“Madness?”
“Yes, my Darkness is unique. It’s stronger than normal Darkness, but in exchange, the madness it brings is equally dangerous.”
Nyxtharion #4 frowned.
The wall guardian dragons had yet to gain complete memories of previous timelines.
While they could remember them, it took time, which was one of the reasons it took them long to find that Neo was the cause of the Time Loop.
“Is he talking about that madness he injected us with?” Nyxtharion questioned in the hivemind’s telepathic communication. “That madness was…
“Evil.
“Even the Great I were almost turned insane. If he is always under that madness, it would make sense why he attacked us despite being our ally.”
“I think the same,” Nyxtharion #2 replied.
Suddenly, Neo opened his mouth.
“I can prove that I’m your ally.”
“How?”
“Uh, the hivemind connection I have. It’s with you guys, right? Both of us are blocking the connection from our sides. That’s why we can only sense each other’s location. But…”
“If we remove the blockages and let you become part of the hivemind, we can see your memories and know if you’re telling the truth or not,” Nyxtharion #4 completed Neo’s words.
He thought about it.
Hivemind connection with Neo was risky.
Last time, they barely survived the madness.
If the madness attacked again, they could not guarantee their sanity.
“Ah, if you’re worried about madness, then don’t,” Neo said. “I will hold it back.”
Looking at Neo’s sincere expression, Nyxtharion #4 almost said yes. Fortunately, it stopped.
It was hard to believe he was the same guy who had been rampaging earlier like a mad berserker.
The hivemind decided to have a vote amongst the wall guardians.
“Should we let him connect with the hivemind to see his memories?”
“I’m in favor.”
“I believe we should.”
“I’m against it.”
“We can conquer that madness! No need to be afraid.”
“I vote against it. Trusting him is dangerous after what he has done.”
“I’m in favor of letting him join the hivemind.”
“I’m…”
The voting happened quickly.
“As per the voting result, we will allow Neo Hargraves to join the Hivemind.
“However, keep the River of Time prepared. If we see a single chance of him betraying us, one of us will regress,” Nyxtharion #2 announced in the hivemind’s telepathic communication.
Neo was not able to hear them talk inside the hivemind.
He waited patiently.
“We will remove the blockage from our side,” Nyxtharion #4 told Neo.
“I will do the same.”
Both sides did as they said.
Neo felt as if he had become part of something much bigger.
He was able to sense the thoughts of smaller Nyxtharions and see their memories.
As for the thoughts and memories of wall guardians, he needed permission to access them.
The hivemind was able to peek into Neo’s head.
They saw terrifying madness inside his head.
It pounced towards them, trying to infect the hivemind.
Neo’s presence swelled, and he forcefully held down the madness, allowing the hivemind to see his memories unperturbed.
He was trained by Kane Williams to be the Fourth Great Disaster. His job was to enter the Layer 4 with the Grand Expedition as Kane was no longer allowed to do that.
He would act as a messenger between Layer 2 and Layer 4.
However, before Neo Hargraves’ training was completed, a malovalent entity was pulled by Tartarus and imprisoned within.
Jack Hanma.
An evil necromancer who lusted after power and women. He was the epitome of the evil that Tartarus wanted to punish. Someone so disgusting that he put his hands on his own ancestor.
Now, he was intending to take over Tartarus and use its powers for his own.
Kane was holding back Jack Hanma on Layer 2.
But he would be defeated soon.
He sent Neo Hargraves to Layer 4, as Neo Hargraves could devour monsters, gain their powers, then grow strong enough to defeat Jack Hanma.
His unique Darkness was their only chance at victory.
The memories ended, and the wall guardians looked down at Neo.
“So his plan was have us help you devour Protectors. It would make you strong enough to stop the Necromancer, and it is our only hope as no one here is strong enough to defeat him?” Nyxtharion #4 questioned.
The strength of Jack Hanma was incredible.
He was one of the best, if not the best, necromancer the wall guardians had seen, and this was saying a lot as Nyxtharion was a necromancer too.
Suddenly, the Nyxtharion blocked the full hivemind access for Neo and used Space Lock to capture him.
“I do not know how you fabricated those memories, but unfortunately you made a grave mistake!” Nyxtharion #4 roared.
The five wall guardian dragons surronding Neo spewed purple flames to burn him.
He used defensive Spells, but he did not retaliate.
“What… do you… mean by that…?” Neo asked, sounding genuinely confused.
“Kane Williams would have never asked you to devour the Protectors! That is impossible! The moment you said this you proved that you are lying!”
“I’m… not… lying…”
Neo gritted his teeth.
Although he could’ve fought back, he didn’t.
If he wanted to show the wall guardian dragons that he was an ally, he had to hold himself back.
After all, he had attacked them during the time loops already, not that he remembered.
He only knew about this information from the memories of the dragons he saw in the hivemind in the short moment he had complete access.
Nyxtharion #2 frowned, seeing Neo’s stubbornness through the hivemind.
“Stop,” Nyxtharion #2 suddenly ordered. “I believe he is telling the truth.”
“That is impossible! Protectors are the Pillars of Layer 4! Devouring them means the Pillars would be destroyed! This layer would be shattered if that happens! There is no way Kane Williams ordered him to do that,” Nyxtharion #4 retorted.
“No, think about it carefully,” Nyxtharion #2 said. “His Darkness lets him devour and gain ‘everything’.
“In other words, he will gain the Tartarus’ fragments that are fused inside the Protectors and become a Pillar himself after devouring the Protectors.
“We already know he is an Immortal. If he becomes a Pillar, the fragment of Tartarus that had fused with him would be now Immortal too. It will be impossible to destroy Layer 4 after that.
“I believe Kane predicted this, which is why he trained him to awaken a Darkness like this and sent him here.
“We need to help Neo Hargraves grow stronger to fight Jack Hanma,” Nyxtharion #2 explained.
Being the wall guardian born out of the original Elder Dragon’s brain, it knew it was smart, and that its deduction was definitely correct.