Two months later
“It’s time,” Charlotte muttered.
While she sat in her office, her gaze was fixed at Neo who was with the Sphinx.
Neo would die from terminal dehydration today.
It would forcefully end the fourth vision.
“If we were going to do this, wouldn’t it have been better to kill him earlier so he could leave the fourth vision?” the Sphinx asked.
It sat within its lair, next to Neo.
“No, we can’t kill him.
“If the Akashic Record is showing him a trial he needs to complete in one ago, killing him earlier would hinder him.”
Of course, the opposite could be true.
Neo might just be trapped in the fourth vision.
After careful consideration, they decided to neither kill Neo nor heal him to make sure he lived longer.
They would wait until he died his natural death.
“I still think we shouldn’t let him revive.
“The Akashic Record must have a reason to kill him.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Charlotte sighed. “We can’t afford the consequences if he dies.”
“The Tyrant?”
“Yes, her.
“It’s already a headache seeing her wake up at midnight everyday as she contemplates whether she should attack you or not.”
The Sphinx let out a nervous smile.
It shouldn’t have asked.
Now it could picture Elizabeth coming after it.
…!
Neo moved.
Charlotte and Sphinx swiftly directed their focus towards Neo.
His pulse slowly stopped.
He was dead.
Sphinx closed its eyes and reopened them a few moments later.
“The fourth vision ended. I’ve confirmed it.”
Charlotte let out a sigh.
She had been worried the Akashic Record would keep Neo’s mind trapped even after he died.
“Now we wait for him to revive.”
…
Neo appeared in the Underworld.
His eyes were blank.
The eternity he spent in the fourth vision, trapped within the body of the man, unable to do anything, crushed his sense of self.
He was nothing more than an empty husk now.
His sense of self died eons ago.
Neo’s soul started to crumble.
Just as he was about to disappear, becoming a part of Underworld for eternity, an unknown power caught him.
Unlike the power that suppressed his ego in the visions, this one was comforting and gentle.
It pulled Neo into an empty dark void.
Neo…
Master…
Wake up….
Obitus tried to talk to Neo.
It did not understand what was happening.
He always returned from the vision, even if they hurt him, but not this time.
The sword — its soul merged with Neo’s — tried to jolt Neo to awareness before he crumbled away into nothingness.
It was worried.
Neo would die immediately again, even if he was revived through Immortal, if his sense of self completely disappeared.
Suddenly, the unfamiliar power surged again.
Obitus noticed someone walking towards them.
It let out a roar of Auras to warn the woman.
She smiled.
Her steps were light.
Flowers bloomed wherever she stepped.
It was as if she was the harbinger of life.
Obitus’ Aura did nothing to the woman.
She stood before Neo.
“Thank goodness I could bring you here before you faced the void death.”
Neo reacted to the woman’s appearance.
“Melino??”
He wasn’t healed.
His body was merely moving like a robot when it received external stimuli.
“It’s mother for you.”
The woman cupped Neo’s face.
She pulled him closer and planted a kiss on his forehead.
A refreshing energy flowed into his body.
It reached the deepest corner of his soul.
Neo was jolted awake.
He took a mouthful of air and blinked.
Suddenly he was sitting next to a pond within a forest.
The air was refreshing, the trees lush, and the water clear.
“It’s the season of spring.”
Melino? voice flowed into his ears.
She sat next to him.
Neo’s gaze never left the woman.
“Who are you? You can’t be Melino?— Ouch!”
She twisted Neo’s ear.
“W-what are you doing?”
“That’s no way to talk to your mother.”
“Fuck you mean by mother, Melino? died ages ago— Ouch!
“Wait! It hurts! Okay, okay, I’m sorry!”
Neo rubbed his ear after she let him go.
The woman was strong.
There was no way he would cry from pain otherwise.
‘She saved me from void death too.’
‘She can’t be a simple person.’
Neo was not very alarmed.
It was clear the woman had no harmful intentions.
He was thankful to her for saving him.
The level of Immortal was too low for it to resurrect him from a void death.
Although his physical body would have been revived, his sense of self would’ve remained dead.
“Who are you?” Neo asked.
“Sigh, my son doesn’t recognize his own mother.”
Melino? cupped her face in an exaggerated motion and act as if she was sad.
She waited for his reaction.
“…”
“…”
“It’s not funny.”
Melino?’s face became beet red.
“Y-you!
“Fine, let’s see if you can keep acting as if you don’t recognize me.”
Melino?’s appearance changed.
She transformed into Neo Hargraves’ mother.
“You mean your mother.”
…!
‘She read my mind!’
Neo’s mind went on overdrive.
HE was about to take the stance to fight when the unknown power pushed him down.
He couldn’t pull out Obitus or even stand.
“Anyway, how did you recognize Melino??”
Neo could not stop the memories from surfacing.
Whatever the woman did, she sealed his memories of eternity.
He could still recall them.
However, now, it felt like he was watching a movie of a man floating in the void for eternity, instead of experiencing it himself.
The fourth vision had been unending.
But now it was a moment for him.
“I see. It was the visions.”
‘She read my thoughts again.’
‘This sneaky bitc—’
“Neo, maybe you should tone down on the curses if you don’t want a beating?”
She looked at him with a cold smile.
Neo unconsciously lowered his gaze.
His body was afraid of that smile.
His body remembered the beatings he used to get as a child even though he didn’t.
‘Did she refresh all of my memories?’
‘That’s the only way I can understand why my body is acting this way?’
“Let’s eat.”
She opened the box she was carrying.