Percival focused on the illusion.
He did not know what Neo, Elizabeth, the Void Dragon God, and the illusion were fighting.
Since the battle was happening within the tree that was present on Layer 3, he could not interfere.
Not directly, at least.
Percival began to gather Fate of Death threads from the surroundings.
He would wait for the perfect moment and strike the moment he sensed the illusion to be in danger.
It would kill the illusion and allow Percival to converse with Neo.
…
Neo’s POV
Darkness.
Darkness everywhere.
My consciousness floated in the empty space.
Where was I?
What was I doing?
It was difficult to form thoughts.
But I knew something. ‘I’ was dead. Father devoured me. He could not devour me completely due to Eternal, but his pace of devouring was faster than my regeneration.
My Seed of Existence could not recover.
Then… how?
How could ‘I’ think?
I had no body, no soul, and my Seed of Existence could barely function.
I recalled my battles with Velkaria. Back then, I understood I could generate World Energy and use it to revive myself.
But World Energy was created from Consciousness.
And without a body and soul, my Consciousness should not exist.
So, Consciousness could exist without a body, soul, and Seed of Existence?
Strange…
Why was this possible?
It was then that I saw a sea of white flames before me.
Those weren’t flames.
They were extremely thin white threads grouped together. As they moved, they looked like flames.
Wasn’t that how World Energy looked?
Why was the sea similar to it?
The answer came to me inexplicably.
Sea of All Consciousness.
A place where everyone’s Consciousness existed.
Even if the body, soul, and Seed of Existence were destroyed, their Consciousness would remain in the Sea of Consciousness.
Each thread in the Sea of Consciousness was a person who had once existed.
Their knowledge, memory, and experiences were stored into those threads and flames.
They seemed to be calling out to Neo.
To become a part of them.
To-
‘No!’
Someone grabbed Neo and pulled him back before he entered the Sea of Consciousness in his intoxicated state.
His eyes were hazy, and his mind was muddled.
‘Neo.’
The voice snapped him out of his daze.
The person grabbed his face and made him look at them.
The Darkness shifted, materializing into the figure of a woman.
Her beautiful jet-black skin was the darkest shade of black Neo had ever seen. Her long white hair, white eyelashes, and completely white eyes contrasted her skin and held a strange charm.
The woman’s soft eyes, small nose, and luscious lips seemed to draw Neo in. Her clothes, seemingly made of a night sky filled with stars, hid her curvaceous physique.
Neo could only describe her as immaculate.
However, for some reason, she was crying.
‘I am sorry.’
‘I am sorry.’
He could feel the raw grief and despair in her voice.
“Darkness?”
He moved without thinking and wiped her tears.
“Why are you crying?”
‘Because you always fall into danger due to me.’
‘I always held you back.’
‘I thought I was protecting you.’
‘But always, always, I have done nothing but hold you back. It is because of me that you cannot grow properly.’
‘I am sorry, Neo.’
Neo did not understand why she was crying.
“Okay, okay, stop crying. Tell me everything from the start.”
He hugged her and patted her back to help her calm down.
Despite being so close to someone whom he had met for the first time, Neo did not feel any aversion to it.
Her presence was comforting.
‘No.’
She shook her head.
‘There is no time.’
‘But remember this, Neo.’
‘I will not hold you back anymore.’
‘You will finally be able to use your true powers of Darkness.’
‘But it will bring pain.’
‘I was trying to protect you from that pain, but it always caused you to stay weak.’
‘Maybe…’
‘Maybe if I had done this from the beginning, you would not have to put yourself through those tortures to grow stronger.’
Her voice grew resolute as she stared at Neo.
‘Survive this battle, Neo, and you will be able to use your True Darkness.’
She pushed Neo before he could ask her to clarify her words.
The surroundings changed.
Neo appeared next to a giant tree on an island.
Confused, he looked at his hands.
They were transparent.
One look was enough to make him realize he was not here physically.
“Neo?” Percival called out to him. “Hahaha, it worked. It worked!”
He looked shriveled. His cheeks were hollow, and large dark circles were present under his eyes.
Seeing Percival like that surprised Neo.
“What happened to you?”
“I…. No, this isn’t the time to be talking about me.”
Percival spoke without minding his own deteriorating body.
“If my estimates are right, you have been revived. I pulled your Consciousness here to talk with you. It’s only temporary, so listen properly.”
Percival explained the entire situation to Neo.
“So Tartarus has several layers to it.
“Layer 1, or the outer layer, is where you are at.
“Layer 2 is where we met Kane.
“Layer 3 is the place where I saw the Tree of Nightmares.
“Layer 4 is the nightmare in which the conscious mind of the Grand Expedition is trapped and where they are clearing the Abyss.
“Layer 5 is the nightmares where the subconscious mind of Grand Expedition members are caught.
“Did I summarize everything?” Neo questioned.
“Yes.”
‘Bloody hell.’
The Tartarus had built a damn complex world.
It had strict rules, which prevented Tartarus from intervening directly.
In exchange, taking down the entire Nightmare was impossible due to the sheer complexity.
“The Blessing of Artemis showed us the World Core parts on Layer 5, and we thought by taking them down, we could defeat Tartarus.
“But if what you said is true-“
“Then, you need to take down the World Core parts hidden on all Layers.
“Goddess Artemis’ blessing probably did not work properly as each Layer is in a different dimension.
“Although her Blessing can find objects hidden in other dimensions, I suppose the Blessing only worked for a single dimension in this case, as Tartarus was too strong for Goddess Artemis to locate all of its hidden parts.”