Void snorted when Darkness retreated.
It turned to Neo.
Everyone was erased from existence by ‘them’. Void spoke. The Eternals.
“Eternals…? Who are they?”
No idea. Void shrugged. We found them only when they made a big move on Tartarus. But we will forget about them soon. It seems like they don’t like making their existence known.
“What?” Neo frowned. “You just acted as if telling me about Eternals was something that could put me in danger, and now you are saying you don’t know who Eternals are? Are you fucking kidding me?”
Death acted that way because Eternals can and will erase you if you become an eyesore. To be honest…
Void Elementals circled around Neo, and stopped before his eyes.
None of us remember how Hades died. This is why Death is afraid that something might happen to you if you antagonize Eternals.
“What does dad’s death has to…”
Neo stopped speaking.
He realized what Void had just said.
They did not know how Hades died?
Was it possible for Elementals to not know about something? They were supposed to be everywhere.
Then, it hit Neo.
Eternals seemed to be able to erase people’s existence.
Not kill them, or make people forget about them.
They could quite literally alter everything to make it as if someone never existed.
The same had been done to Olivia and Tartarus.
Hades was strong. Impossibly strong. That was why even the Eternals could not erase his existence entirely.
But since no one knows how he died, it is clear they had hands in his death, and his curse.
Void chuckled.
And it’s not just that water woman and tree man whose existence was erased. Everyone whose fate was affected by that tree was erased – pruned.
You would’ve been erased too. But being a Heavenbreaker saved you.
Neo Hargraves, they have not turned back time. They simply erased people from existence, and the gap formed from their existence is what pulled the timeline back to this moment.
After all, your memory couldn’t be erased completely, and from this moment, you would’ve left to search for the tree man who no longer exist. It would’ve been a paradox.
Thus to solve the paradox, the timeline moved back to this moment where you had yet to set out to find the tree man.
Neo had no words.
Erased?
Why?
For what reason?
Oh, looks like the time is up, Void’s voice was laced with amusement. Your Cosmos gives you insanely high resistance to everything, Neo Hargraves. Sadly, while we have resistance too, it’s not on par with Heavenbreakers. So…
The Void Elementals flew back.
Welcome, to the Hell, Neo Hargraves. We hope you can carry the burden of truth and that instead of being crushed by it, you-
Something shifted.
Neo felt like his consciousness blanked for a second.
He looked around. Everything was the same, except for one thing. The Elementals were tranquil.
“Darkness.”
The Darkness Elementals fluttered towards him with a single call.
“Do you know about Eternals? Or Tartarus?”
No
Neo felt empty when he heard Darkness.
It had forgotten. Whatever Eternals did to erase their traces and people’s affected Elementals too.
Silence stretched through Neo’s mind.
For a moment, he was incapable of thinking at all.
People could wield power of such level that even Elementals could do nothing but be affected?
‘They erased people.’
Neo felt lost.
What was he supposed to do?
How was he supposed to track down people whose existence was unknown to even Elementals?
And what would he do if he found them?
Fight them?
That would achieve nothing.
Neo would lose.
Before Neo knew it, his feet had taken him to Sphinx.
The Sphinx – a faceless man wearing a black suit – tilted its head.
“Judging by how strong you’ve suddenly become, it seemed you have regressed.”
“Yes,” Neo answered.
Silence stretched between the two.
Sphinx became confused when it saw how helpless Neo seemed to be. For someone who was always scheming to outsmart Sphinx, he looked pitifully lost.
It clicked its tongue.
“Stop acting like a lost puppy,” Sphinx said. “Let’s just finish our talk and then you should leave. I don’t want to see your face anymore.”
Neo did not respond.
“Neo Hargraves, you suddenly barged into my home, and demanded me to search information about your parents.
“So do you want the answers or not?”
Neo slowly raised his head. He ‘looked’ at the Sphinx.
Sphinx thought Neo was listening to it, and spoke,
“I’ve tried to access your parents’ Records and the Records of the people Henry Hargraves brought into your house. Unfortunately, I cannot look into their past, and predicting their future is near-impossible.
“It demands too Causality–”
“Wait,” Neo suddenly spoke up. “What did you just say?”
“Unfortunately I cannot look into their past and predicting their future is near-impossible.”
“No, before that.”
“I’ve tried to access the Records of your parents, and those people who you call your parents’ reincarnation.”
“No, before that.”
“Just say what you want to say, Neo Hargraves. Stop spinning the words and trying to confuse me,” Sphinx said, irritated.
“You said ‘I’ barged into your home and asked for information about my parents.”
“Yes, I said that..”
“Did that really happen?”
“Yes.”
Neo frowned.
Originally, he came to meet Sphinx because Sphinx called him for a deal. He would defeat Tartarus, and it would answer him where his parents’ reincarnations were.
Since Tartarus did not exist anymore, it made sense the timeline was changed to fit the events.
Now, it was Neo who approached Sphinx one-sidedly.
“How is this possible? How did I not notice it before?”
“Neo Hargraves?”
Neo ignored Sphinx, and his mind churned.
Originally, he had approached Sphinx because it knew his parents’ current reincarnations.
But, Neo also remembered another thing.
They were the words exchanged between him and Sphinx.
“Fine. Whose future do you want to know?”
“Mom and Dad’s current reincarnation’s future. I want to know…”
“Current Reincarnation?”
Back then, Sphinx’s words made it clear it did not know his parents were reincarnating.
But it had called him by saying it would tell him the location of his parents’ reincarnation.
Two facts.
Both were clashing.
Sphinx called him because it knew about reincarnations, it gave him the reincarnations’ location, then it said it didn’t know his parents were reincarnating.
As much as weird that event was, what was even weirder was how Neo never noticed this back then.
He had glossed over it as if it was something normal.
‘How did I not notice this?’