Darkness surged from Neo.
He devoured the Maw of Silence.
Memories….
“Huh? Why are there no memories, or techniques?”
Instead of memories or techniques, Neo got madness, new types of energies – Divinities – and a ‘heaviness’ that he had never felt before.
“It’s a failsafe method that everyone uses to make sure their opponents can’t take power up from their corpses by devouring them,” Yaleth explained.
“So they have something that destroys their memories and the techniques?”
“Yes, it’s a Spell. Everyone uses it.”
Neo clicked his tongue.
In hindsight, he should’ve expected this.
Stage-4 and higher gods would’ve had incredibly powerful techniques they spent millions of years to create.
They wouldn’t want to lose it.
‘So I need to devour them while they are alive,’ Neo thought.
He activated Eyes of Echoes and looked into the past while the Outer Gods were still alive.
Then, he used All-Shadow-
Neo’s Consciousness was suddenly cut off.
He woke up with a groan.
“What just happened?” he asked while massaging his brows.
An intense headache pounded against his head, he was completely drained, and his body felt incredibly weak.
“You just died…. Did you try to regress?” Yaleth asked.
“I did.”
“I told you not to do that.”
“Yeah, I didn’t use it during the battle.”
“That’s not what I….” Yaleth sighed and massaged his head. “Look, I’ll explain it once so focus.”
Yaleth created an illusion of River of Time and Beelzebub.
“Neo, your ‘Time’ can stop time. How much energy does it take?”
“It depends on the area of effect and the strength of people who are inside that area. Too large of an area or if someone stronger than me is there, I can’t stop time.”
“What does ‘strength’ mean here?”
“Total energy Beelzebub can use at once.”
“So your Time manifestation’s strength depends on the energy you use. Now, how much energy do you think is used to go back in time by using River of Time?”
“A lot?”
“And what’s the area of effect of a regression done by River of Time.”
“The entire universe, I think,” Neo said.
“You are correct. Now, Neo Hargraves, tell me, do you really think an Awakened Demigod, or Mythic Demigod, would have ‘energy’ to turn back time of the entire universe?”
“That…”
Neo couldn’t answer.
River of Time’s unique nature allowed one to go back in time, but it should still consume an unfathomable amount of energy.
After all, the stronger a technique, the more energy it consumed.
Until now, he never thought where the energy used to turn back time using River Of Time came through.
The demigods used their energy, true. But it was far from enough to affect the entire universe no matter how you see it.
“The answer is Supreme of Time. He is one of the benevolent Supremes.
“And the reason inhabitants of Stage 3 or weaker planets, can turn back time of the entire universe is because Supreme of Time helps them to do that.
“However, when those people go beyond the strength of Stage 3 or if their planet does that, then Supreme of Time will no longer help them,” Yaleth explained.
“What?” Neo was confused.
“People of weaker worlds have no chance against those from stronger worlds.
“A child from a Stage-4 planet can decide that he doesn’t like a Stage-3 planet, and he wants to slaughter them.
“The people of the Stage-3 planet? They won’t be able to stop him. The gap in strength is too much,” Yaleth said.
Stage-4 planets had a history of billions of years. The knowledge and treasures they had gathered was immense.
In comparison, a Stage-3 planet would have lived for only a few million years with mystical energies.
“So… Supreme of Time is allowing people of weaker worlds to regress and thus helping them.”
“Yes.”
Neo nodded at Yaleth’s words.
The reason Earth survived Velkaria, and countless other tragedies was thanks to their ability to regress.
“When you tried to regress just now, you were trying to roll back the timeline of the universe by yourself. It costs too much energy.
“You didn’t have that much energy, and that’s why you died from exhaustion,” Yaleth explained.
Neo understood he couldn’t go back in time.
But what if he tried to limit the area of effect of River of Time? And could he still go to the future using All-Shadow?
There were quite a few things that needed to be experimented.
Neo clicked his tongue. Divinities, the limitation of Time. Quite a lot changed after he left the Earth.
It made him understand he was ignorant of the ways of Cosmos.
“What are you thinking?” Yaleth asked.
“Nothing.”
Neo shook his head and devoured another corpse.
Immediately, he grunted.
Madness surged, he gained a Divinity, and the heaviness increased.
Neo could feel his body being crushed under the invisible weight.
“As I thought, you used Darkness to forcefully grow stronger beyond your rank.
“I don’t know how high your compatibility with Darkness is to jump one whole rank by devouring others, but it’s clear you are reaching your limit,” Yaleth said.
“What… now…?” Neo said.
Every move he made was straining his body.
While the madness rampaged in his mind, the heaviness crushed his body.
“It’s your Existence Level limit.”
“You mean my rank?”
“No.” Yaleth shook his head. “People from lower worlds think that Existence level and rank are the same, but they are different.
“Your rank can fall if you are corrupted by void, or if you reincarnate, but your Existence level can never go down. It only goes up, or stagnates.”
Yaleth explained.
He told Neo to think of ‘existence’ as a container.
The higher your existence level (the bigger container), the more it can hold.
The contents of one’s existence were their memories, techniques, Concepts, physical strength, soul, and everything else that came together to complete one’s existence.
When one reached their existence level limit, they could not gain more.
In other words, they won’t be able to learn new techniques, gain new memories, or grow stronger unless they ranked up.
“You must be a reincarnator whose previous life was a peak Stage-3 being. That is the only reason why your existence limit is peak Stage 3 even though you are Stage-2.”