“They are probably an effect of nightmare. After all, when people wake up on Layer 3, they would vanish from Layer 4.
“To make sure others don’t realize this, the nightmare creates a fake to act as those people in Layer 4,” Neo explained.
Suddenly, Neo heard a sigh, and Celestra removed her blindfold.
“Finally, I don’t need to remain uptight.”
Her pupil had yellow flames burning within them. She turned to Neo with a smile, and raised her hand for a handshake.
“Let me introduce myself again. I’m Celestra.”
“Just Celestra?”
“Yes, just Celestra. If I was the Dragon Clan Leader right now, I wouldn’t have taken off my blindfold.”
Neo shook hands with her.
He did not understand the connection between her blindfold and her duty as the Dragon Clan Leader.
But, he did not comment on it.
“You two should enter my Shadow Space for now,” he said. “Beelzebub can stop time of the dragons, but it takes a lot out of him while he is stopping dozens of wall guardian dragons.
“I will call you two out of the Shadow Space when I enter the Zone 4. The elder dragon pieces are only on Floor 1, so we will be safe on Floor 2, and below.”
“Okay,” Celestra said with a smile.
Velkaria seemed too weirded out, seeing the expressionless Celestra being so expressive, but before she could say anything Neo opened his Shadow Space.
“Actually…”
Neo stopped.
Shadow Space was not impregnable. The wall guardians might have a Spell that allowed them to detect the contents of his Shadow Space.
He closed his Shadow Space, and wrapped Celestra and Velkaria in his World Energy.
“What is this?” Celestra asked.
“You will know soon,” Neo said. “Don’t resist the pull.”
Celestra and Velkaria felt a lurch.
The world shifted and they appeared in an empty space.
The world—Cosmos was colorless.
It was neither black, nor white.
This was Celestra and Velkaria’s first time seeing a colorless expanse of space, and it took them a moment to understand that.
They noticed a gigantic sphere in the distance.
It was made of countless elements, and was impossibly large.
“What is this place?”
“A universe,” Velkaria, no longer sarcastic, answered in a daze. “This place is a budding universe. I did hear ‘they’ could create a new universe, but…”
But she never thought it was true.
Words couldn’t leave Velkaria’s mouth.
She had seen worlds, Gods, Outer Gods, Elemental Worlds.
She knew what a universe signified.
It left her speechless.
Celestra, on the other hand, was someone who was born on Tartarus.
She did not understand the significance of Neo having a universe inside him.
How was that different from a really large Shadow Space?
Drowned in her thoughts, she noticed she could float around with a thought.
She moved towards the giant sphere when suddenly a black bolt of energy came towards them.
It stopped before them.
Friends… from…. outside?
“Who are you?”
Death… Sword… Firmament…
Neo who had been watching everything finally stopped.
“Death Sword Firmament will guide them there, so I don’t need to worry about them dying anymore,” he said.
Celestra and Velkaria would die a brutal death if they touched his World Core, which was a mass of power created by combining 108 elements.
“Now, I need to deal with the elder dragon pieces. How do I explain to them that Tyr and Celestra disappeared?”
Neo focused inwardly.
He had gained countless Spells from devouring the Zone 2 and everything within it.
He went through those Spells and looked into his memory to understand what they could do.
“Something that would help me in this situation.
“Nope, not this one.
“Not this too.
“This one is good, but it needs the monster’s physical mutation, so I can’t use it.
“What the fuck? Who created a dick enlargement Spell?
“This one is useless for now.
“Oh, this one is good.”
Neo used the Mirrorborn Shade Spell.
It created a clone of anyone.
He could share his senses with the clone. The clone did not have a physical body, and had zero combat power.
“This Spell is like a weaker version of my Intent Clone, but I can create a clone of anyone with this.”
Neo created clones of Tyrkael, Celestra, and Velkaria, then he went back to his original location.
Until now, Beelzebub had been stopping time for everyone on Floor 1 except for Neo, and Dragon Clan Leaders, and Velkaria.
As for Nyxtharion #1, Beelzebub could not stop his time either.
However, the dragon piece of heart wouldn’t come out of his cave until he was called by the Nyxtharions.
He also did not converse with other Nyxtharions, so he wouldn’t ask them why time had stopped.
This was what Nyxtharion #2 had told Neo. Nyxtharion #1 would do nothing, not even think, unless any wall guardian called him.
“Beelzebub, come back.”
Kyu
The caterpillar returned to his pocket, and stopped devouring time.
The dragons were able to move again.
“—we have to eliminate anyone who tries to move through the dimensional barriers!” Nyxtharion #4 completed his words.
None of them realized time had been frozen for them until now.
They dashed towards the location of Tyrkael, Celestra, and the Void Entity, and defeated them laughably easily.
“What was that?” Nyxtharion #4 muttered. “These were just clones!”
Neo put on a serious expression. He crouched and touched the land where the clones had been standing until moments ago.
He closed his eyes as if he was concentrating hard.
“I have an Inspect ability from one of my blessings. You should know that,” Neo said. “It is telling me these clones were created from Mirrorborn Shade Spell.
“This Spell creates a clone that can share the senses with its users.
“I think they were using this to inspect the Floor 1,” Neo explained.
“Why would they inspect Floor 1?” Nyxtharion #69 questioned.
“I think someone told them that a new prisoner, Jack Hanma, had entered Tartarus. Since Jack Hanma has the same goal as them, subduing Tartarus, they might be thinking of allying themselves with him.”
“That shouldn’t be possible,” Nyxtharion #4 said. “No one except you entered Floor 1 recently. There was no one to deliver the news of Jack Hanma to the Grand Expedition.”
