Neo’s consciousness stirred.
His eyes snapped open as a sharp pain throbbed in every fiber of his body.
His breath came ragged, and shallow.
His Intent vision blurred as he took in his surroundings.
He was lying on rough, uneven stone. The scent of damp earth and something faintly metallic filled his nostrils.
A cavern. A massive one.
The jagged and uneven ceiling loomed hundreds of meters above. Faint bioluminescent fungi clinging to its surface.
‘Where am I—’
A high-pitched and inhuman shriek interrupted his thoughts.
Neo focused on his senses, and he saw it. A creature surged toward him with eight legs skittering across the stone.
Its chitin and sinew came together into a grotesque blend.
Its body was covered in thick, segmented armor, dark and glossy, like polished obsidian.
Eight crimson eyes glowed with eerie intelligence, locked onto him.
Its mandibles twitched, clicking together as if tasting the air, and venom dripped from the curved fangs protruding from its grotesque maw.
Neo gritted his teeth and tried to push himself up.
His arms trembled, his legs buckled. He collapsed back onto the cold stone.
His body was broken.
The battle against Tartarus had pushed him beyond his limits.
He had burned every last shred of his Energy, even the Condensed World Energy that served as the foundation of his physical form.
His bones, his organs, his blood—everything was formed from World Energy, and now, most of it was gone.
He was lucky his body hadn’t shattered entirely, but he could not fight in his current condition.
The monster was closing in.
Neo clenched his fists.
He could just stay down. Let the beast tear into him, let it be satisfied and leave whatever remained of him alone. It would be easy. He could revive after that. He was Immortal.
But the cold, seething rage within him refused to let him.
Tartarus.
He hated that name. He hated himself more. His weakness, his failure.
He lost her. Because he was weak.
The overwhelming fury bubbled inside his skull, screaming to be released.
He needed something to kill.
Pain exploded in his arms as he pushed himself up again.
Cracks splintered across his skin like shattered porcelain. Pain exploded in his mind, but he forced his body to move.
The spider lunged. Its monstrous limbs blurred through the air—
Divine Swordsmanship Eighth Stance: Kami no Shinpan.
The formless blade tore through the beast’s chitinous hide with a clean, merciless cut.
Blood spurted in an arc as the creature’s body split in two, and its halves collapsed lifelessly onto the ground.
Neo exhaled sharply.
The pain was unbearable, but he barely acknowledged it. His anger kept him moving.
Just as he had sensed, the cavern had more of them.
The monster’s brethren emerged from the shadows.
Some of these ones were larger, five times the first one’s size, and stronger.
Their armored bodies glowed with faint red veins pulsing beneath the surface, as if molten lava flowed through them.
Their mandibles dripped with something thick and corrosive, hissing as it ate into the stone beneath them.
Their limbs were sharper, and longer.
Neo was not focused on them.
His mind kept replaying the scene in his mind.
Her smile, her serene eyes, and her last words.
Words she had tried to say, but could not.
Now, they were lost forever.
The nearest monster lunged at him.
He sidestepped, and brought his sword in a brutal arc. His strike met resistance.
This one’s exoskeleton was thicker.
His blade bit into it but didn’t cleave through immediately.
With a snarl, he forced more strength into the cut, driving his sword through muscle and bone.
The spider screeched as its body collapsed.
But another was already upon him.
A leg the size of a spear slammed into his side. Bones cracked. Neo stumbled, barely managing to twist his body to avoid a second strike.
His body screamed in protest, but he didn’t stop moving.
One came from behind.
He pivoted, twisting his blade in a reverse grip and driving it backward.
A screech of agony erupted as he found his mark, piercing one of the monster’s glowing eyes.
Another leapt from above.
He rolled forward, barely avoiding being crushed. His foot slipped on the slick stone, but he steadied himself just in time to meet the next one’s charge.
His sword danced through the air, cutting through chitin, severing limbs, carving through flesh.
His body fractured further, unable to sustain the strain. His skin split like a shattered mask, revealing raw, exposed flesh beneath.
Every movement sent fresh agony tearing through him.
He needed the pain. It helped him ignore his thoughts.
Why was it always him who survived? Why did he had to watch his loved ones die every time?
Neo did not try to use mimicked River of Time.
Too much time had passed, and Time Elementals wouldn’t let him return.
They disliked him after he led Daniel, their Loved One, astray, and now, he had committed a far worse felony.
He forced an artificial Timeline to become real. Not once, but twice.
A searing pain shot through his head.
He pulled the monster’s leg out from his chest, and returned the favour.
Another beast fell. Then another.
Their bodies piled around him, and thick blood pooled beneath his feet. The stench of death filled the cavern.
But they kept coming.
His movements slowed. His breath came ragged. His arms trembled from sheer exhaustion.
And still, he fought.
Hours passed before he finally fell. But no monster used the opening. They were not alive to do that. All of them were dead.
Neo lay there, between the mountains of corpses.
He bit his lips, and covered his eyes.
The absence of pain and battle forced his thoughts to move.
How was he going to find her reincarnated self in the endless Cosmos? What if she had reincarnated into the past? He could never find her if that was to happen.
What if he never met her again?
The thought chilled his heart.
His nails dug into his palm.
He shouldn’t have proposed to her. He should’ve kept his heart closed, and acted oblivious to his emotions.
Maybe then, he wouldn’t feel broken after witnessing her death.
A hollow emptiness settled on his face.
What kind of man was he? He couldn’t even protect the woman he loved—
His thoughts came to a freezing halt.
Ouroboros.
The World-Time Spell etched on his back.