“I will try it again.”
Neo stood up. He was about to start practicing when Elizabeth called out to him.
“Neo, I can tap into your World Energy reserves, right?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Worlds can choose their inhabitants as their Avatars. They can give some of their powers to their Avatars and control their bodies.
“I think you became my Avatar when I gave you a World Connection. I can’t pass you my abilities or control your body, but I can give you Energy as much as you want,” he explained.
“I see.”
“Why are you asking about it?”
“I was wondering if I could use your energy reserves to fight opponents above my rank.”
“….?”
“My elemental mastery is Supreme (Mid), and it’s reaching Supreme (High). It makes me enough to fight all opponents on the same rank as me and win.
“I can’t fight those that have a higher rank since my stats and energy reserves fall short. But—”
“But if you use my energy reserves, you might be able to match a high-ranked opponent.”
Elizabeth nodded.
She would still be unable to jump ranks for a physical fight. However, a battle involving Spells and Elementals was possible.
“Let’s try it,” Neo told her. “We should know the limit of your combat strength in your Avatar Form.”
They decided to name it as ‘Avatar Form’ while she would be using his Energy reserves.
While training together, Neo tried to copy Elizabeth’s Water Element Concept.
[Tyrant] allowed her to take control of water, whether created by her or others.
Neo almost said why her Concept was so weak.
He held himself back at the last second when he realized what he was going to say.
Elizabeth, however, must’ve realized his thoughts by seeing his expression.
She told him she would use her Concept on him.
And it was a nauseating experience.
She could use her Concept to control the water within his body.
Neo had elemental resistances he gained from Earth, then his own elemental resistances gained due to his body having a condensed mass of energy within him that rejected any outside energy being injected inside him.
Her Concept should not have worked on him due to his high elemental resistance.
That was when he realized Elizabeth’s Concept was highly specialized to take control over others’ water, which was why his resistance couldn’t help much.
It was like armor-piercing rounds.
‘What’s the point of resistance if it can be pierced so easily?’
‘Or maybe there is another way to protect myself from these attacks?’
Neo experimented more with Elizabeth’s Concept.
Weeks passed while both were training, and it was time for the championship battle.
They met up with the others in the central hall.
It had an arena in the center.
Neo noticed that other than him, Elizabeth, Tyr, Zera, and Ava, there was no one in the arena.
“I thought there would be more people here since this is a championship,” Elizabeth questioned.
“Nightmare worlds are never an exact copy of the real world. They would include only the important bits, which in our case is the battle between Tyr and Tyr’s father.”
Turning his head, he noticed Tyr sitting at the waiting area with a subdued expression on his face. He held a note in his hand and kept staring at it.
Neo approached Zera, who stood near Tyr.
“What’s wrong with him? He looks different.”
“We might not have to defeat him to break this Nightmare world.”
“….?”
“Go and speak with him. You will understand what I’m talking about.”
Neo was confused. Had something changed during the time he was training with Elizabeth?
Tyr raised his head when Neo came to him.
“Father….”
“What did you want to talk about?”
Tyr’s eyes scanned Neo’s physique. He smiled bitterly, a rare expression on his face that only ever showed irritation or remained impassive.
“You’ve grown quite strong in just two months. Even if we were going to fight, I don’t think I would’ve won.”
“You are giving up?”
“Yes,” Tyr said. “You’ve grown so much stronger while I couldn’t even train.”
“What?”
“My life energy took a lot of time to recover. Time I used to… think, and realized something was wrong.”
He showed the piece of paper to Neo.
>Wake up.<
“I don’t remember writing this, but I’m sure I’m the one who wrote this.”
“How have you not forgotten this yet?”
“Forgotten what?”
“That something is wrong.”
“I think it’s because I don’t really understand what is actually happening, and according to elder sister, when I was defeated by you, some of the restrictions lifted.”
Neo nodded.
‘Restrictions lifted’ was another way of saying the hold of the Nightmare World over Tyr’s subconscious mind was weakening.
“What are you planning to do now?” Neo asked.
“I want to know what is happening here. I want to know the Truth.”
His words called forth a burst of strange light.
It covered his whole body and rapidly spread to cover the palace around them.
“Show me the reality.”
Power exploded. Literally. It attacked the world and warped it. In those moments, Tyr’s figure began to change.
His gloomy eyes became filled with irritation and confusion.
“Listen, you lots! Fight that…..”
Tyr looked around.
“Huh? Where is this? I was just commanding the Grand Expedition. Dammit, did I get caught by a Teleportation trap? I—”
A sudden pain tore through his head.
He clutched his forehead.
“Nightmare…. Caught… Grand Expedition not true….”
He seemed in immense pain.
Just then, the palace disappeared. They appeared in an empty vast space and could see countless Black Holes – visual representations of nightmare worlds present inside the Nightmare Tree.
Tyr was drenched in sweat. His body was shivering, and his eyelids were on the verge of closing down.
“You brought back your Active Consciousness?” Neo questioned, surprised. He had underestimated the Clan Leader of the Weapon Dragon Clan.
Before Tyr could respond, the space trembled.
The destroyed world of Nightmare was restored with a snap.
Snap?
Everyone swiftly turned towards the doors of the hall.
The sound of footsteps was eerily haunting.
Neo’s blood began to boil as if it recognized the one walking towards them.