‘Or maybe I should attack.’
‘After all, if Kane regains his Trait, there is no knowing how strong he’ll become.’
Neo did not plan to kill Kane, only subdue him, which was why he was hesitating.
He would need to be far stronger than Kane to be able to subdue him without killing him.
‘I should—’
Suddenly, Neo stopped.
The look in Kane’s eyes, he recognized that.
When Kane saw that Neo would not attack, he opened his mouth.
“Where is Ava?”
“If you didn’t find her in Layer 3, then she is dead.”
Vlad answered as he summoned a thin stream of blood.
The blood warped around Kane’s arms, and slowly formed patterns similar to the Runes engraved on his arm.
“How did she die?” Kane questioned, surprisingly calm.
“I don’t know. But I’m judging she went to Layer 5 with Neo Hargraves and Zera de Beaufort, where she died along with Zera.”
“So Tartarus killed her?”
“As I said, I do not know,” Vlad answered. “But that does not matter. Tartarus will revive her. Right now, your focus should be on helping me defeat Neo Hargraves.
“If Neo harms this Layer anymore, it would cause irreversible damage to the Tartarus World. And damage to the Tartarus World might make it difficult for Tartarus to revive your daughter.”
“I see.”
Kane’s eyes dimmed.
He had been helpless when his wife died. He wasn’t even with her during her last moments.
He had vowed to protect Ava and not repeat the same mistake.
But the tragedy repeated again.
‘I guess Zeus was right.’
‘I’m cursed by Fate.’
‘Wherever I will go, death and despair will follow.’
Kane’s aura stilled. Even though his Trait was unsealed, he showed no signs of wielding that power.
“What are you thinking about?” Neo questioned.
“I…” Kane looked at his hand. “I am thinking about this world.”
He spoke to no one in particular.
Neo showed no signs of interrupting, and Vlad used the precious moments to recover.
“There are only three types of people here.
“True people that have their sense of self.
“True people that have lost their sense of self, and become puppets of the nightmare.
“Fake people that were born here. They were just puppets created by the nightmare.”
Vlad realized something was wrong. The Blood Dragon narrowed his eyes.
“Kane Williams. This is no time for these philosophy. If you don’t fight, you will lose your daughter forever.”
“Daughter?” Kane chuckled. His voice cracked. “My daughter was a stillborn. She died when her mother was killed. Ava isn’t my daughter. She is just a fake, who…”
Kane couldn’t complete his words.
Ava wasn’t the child Erza gave birth to, but was she fake?
Yes, she was fake by definition of cosmos.
She was but a product of nightmare.
But she was never fake for Kane.
She smiled when Kane praised her cooking, she would pout when he didn’t let her go on risky hunts, she would—
Kane sighed.
Even if the world was fake. Even if Ava was fake.
For him, they were real.
And yet…
“It’s time I stop running away from reality.”
“What do you mean—”
Before Vlad could complete his sentence, his body was cut in two vertical halves.
His eyes widened.
Both pieces of him fell from the sky.
Vlad tried to heal but found it impossible to do so.
He saw Kane staring down at him.
“I take it as you are going to help me?” Neo asked while he moved to finish Vlad for once.
However, the Blood Sea surged and took Vlad back into the opening in the sky.
Neo frowned.
He activated Eyes of Echo, ready to regress and kill him before he escaped with the help of Blood Sea.
“Don’t bother,” Kane stopped him. “That guy is a cockroach. As soon as he is anywhere near death, the Blood Sea would take him away. It’s impossible to kill him. Trust me, I’ve tried.
“As for your question, yes. I would help you. For that though, I need proof that you weren’t the one who killed Ava.”
Neo nodded. He sent him memories through Intent.
“I see. Tartarus was trying to play it smart and that’s how he messed up,” Kane said.
“…?”
“Tartarus wasn’t worried about killing Ava because he knew he could revive her. For him, it was more important to ‘punish’ you.
“He must’ve thought he would finish you then and there.
“Later, even if I came and found out about Ava being killed, I would swallow my anger, as I wasn’t strong enough to fight him while having my Trait sealed.
“After all, the Dragon Clan Leaders would never break my seal after they found I was pissed due to Ava’s death.
“But, since you pushed Vlad to the corner, Vlad needed my help and he broke the seal,” Kane explained.
Kane seemed almost lifeless.
