Neo quickly chose the Nullhour Concept.
He began to corrupt it with Void.
Diverting his focus towards creating new energy reduced the strength of the World Energy barrier covering him.
He started to lose memories.
Tyr. Celestra. The Dragon Clan Leaders. The child who gave him the recipe of his grandma's cooking. The man who asked him to hold the sword his late-wife forged for him.
Neo was forgetting their names.
The people who sang songs of his praise. The people who thanked him for killing them.
Neo could no longer remember their faces.
'No! No! No! No! No! No!'
The daughter of the sword saint who had sneaked into the Abyss of Nightmare. The millions of soldiers who joined Grand Expedition despite knowing they might die on it.
They…
Huh?
Who was Neo thinking about?
He couldn't remember.
Not their names, not their faces, not their voices.
The emptiness gnawed at his heart. It ate him from inside.
Those people gave him everything they owned. Their only wish was to 'live' through Neo's memories.
And now, Neo had forgotten.
Breathing heavily, Neo was drenched in sweat when he completed creating the new Consciousness with energy.
Finally, Neo's World Energy was pure enough to stop the tampering of his memories.
But…
It did not matter anymore.
All he now remembered was that he had forgotten about someone. That those people had asked something for their final wish.
What was that wish?
He did not remember.
In his mind, memories replayed with people who had blurry faces, who smiled and shouted but had no voices.
"Neo Hargraves, have you finally calmed down?"
Neo raised his head and focused on Sphinx.
"Can you tell me what happened? Is it related to the 'Tartarus' you were talking about?"
Tartarus. That name sparked an idea in Neo's mind.
He wasn't the only one who had returned. Maybe the others would remember what transpired in Tartarus.
Ignoring Sphinx, who seemed to have no knowledge of Tartarus, he spread his senses and used Pseudo Gap.
Neo appeared above the sky of Luminera.
He noticed the cracks in the skies, and the eldritch entities who seemed to be trying to invade the world now that the barrier protecting Luminera was nearly destroyed.
With a wave of hand, Neo turned back the time of barrier and restored it.
Right now, he had more important things to do than meet those invaders – the Outer Gods who were the cause of world's destruction in the novel 'Son of Zeus'.
Neo appeared before Percival who was inside the office of Student Council in the academy.
"Whoa! Who are you… Wait, Neo Hargraves? Why did you come here suddenly, and why do you look so—"
"Do you remember about our journey in Tartarus?"
Percival blinked, confused.
Neo apologized in his mind and used Intent to read Percival's entire memory.
'He doesn't remember Tartarus.'
Turning his head, Neo 'looked' out of the window and focused on the sun in the sky.
"Sunshine, do you remember the previous timeline?"
"Huh…?" Percival froze when he saw Neo move with conviction. "How do you know that the sun is Sunshine?"
"…"
Neo did not answer.
His focus was on the Spirit.
Just when he thought the Spirit would not answer him, it spoke.
'Thanatos, I do not know what Timeline you are talking about. Can you explain it in detail?'
Neo was able to hear Sunshine thanks to his Empathic Transcendence Trait.
Percival opened his mouth and closed it repeatedly in shock when he realized Neo could hear his Spirit.
"Tartarus," Neo said, hoping someone remembered. "Do you know that name?"
'I apologize. But this is my first time hearing that name.'
"It's fine."
Neo used Pseudo-Gap to appear in Senator Nicolas' mansion.
It was fine if Sunshine did not remember it. But Senator Nicolas? He definitely would. His sword was something special, and it had a unique presence.
Neo banked on the sword to remember everything.
'I can ask them to transfer the memories of the people they have to me.'
The mansion of Senator Nicolas was in upheaval.
Everyone was running to and fro and seemed to be in an emergency.
A quick glance at their Intent told Neo that Senator Nicolas was dead. People were shocked because of it.
"Beelzebub, stop time."
The tiny caterpillar opened his mouth, and it began to devour the time of the entire Luminera Continent.
Everyone was frozen.
Thanks to it, Neo could check Nicolas' corpse without being stopped.
"This… his corpse is perfectly normal. His body is there, his soul is there, and so is his Seed of Existence.
"The only thing that disappeared is his Consciousness."
Neo remembered that Nicolas would soon die because he had given his life force to his sword.
But that should've not happened after time was rewound.
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