“I think so too. But from what I can see, that is the only reason they could’ve come to the Floor 1,” Neo said.
“The Great I believes the same,” Nyxtharion #2 chimed in. “They might’ve found a new way to transfer short messages between Layer 2 and Layer 4. It is not entirely impossible.”
The wall guardians looked at each other, and after a moment nodded.
“Very well. If that is way happen, there is a need for hurry. Come, Neo Hargraves. Devour the Protector of Zone 3.”
The dragons revived the Protector. They returned to Zone 2 before Neo devoured everything.
The Protector was a petite woman with long, silver hair with tears of blood flowing down her eyes.
He defeated her rather easily.
Darkness surged again, devouring the world along with its Protector.
Madness and memories flowed into Neo’s mind.
Cosmos was drowned in an eternal war among the planets.
Gods would invade and plunder Sacred Treasures. They used the tools to uplift the limits of their world, or their own gene limit.
The race to gather Sacred Treasures led powerful Gods to enslave weaker worlds, then they turned them into farms of Sacred Treasure.
The Enslaved World, Cindaros was one such world.
It was forced to create a Sacred Treasure, and when the Sacred Treasure was completed, the invaders would take it away.
A Sacred Treasure was created by a World after it nurtured something of value for millennium, or maybe even eons.
It could be anything. A memory. A weapon. A person. Different type of object would result into different Sacred Treasures.
To a World, a Sacred Treasure was more valuable than life, and losing it was far more painful than being tortured and killed.
However, the enslaved worlds had no choice.
They created Sacred Treasures, and gave it to invaders.
Cindaros’ spirit became weathered under centuries of such torture.
It— She was a kind world.
She treated her people as her children, but the grief of losing the Sacred Treasure made her spirit crumble slowly over time.
The people of the Cindaros could not see her in pain. They worked together to create a Spell.
Existence Devouring Spell.
It took a small part of existence of the people of Cindaros – their memories, their stats, their ranks – and used it to empower Cindaros.
The Spell was dangerous, but Cindaros, after much persuasion of her children, decided to use the Spell.
It made her strong enough to repel the invaders when they came to collect the Sacred Treasure again.
She was not able to defeat them, but at least she was able to protect herself.
She wanted to thank her children for—
There was no one left.
To fight the invaders, she had devoured the existence of all her children.
The Spell erased the very existence of those people. In other words, their body, soul, and memories of them that other people had.
Since Cindaros was losing the memory of her children during the fight, she never realized they were being erased.
The invaders never returned.
Her Sacred Treasure remained with her.
But her children had disappeared, forgotten in the sands of time.
“Tartarus judged her for cannibalism of trillions of people.”
Funnily enough, the name ‘Existence Devouring Spell’ was too grand. It could not devour Seed of Existence, or consciousness.
In other words, the fragments of the people’s Seed of Existence and Consciousness had remained, scattered across the world.
When Neo devoured the entire world, he gained their memories and emotions.
“Unlike what Cindaros thought, they never regretted their decision. Just as how she saw the people as her children, they saw her as their mother.
“They died happily, knowing their mother had gained freedom, and that she was no longer enslaved by the invaders.”
Neo took a deep breath.
“Cindaros’ last pieces of memory says that she continued to blame herself for her children’s death, and that she believed they resented her for killing them.
“Fuck.
“Even though this made me stronger, it’s making me feel like shit.”
If Cindaros could meet her children, maybe her thousands year grief could’ve lessened.
But it never happened.
Neo wiped the blood pouring out from his nose.
Although he could withstand the madness, it had grown so strong that it was affecting his physical body.
Neo looked below.
He was floating in an empty void.
This was the space inside Layer 4.
If Layer 4 was a box, each Zone was like a pebble inside the box. After devouring two pebbles, Neo was in the empty space that was created.
[Shadow Core (Shadow Element Concept) +0.02%]
[Shadow Core (Shadow Element Concept): 98.01% → 98.03%]
“What? Say that again.”
[Shadow Core (Shadow Element Concept) total: 98.03%]
He summoned the Abyss Mirror and checked it. Sure enough, he gained copy percentage of Shadow Core.
But how?
He had not interacted with Tartarus.
Moreover, the copy percentage should’ve been 98%. When did it reach 98.01%?
“Seems like I gained the copy percentage from the interaction of Cindaros and Tartarus from when Tartarus imprisoned her.
“Since it was a very short interaction, the copy percentage was only worth 0.02%.”
Neo was surprised.
“True Darkness devours everything, and makes it my own. Since the memory of the interaction of Cindaros, and Tartarus is now mine, I gained the copy percentage from it.
“This means the change from 98% to 98.01% must’ve come when I devoured the Protector of Zone 1.
“She had also interacted with Tartarus, unlike the Protector of Zone 2 who was imprisoned instantly.”
The Protector of Zone 2, the Sovereign of Three Thousand Shadows, had never interacted with Tartarus. He was… a person who lived for himself. Tartarus didn’t think it was worth meeting someone as wretched as him.
Neo shook his head, and looked at the Abyss Mirror.
“If I can gain copy percentage from the memories of interactions with Tartarus, does this mean I can get more copy percentage from my own memory?
“No, I don’t think that’s possible.
“Maybe, each interaction needs to be a new one.”
An idea came to Neo.
“Nyxtharion #2.”
“You called?”
“Do you have memories of your meetings with Tartarus?”
“…only a few.”
Neo winced when he sensed the emotions behind the dragon’s tone.
The dragon did not remember a lot of things, probably a side effect of being cut into hundreds of pieces.
Asking him if he had memories of his meeting with Tartarus was putting salt on the wound.
But.
Neo had to do this.
Gaining Shadow Core Concept would change everything.
It would open the doors for him for the path to defeat Tartarus.
“Can you show me those memories?”
“…Understood,” the dragon answered, realizing it was something important for Neo.
The hivemind buzzed and memories poured into Neo.
A figure, hidden in shadows.
He had a bark-like exterior, but a portion of his body seemed to have turned into a statue.
