Neo’s Darkness surged.
It covered the crumbling form of Tartarus.
But Neo didn’t devour it.
A strange discomfort appeared in Neo’s heart. The body looked too much like his father for him to comfortably devour it.
He had to repeatedly remind himself that it was a body that looked like his father, and it was not him.
Suddenly, Neo felt two presences surge inside him.
[Lady of the Springs nudges ???.]
[??? grunts and says he can’t be bothered.]
[Lady of the Spring gives ??? a deadpan stare.]
[??? clicks his tongue and says to you he doesn’t really care if that body looks like him, so you shouldn’t mind it.]
Neo blinked.
It had been so long that he almost forgot he could talk to them.
A bitter smile appeared on his face.
“I would appreciate it if you two talk a bit more, you know? Even I feel lonely when I am always alone.”
[??? says you should grow up and…]
[Lady of the Spring tells ??? to watch what ??? is saying.]
[??? clicks his tongue and leaves.]
[Lady of the Spring tells you that ??? is just worried about you, but ??? doesn’t want to show you.]
[Lady of the Spring says they can’t manifest much due to the bloodline curse, or else ‘they’ would notice them.]
Before Neo could ask who ‘they’ were, the presences had already returned to their dormant forms.
His senses focused of the lingering warmth of his parents before he shook his head and devoured Tartarus.
As the last trace of Tartarus disappeared, a flood of spells, techniques, and memories surged into Neo’s mind.
“As expected, the bodies that were fused to create this one lived in subconscious nightmare worlds, so most of their memories aren’t worth much.”
Still, a few pieces stood out.
“Stage 2 Time Dissonance Spell, and Stage 3 Time Ripple Spell.”
Time Dissonance let him create an orb of warped time, capable of accelerating or slowing anything nearby.
Time Ripple was different.
It allowed him to retain memories from pre-altered timelines.
He could not understand why the spell was only Stage 3. From the memories he had gained, it seemed even time regression could be divided into ranks.
Neo had never heard of anything like that before. Even the memories didn’t provide much clarity on it.
For now, he let the thought go.
He looked up.
Far above, Kane fought remnants of the nightmare world. The sky shimmered with twisted shapes and formless terrors closing in on him.
Neo lifted a hand. A flicker of the Nullhour Concept sparked in his palm.
He waved.
The nightmares vanished, completely erased from existence.
“Nullhour and Beelzebub really are broken,” Neo muttered to himself. “When they win an elemental clash, they can one-shot everything. If they lose though….”
Neo shook his head.
Kane landed beside him moments later.
“What the hell was that? You just…” Kane waved his hand, copying Neo. “did that and erased half the nightmare world. Since when could you do that?”
“Since now.”
He stared at his own hand for a moment.
If he wanted, he could erase the entire nightmare world.
Even if he didn’t, now that all the Pillars had fallen, it was already collapsing on its own.
“Come on,” Neo said. “Let’s meet Tartarus’ real body.”
Both vanished, reappearing high above Layer 2.
There it floated—a massive, rectangular slab of obsidian black.
Its size dwarfed even the tallest peaks. It was a door to whatever unknown layer where Tartarus’ true body was present.
“When did you evacuate the people here?” Kane looked below at the silent landscape.
“Thanatos handled it,” Neo answered. “He went to Layer 2 after clearing Layer 3. Everyone’s safe.”
At least, for now.
If they destroyed the nightmare world, then a lot would change.
Neo didn’t say his thoughts out aloud. He flew toward the door.
The moment he passed through, space twisted.
The world changed.
They arrived in the familiar place of Hades’ castle.
They moved quickly through the dark corridors. The walls were silent. Empty. The closer they got to the throne room, the heavier the air became.
At the end of the final hall stood a large stone gate. They pushed it open.
A tree man sat alone on the throne.
Or what remained of him.
He was turning to a statue, the stone-like petrification climbing up his body like a slow disease.
Only his eyes, and mouth remained normal.
Neo recognized him immediately.
His Intent had been present inside the memories where Tartarus’s true body appeared, but now that Neo stood before the real thing, it hit different.
Tartarus was really ‘him’.
“Welcome, Neo Hargraves. Kane Williams. I am Tartarus. The 81st-ranked Grim Reaper under the Monarch of Death, Hades.” Tartarus smiled.
He paused, tilting his head slightly. “Honestly, I didn’t expect to end like this.”
Neo and Kane didn’t respond.
After a few seconds of silence, Kane asked quietly,
“What happens to the people of this world after you die?”
“A question for me, huh?” Tartarus chuckled.
Just when it seemed like he wouldn’t answer, his mouth moved.
“There are three kinds of people in this world,” he began. “First, the real ones. People who arrived here recently, or those who are too strong to be assimilated.”
“Second,” he continued, “the real ones who’ve been here long enough to lose control. The nightmare hijacked their body, soul, seed of existence, and consiousness.”
“And lastly, the fakes. Entirely created by the nightmare world.”
Tartarus smiled again, his eyes resting on Kane.
“If this world disappears, nothing happens to the first group. A few from the second group might survive, depending on how deep they’ve fallen. But most of them? Gone.”
“And the third?” Kane asked.
Tartarus didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
Kane exhaled slowly. His gaze dropped to the floor.
The fakes would vanish. Everything they had was created by the nightmare world. There was no chance of brining them back.
Ava was one of them.
“I’ll be outside,” Kane said, placing a hand on Neo’s shoulder. “You should ask your question.”
Neo didn’t try to stop him.
He knew how to create consciousness, and how to fuse it to into a body.
But he still didn’t know how to make a fake consciousness real.
That was something beyond him.
Tartarus watched Kane leave with a faint smile.
“You worry about him too much,” he said. “You should be more concerned about yourself.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wonder how you’ll feel,” Tartarus said, “once you realize everything you did to save her was meaningless.”
Neo stepped forward.
“What did you say?”
Tartarus laughed, low at first, then louder.
It grew into a sharp, cracked sound. Like someone who had lost everything, and now found comfort in watching others lose just the same.
“Go on,” he said between laughs. “Try to save her. And when you fail…”
The corner of his lips rose.
“Come back to me. Beg. Then I might consider helping.”
Neo’s aura rose and he took a step—
“Ah, ah, stop right there.”
Tartarus spoke with amusement.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t act so recklessly. As you can see…” His eyes looked down at his stone-covered hands and legs. “My body’s barely holding together.”
“One push. That’s all it would take.”
Neo paused.
He frowned.
“I can just turn back time even if your body breaks.”
“Sigh, you really do not know anything about time, do you? All you have is a few abilities related to time, and you think you’ve learned everything about Time.
“Well, if you want to try, go ahead, break me,” Tartarus said.
Neo clicked his tongue.
He would save Elizabeth, then break the bastard. There was no need to take unnecessary risk.
Just when Neo was about to leave the throne room, he stopped.
He turned around, and focused on Tartarus.
“Have you ever heard the name Typhaon?”