He knew destroying Tartarus was the right thing to do.
Even if Ava wasn’t real, Tartarus had killed her on whim as he could revive her.
There was no way he could support a world where his daughter’s life was treated like a toy.
“Are you alright?” Neo questioned. “If you don’t want to fight, you shouldn’t. I’ll take care of Tartarus alone.”
“Don’t worry about me. You’ll need all help you can get for Tartarus, and… it’s time I end this for once and all.”
The reason Ava was a Pillar was simple.
It would force Kane to not antagonize Tartarus.
Kane clenched his fist, and unclenched them several times.
“You should recover your stamina and energy before we fight Tartarus,” Kane told Neo.
“Sure,” Neo said while he devoured the rest of the Zones.
[Objective ‘Eliminate or subdue all Protectors inside Layer 4 of the Abyss of Nightmares singlehandedly’ completed.]
[Reward: Level up all subskills of Blessing Haden Light x1.]
[Hadean Light]
﹂Boosts Elemental Control, Elemental Power, and Physical Stats by 300% (Level 1) → 1000% (Level 2)
﹂Judgment (Level Max) (Sealed)
﹂Springbloom (Level 1 → Level 2)
﹂Hell Descent (Level 1 → Level 2)
The boost of physical stats was ginormous since Neo’s base stats were already sky-high.
Elemental Control and Elemental Power also helped, even though he had his own energies, since right now most of his attacks were elemental-based.
Springbloom Level 2 allowed him to recover from injuries of one rank higher than his own.
To explain it in simple terms, there was one sword that could cut everything, and there was a shield that blocked everything.
What would happen if both clashed?
The one with higher rank would win.
In case of elementals, the same would occur.
And if both sides had same rank, then elemental clash would happen.
Now, Neo could heal injuries that were inflicted by attacks even if they were of a higher rank than his own.
Hell Descent strengthened the Hell by five times when it was summoned.
[Objective ‘Defeat or subdue all Great Disasters singlehandedly’ has failed.]
Neo saw the notification and shook his head.
Since Vlad escaped, the quest ended up in failure.
‘That’s two quests I failed I guess. One back in Shadow Trial, and one here.’
Suddenly, Neo wondered if things were going to get fucked here too just like they did in Shadow Trial after the quest failed.
‘No, that won’t happen.’
‘Besides, I technically didn’t fail this quest.’
‘I already have a way to reduce the madness, so one can say I never needed the reward, and it was fine to ignore this Quest.’
Neo checked the memories of Zone 7, Zone 8, and Zone 9.
His mood soured.
He shook his head, trying to not focus on the memories anymore.
Instead he looked at the abilities he got from the Protectors.
“These are good, but let’s not use them for now.
“I already have a good skill set, and if I try to just use more techniques without figuring out a new fighting style, it will do more harm than good.”
Neo exhaled audibly.
He was as prepared as he could be.
“Can you remember the pre-altered timelines if I regress?” Neo questioned.
“I could if we were fighting outside, but not in this Layer where there are almost no ambient Time Elementals.”
“So if there are ambient Time Elementals here, you can remember the pre-altered timelines?”
“Yes? The Elementals will tell me when time is reverted.”
“Got it.”
Neo weakened the World Energy barrier surrounding him.
Time Elementals instantly materialized around him. They invaded his body, eroding it slowly.
Kane furrowed his brows.
“What did you do? Time Elementals seem to hate you a lot, which is surprising since they rarely do that.”
“…we had some disagreements.”
Kane nodded, not prying anymore.
“Anyway,” Kane said. “Since you asked about regressions, I suppose you are planning to travel back in time and fight Tartarus?”
Neo nodded.
“Don’t do that yet. First, defeat him here, then travel back. If you just regress, you will lose a lot of energy and your chances of defeating him will fall.
“But if you can defeat him here, you won’t have to worry about losing to him in the past, even after losing a chunk of energy, since you know you are stronger.”
Kane’s words made sense.
Neo decided to do as he had said.
“Let’s go over our strategy before we start,” Kane said. “Tartarus is Stage 4, but luckily for us, he has been losing powers since long ago.
“His main body is now probably around somewhere above peak Stage 3, but lower than Stage 4.
“The problem is this nightmare world.
“It was created when Tartarus was still Stage 4, and he used the many energies for it with nightmare element as its base,” Kane explained.
“How is it related to our fight?”