blows didn't topple mountains—they were sharp, precise, endless. Where others faltered with each strike, his rhythm never broke.
Still, the Titan bellowed, unhurt, its molten aura scorching everything it touched.
The Cost of Mortality
The Titan retaliated.
It swept its tail, a spiked wall of obsidian smashing across the battlefield. Jorn was flung into a canyon, his molten armor shattering. Veyra screamed as feathers tore from her wings, blood dripping down her arm. Serik barely reformed from smoke before being stomped into the stone, coughing blood into the cracks.
Even Kael—proud, unrelenting Kael—was smashed aside, his lightning sputtering as his body bounced across the wasteland like a broken spear.
And yet Zeo remained.
He teleported at the last instant, appearing above the Titan's head. His fists hammered down, one after another, as if chiseling through an endless wall. He struck and struck, and though the Titan's armor held, his rhythm did not falter.
Kael rose, blood dripping from his lip, teeth gritted in fury. He saw it again—the difference. His lungs burned, his lightning sputtered, every movement dragged against fatigue. But Zeo… Zeo moved as though the battle had just begun. No exhaustion. No pain. Immortal.
⸻
Turning the Tide
The Titan raised its head, molten eyes glowing brighter. A beam of fire erupted from its mouth, a torrent wide enough to swallow armies. Fighters screamed, dodging, some incinerated instantly, their numbers vanishing into ash.
Zeo teleported directly into the beam's path. For a heartbeat, the crowd thought him mad. Then they saw it—his armor-skin shimmering, cloak whipping violently in the inferno, yet his body never faltered. The fire washed over him like a storm over stone.
His red eyes blazed. His voice carried even through the roar.
"I don't burn."
He teleported again, directly into the Titan's maw. His fists struck upward, one after another, hammering through bone and flame. Each strike carved deeper, until the Titan roared in agony, staggering back.
The crowd watching across universes erupted in shock. This spawn. This Level 20 anomaly. He was carving wounds into an enemy beyond numbers.
The Rival's Aid
Kael snarled, pushing himself to his feet. Pride and rage twisted within him, but something else burned there too—something he hated to admit.
Respect.
He gathered his remaining lightning, body trembling as his aura screamed around him. "I'm not letting you steal all the glory, spawn!"
He launched upward, lightning bursting from his fists, colliding with the same wound Zeo had opened. Their strikes landed together—endless teleportation and burning lightning crashing in tandem.
The Titan shrieked, molten blood spraying across the battlefield, mountains collapsing under its fall.
For a fleeting moment, Zeo and Kael fought side by side, rivals united by survival.
⸻
The Kill
The Titan stumbled, falling to its knees. The ground split as rivers of magma poured outward. Its chest glowed brighter, molten core exposed.
The HUD pulsed in every fighter's vision.
[Weak Point Exposed. Final Strike Required.]
Fighters rushed forward, desperate, wounded, burning the last of their energy. Veyra's wings sliced deep into the chest, Serik's smoke stabbed from within, Jorn's molten body cracked the armor.
But it was Zeo who teleported into the core.
He placed his palm against the molten heart. His red eyes glowed, mask gleaming with unholy light. "Break."
His fist drove forward.
The Titan's scream split galaxies. Its body shattered, bursting into waves of light that consumed the battlefield, dissolving the raid world into nothingness.
The Aftermath
The arena reformed. The twenty-five fighters returned—though less than half stood. Many had perished in the flames, their levels erased forever.
Those who remained panted, broken, bloodied. Jorn collapsed to one knee. Veyra clutched her torn wing. Serik coughed crimson into his mask. Kael trembled, electricity fading into sparks.
And Zeo?
He stood tall. His cloak had evolved again, now lined with crimson patterns glowing like molten fire. His mask shimmered, the crack from Kael's duel sealed as though reforged. His number glowed beneath him.
LEVEL 50.
The crowd fell into stunned silence. A spawn who had risen to fifty in mere battles. A warrior who stood unbroken against the Abyssal Titan.
Kael glared at him, trembling, fists clenched. His pride screamed for hatred. But his voice betrayed something else.
"You… aren't mortal. But I'll surpass you. No matter what it takes."
Zeo turned his crimson eyes toward him. His voice was calm. Eternal.
"Then fight until you break."
The HUD pulsed again, awaiting his next choice.
[Next Mode Available: Duel / Crew Mission / Raid Battle]
Zeo lifted his hand, cloak flowing in the starlight. His journey had only begun.