She didn’t immediately return to the fight; instead, she leaned against the rocky wall to catch her breath while Thanatos kept the maggots at bay.
His sword moved like a storm.
“You were desperate to send Jack away, but you don’t seem to care if I die here,” Thanatos said suddenly,.
“…?”
“I mean it,” he continued. “Do you hate me?”
Emma laughed softly, shaking her head as she retrieved her staff, having rested enough.
As she stepped forward to rejoin the battle, she answered him while swinging her weapon to release tendrils of Darkness that attacked the maggots.
“Yes, I don’t like you,” she admitted. “It’s because I feel like Jack cares more about you than he cares about me.”
Thanatos, still under Neo’s control, chuckled, as he deflected a maggot’s lunge.
“You sound like a jealous wife.”
Emma smirked and retaliated against wave of creatures.
“And you sound like an arrogant ass.”
“I do?” Thanatos smirked. “I don’t like you either to be honest. Jack is going to be in despair because he left everyone to die. Especially you, whom he cared about a lot.”
“Wouldn’t he worry about you too?” Emma countered.
“No, he won’t,” Thanatos said. “Because I’m immortal.”
Despite the grim situation, the two bantered as they fought, throwing quips and insults back and forth.
Thanatos did it purposefully.
He didn’t want Emma to drown in regret during her final moments.
He couldn’t protect her.
The least he could do was make sure she was laughing before her final moments.
Before his eyes, Emma’s limbs were torn apart by the maggots.
“Emma!” Thanatos roared.
He fought harder, pushing the maggots back, but it was too late.
She was gone.
Moments later, his own body shattered.
The maggots swarmed him, and ate him.
…
Awakener Association Headquarters, Turkey
Thanatos gasped for air.
His chest heaved as he leaned against the blood-streaked walls of the broken headquarters.
His right hand had been destroyed, hanging uselessly at his side.
Corpses of awakeners littered the ground around him.
Their faces were frozen in expressions of pain and determination.
Despite the losses, the awakeners hadn’t given up.
Even after the deaths of Ares and Kronos, they fought relentlessly, refusing to despair.
Thanatos gritted his teeth and raised his sword with his remaining hand.
The blade trembled under the strain, but his resolve remained the same.
Divine Swordsmanship Seventh Stance: Tenraizan
The sword descended with ferocity.
It carried enough force to level a hill.
But the maggots were unrelenting.
Their grotesque forms absorbed the blow easily.
‘Not… yet…’
Thanatos thought.
His vision blurred.
He gripped the sword tighter, slashing again with all his remaining strength.
Gaia and a few surviving awakeners were still inside the headquarters.
He had to protect them. He had to hold the line—
A massive maggot rammed into his abdomen, sending him flying into the cracked walls.
His sword slipped from his grasp as he crumpled to the ground.
Blood dripped from his mouth.
Despite his injuries, Thanatos gritted his teeth and pushed himself to his feet.
His legs trembled, exhausted.
He gripped his sword tightly, the blade glowing faintly with residual energy.
‘Wh# d* y{u f+ight?’
The voice echoed from every direction.
It sounded like an unearthly cacophony of painful screeches, like nails grinding against a chalkboard.
The sound was unbearable, and Thanatos’ ears began to bleed.
He winced.
“Shut the fuck up,” he said.
Thanatos, now under Neo’s control, surveyed the situation quickly.
His eyes darted to the horde closing in, then back to the five-pillars figure looming in the distance.
He raised his sword and pointed it at the writhing mass of maggots.
“Fuck you mean why do I fight,” he muttered while gasping. “It’s to kill you.”
‘You can’t,’ the voice retorted.
Its tone was a mixture of mockery and scorn.
‘That World-Time Spell requires an enormous amount of energy to activate. That’s why you people were using the World Core itself as a battery. But now, the energy of this world—its mana—has disappeared.’
The voice paused, its sinister laughter echoing through the battlefield.
‘Are you saying you alone can generate enough mana for it?’
Thanatos’ grip on his sword tightened.
He clenched his jaw, ignoring the creeping numbness spreading from the purple cracks across his body.
“So it was Typhaon,” he replied.
‘What…?’
“Only that damned fucker knew about the future, thanks to the Child of Mana,” Thanatos continued, “He must’ve been the one who told you about the World Time Spell and how to take us out.”
The voice hesitated for a moment.
The shifting clouds above darkened further as if reflecting its growing frustration.
But then, it laughed again, louder and more menacing than before.
‘So what?’ it sneered. ‘You can’t do anything about it anymore.’
But Thanatos’ gaze didn’t waver.
He hadn’t given up.
The voice, sensing this, grew angrier.
Angered, it commanded the maggots, an extension of its body, to tear apart Thanatos.
…
Neo frowned.
The connection with both Intent Clones had been severed.
“Dammit,” he muttered under his breath.
His grip tightened on his sword.
Each step he took toward the North Pole felt heavier than the last, as the exhaustion caught up to him.
The biting cold of the desolate tundra wrapped around him, but he paid it no mind.
Snowflakes fell gently, their purity a cruel contrast to the chaos and corruption spreading across the world.
The land was eerily silent, save for the distant, guttural screeches of the maggots hunting him.
He couldn’t save anyone.
As if mocking his efforts, a translucent screen flickered into existence before his eyes.
[80% of the population has been killed.]
[Quest ‘See the End of the World’ has been completed.]
[Reward: Level up {Mind Invasion} x3]
The notification remained in front of his eyes.
It was a bitter reminder of his failures.
[Trait {Mind Invasion} is already at max level.]
[The EXP will be converted and used to level up the evolved version of {Mind Invasion}.]
[Mind Control, Grade 3 Mythic.]
[Progress: 30% → 90%.]