Ares signaled Emma to follow after Jack.
She nodded.
The meeting hall was plunged into silence.
Ares broke the stillness with his words.
“We can’t fight Typhaon until we are completely prepared.”
He looked at Neo in the eye.
“Now that you know about our choice, we need to hear yours. Do you still want to save the Child of Mana?” he asked.
“Why do you want to know about it?”
“It should be obvious.”
Neo pursed his lips and the gears in his minds churned.
‘We will become rebels if we go against their decision and try to rescue the Child of Mana,’ he thought. ‘They will do whatever it takes to stop us.’
‘Well, I tried my best to convince them. This much should be enough.’
Neo opened his mouth.
“Can I give my answer tomorrow?” he asked, trying to buy time, since lying was useless due to Iapteus’ lie detection.
“Why not now?”
“It’s not an easy decision to make. We have come to the past to save the Child of Mana, and now you are requesting us to do otherwise. I need to think about it carefully.”
Ares stared at Neo for dozens of seconds, his expression unreadable, before he sighed.
“Fine.”
Neo left the meeting hall after receiving the answer.
After his departure, Ares sank into his seat, the leather creaking under his weight.
“He is going to go for the Child of Mana,” Francis said as he stared at the door from where Neo had left.
“I can see that.”
“Want our help to stop him?”
“No, it’s fine. He is just a B-rank awakener. We can deal with him ourselves.”
“You know it better than anyone else that our ranking system is highly flawed.
“Besides, a B-rank awakener should not have been able to survive Anomaly #79 until now, nor should he be able to take out a Necromancer, who devoured Spain, in under 5 minutes.”
Ares had to agree with Francis.
Neo’s abilities were too diverse.
His Time and Darkness elemental manipulation made him a mage.
Having high mastery in two unrelated elements alone crowned him as an irregular.
However, Neo also had powerful sword techniques, high physical stats, and a wealthy combat experience that belonged to a physical fighter.
Lastly, his strange ability of removing the corruption of Darkness, inhuman willpower, and his unknown methods with which he defeated Anomaly #33.
One could be either Master of One or Jack of All.
But Neo was more of a Master of All.
“He is just one man,” Ares said. “He can’t defeat the Association alone.”
Shaking his head, Ares continued.
“Forget about him. What happened to the World Time project?”
“We’ve had a breakthrough in the project and we successfully developed its first working prototype, the [Space-Time Cube].”
A cube appeared in Francis’ hand.
He threw it in the air, and the cube disappeared in a portal that materialized above it.
A few seconds later, another portal appeared before Ares, and the cube landed in Ares’ hand.
“That’s the completed prototype. You can check its performance,” Francis said. “Who are you going to give it to?”
“Athena.”
“That’s a good choice. It’s best if you can protect the Child of Mana with it.”
…
Neo met with Jack outside, who was sweating buckets.
The pale moonlight illuminated Jack’s distressed expression, his disheveled hair clinging to his forehead.
“What happened to you?”
“I just realized, but I cursed at the Gods.”
Jack was shaking in his boots.
“I will die even if I complete the trial. They will finish me as soon as I return to the real world.”
Neo chuckled.
“Don’t laugh!”
“Not my fault. It’s funny to see you angry one second and regretting the consequences the next second.”
Jack wanted to cry but had no tears.
Neo patted his back and left to meet Athena.
“Where are you going?” Jack asked.
“I have an appointment with Athena.”
Neo wanted to talk with Athena as soon as possible and ask her about the novel and the reason behind his reincarnation.
He stepped towards the room he had been told about.
The corridor was dimly lit, and the flickering lamps casted dancing shadows on the walls.
‘Athena’ was written in bold letters on the door.
He knocked.
“You can come inside.”
“Pardon the intrusion.”
Neo stepped into the room.
Scattered notebooks and damaged novels covered the desk, while coffee mugs with dried rings sat precariously on stacks of paper.
A cozy blanket draped a chair, and sticky notes were haphazardly plastered across the walls like chaotic inspiration.
“I’m busy. Please wait a few minutes,” Athena said.
She sat at her desk, busily scribbling something on what looked like a collage of ideas.
Bored, Neo looked at the room to pass time.
He noticed the information about the ‘Son of Zeus’ novel on the sticky notes on the west-side wall.
The cluttered wall was covered in colorful sticky notes, each scribbled with different novel plot ideas.
Some were bold and underlined, while others were faint and incomplete.
He stood up and approached the sticky notes.
After reading through them, Neo noticed a thick notebook near him.
The well-worn notebook rested on a desk, its pages slightly dog-eared, its cover faded from use.
[Ideas for Son of Zeus novel]
“Can I read your notes?” Neo asked Athena.
“You can,” Athena answered without much thought.
‘I thought authors were embarrassed to show their behind-the-plot ideas to others. Is Athena different or was I wrong?’
Neo didn’t waste too much time buried in useless thoughts.
He looked through the notebook.
“What the….”
Neo was surprised.
The book contained a lot of information he had never read in the novel.
Not just that, there was a lot of parallel information too.
One note said Arthur had all 108 elements, while the other said Arthur had 24 elements.
He had picked the notebook in hopes of jogging up his knowledge of the plot. Instead, he became confused.
“Why is it like this?”
“Like what?”
He noticed Athena had finished her work and was staring at him.