Was the terrifying presence he felt another Spell that Nyxtharion could use if they worked together? It could be possible. After all, they did something similar with the Roar before.
However, Neo had no time to think of such things.
He tapped into the mimicked Concept of River of Time and used it alongside mimicked Tyrant.
Time turned back.
He returned to the moment he woke up in the cavern.
“Huff! Huff!”
He was sweating heavily. He swiftly restarted the Concept of Happiness.
Thanks to the Concept and a major portion of madness being dealt with by the Nyxtharion, he was clear-headed for the first time in a while.
Three seconds passed, and he sensed several small Nyxtharion moving toward him.
Neo bolted toward them.
He punched with enough force to create a several-thousand-meter-deep tunnel. Three Nyxtharion were on the other end of the tunnel.
They had been homing in on Neo’s location and were caught off guard by the surprise attack.
The tunnel started to shake. It would collapse within four seconds.
That was more than enough time.
Neo used Pseudo Gap along with Hydraulic Motion Technique and the Fourth Stance of his Sword Technique.
He turned into a blur of red lightning.
The dragons saw the lightning move toward them while bouncing off the walls. The next second, the lightning was behind them, and their bodies were cut apart into hundreds of smaller pieces.
True Darkness surged out of Neo, and he devoured their corpses.
‘Alright, I got enough energy for another regression.’
Forty seconds passed since he regressed, and he sensed a change in the hivemind.
‘Looks like they realized that multiple time loops have been created.’
‘But they shouldn’t have gained memories of previous loops yet.’
From here on, everything was up to chance.
The dragons would start trying to find the source of the time loop. Since Beelzebub had devoured chaotic Time Elementals, they could not know it was Neo.
However, the memories of time loops could still be gained.
Normally, it was a random event. Time Users could sometimes gain memories of pre-altered timelines, and sometimes they could not.
Though, seeing Tartarus remember everything, Neo suspected there was a technique to do that deliberately.
‘The wall guardian Nyxtharion have not yet moved. So they don’t remember the previous timelines.’
‘The ability to remember timelines is either unique to Tartarus, or Nyxtharion’s mastery of the technique is low, and it takes time to remember everything.’
Neo decided not to approach wall guardians this time.
He would wait for them, and it would give him an estimate of how much time he had before they remembered everything.
His senses expanded, and he swiftly located smaller Nyxtharion.
Heads flew every second.
Neo moved with terrifying speed and uncanny precision. He kept reaping the lives of the dragons, devouring them, and moving on to the next target.
He was on his way to another group of Nyxtharion when suddenly the walls broke, and a punch came flying at Neo.
‘Two minutes, thirty-nine seconds.’ Neo counted the time it took the wall guardian Nyxtharion to make a move.
He swiftly used All-Shadow to move thousands of meters away.
“You run away like an insect—”
Neo didn’t wait for the wall guardian Nyxtharion to complete its words.
He used Hydraulic Motion Technique and Pseudo Gap to retreat as fast as possible.
‘I need to keep moving, or it will use Space Lock again.’
“Hoh? Seems like you found an interesting way to avoid the attack. But how long can you keep that up?”
Neo did not bother answering.
He kited the wall guardian Nyxtharion while killing and devouring the smaller ones.
‘This isn’t enough.’
‘I’ll have to devour several hundred smaller Nyxtharion to be anywhere close to a wall guardian Nyxtharion in terms of strength.’
‘I will have to take risks.’
Neo turned around and made a break for the wall guardian Nyxtharion.
“Finally, you have stopped running!”
It used Voidfang Rain Spell. Purple drills fell down from the sky. They moved with terrifying velocity, fast enough to tear through Neo.
“Let’s see how you can copy this!”
Thousands of purple drills attacked from all directions. The attack’s efficacy increased severalfold as the dragon was not under the effect of madness.
Neo knew this was Nyxtharion’s attempt to buy time. Two more wall guardians were on the way.
He still did not run.
A drill pierced his back. The affected area started to sizzle, and healing abilities working on the area slowed to a halt.
[Voidfang Rain (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Savant) +0.2%]
Neo created hundreds of Intent Clones. They were extremely weak.
They died as soon as the drills hit them, but it was counted as an ‘interaction.’
[Voidfang Rain (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Savant) +0.2%]
[Voidfang Rain (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Savant) +0.3%]
[Voidfang Rain (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Savant) +0.1%]
[Voidfang Rain (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Savant) +0.4%]
[Voidfang Rain (Rank: Stage 2…]
[Voidfang…]
[Voidfang Rain (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Savant) total: 0.8% → 4.5%]
The real Neo weaved through the purple drills.
He used Intent to predict the paths of the drills and activated Hydraulic Motion Technique and Pseudo Gap, which allowed him to avoid all attacks.
This was the first time he was using so many techniques at once: Intent Senses, Hydraulic Motion, Pseudo Gap, Elementals, Blessings, Sword Techniques.
The immense strain made Neo sweat heavily.
Neo could feel his masteries of Spells and techniques increasing at a high speed due to the overwhelming battle.
He continued to deflect the purple drills he could not dodge, knowing that a single mistake could cost him his life.
If the purple drill landed on a lethal area, he would not be able to heal it.
[Voidfang Rain (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Savant) total: 4.5% → 7.6%]
[Voidfang Rain (Rank: Stage 2, Mastery: Savant) total: 7.6% → 11.9%]
Two more wall guardian Nyxtharion arrived.
The mount of Void Elementals in the surroundings increased sharply.
‘They are preparing the Concept of Infinite Void Prison.’
Neo used All-Shadow to appear below the nearest wall guardian Nyxtharion.