“Please return quickly. If you don’t return, you will be forever trapped in the Shadow World.”
The gatekeeper didn’t pay any heed to Neo’s dilemma.
To it, a resident of the Shadow World, it didn’t matter if Neo’s world was destroyed or not.
Neo clenched his fist.
He had to think calmly.
Losing his cool in such a situation wouldn’t help anyone.
He had to calm down and think properly.
What do you mean I successfully completed the Trial?
The Child of Mana is dead.
“You rescued the corpse of the Child of Mana, and you were the first one to do so,” A #22 answered. “This is where your quest ends. Please enter this door.”
Neo won the battle, but he lost the war.
He completed the Shadow Trial, but he doomed the world for his Trial.
Footsteps echoed faintly against the cracked earth as Jack entered Neo’s senses.
He emerged from the shadows with an unreadable expression.
He came straight to Typhaon’s Core after finding its location from Sovereign’s memories.
“We’ve been had,” Jack said.
He was surprised by Neo’s appearance.
However, he hid it perfectly.
What do you mean by that?
“I digested the memories of the Sovereigns. According to them…”
Jack stood beside Neo and stared at the giant tree that loomed over them.
Its gnarled roots pulsed faintly with unnatural energy, and the air around it felt heavy, suffocating.
“Typhaon forcibly extracted the Child of Mana’s memories on the same day we came to this world,” Jack said.
He added bitterly,
“The moment we entered this world, we had only 8 hours left to save the Child.
“But we took over nine months.”
He shook his head.
“Realistically speaking, it was impossible to save the Child of Mana from the start due to time constraints
“Just reaching Savage expanse take weeks and we had only 8 hours.”
Daniel heard his sister – Child of Mana – call for help just weeks ago.
How was that possible if Child of Mana was killed months ago?
“It was Typhaon’s plan,” Jack answered. “I don’t know what Typhaon saw in the Child of Mana’s memories, but whatever it was forced him to eradicate the Awakeners.
“It decided to wake up.”
Jack explained.
“No one knows it, but Typhaon needs to eat a huge amount of energy to wake up and…”
The air felt heavy, as if it carried the weight of the truth Jack revealed.
So that was what it was all about.
Neo understood why Jack said they had been had.
Since the beginning, they were playing on Typhaon’s palm.
Typhaon made a telepathic connection to Daniel while disguising itself as the Child of Mana.
Since the monster had extracted the memories of the Child of Mana, it could impersonate the to-be Sphinx easily.
Typhaon knew the awakeners would be split into two opinions if it called for help.
One group would want to save the Child of Mana due to how precious she was.
The other wouldn’t want to rescue her.
It would lead to battles between the awakeners inside Savage Expanse.
After all, this was where Typhaon was present and where the Child of Mana was held captive.
The battles between the two sides would release a huge amount of energy.
Typhaon would absorb the energy and use it to wake up.
Since no one was aware Typhaon needed to absorb energy to wake up, they wouldn’t realize they were helping Typhaon by fighting inside the Savage Expanse.
Even the sovereigns Jack defeated were weak, as Typhaon had absorbed the majority of their strength to increase its progress of waking up.
Dammit…
Neo finally understood why Typhaon bothered to talk to him.
The Father of Anomalies had collected enough energy to wake up.
It came from the battles of Neo, Zeus, Apollo, and Jack.
If not for Neo’s Concept forcing Typhaon to sleep again, the Father of Anomalies would’ve successfully completed his plan.
“If you were not here, or if your Concept was something else, we would’ve lost brutally,” Jack sighed. “Well, in the end, we won thanks to you. That’s the only thing that matters.”
Jack was relaxed.
His shoulders eased, and he exhaled slowly as if the weight of the challenge had finally lifted.
All he knew was they successfully completed the Shadow Trial and that Typhaon was forced into a deep slumber.
He was not aware of the world’s end that would come in 39 years.
It was a happy ending. According to Jack at least.
And Neo had no intention of destroying his happy ending.
He decided to take a gamble.
Yeah, we barely completed the Shadow Trial. Continue your adventure at empire
Let’s return now.
Neo lied to Jack.
The two walked toward the door of Shadows.
Its frame pulsated faintly with dark energy, etched with shifting runes.
Jack was the first one to step to the other side.
Suddenly, Jack heard Neo speak.
I’m not going back. Please, close the door.
“Huh?”
Jack didn’t have time to react.
By the time he turned around, the door had been closed.
“Why did you do that?” Jack asked.
“We closed the door because Neo Hargraves demanded—”
“Are you stupid?!”
Jack grabbed A #22’s collar.
The doll’s stitched face remained expressionless, despite the pressure Jack applied.
He lifted the doll easily and glared at it.
“He is still there! Why did you…. Open this door right now! He needs to come back—”
“Come back to where?”
A #22 disappeared from Jack’s hand.
It appeared far behind him and waved its hand.
Jack and A #22 appeared in the sky of a destroyed world.
The air was thick with the stench of decay, and the land below was a wasteland consumed by writhing maggots.
Buildings once proud were now crumbled into heaps, and the sky hung low, a sickly green hue, pulsing as if alive.
“This became the fate of your world the moment Child of Mana fell,” A #22 said. “You seem to be quite stupid compared to Neo Hargraves, so I will spell it out clearly for you.
“The intervention of you two in the past caused the world to end.
“Neo Hargraves stayed behind so he can change the past again.
“He stayed behind so you can have a world to return to.”
…
Neo stared at the place where the door of shadows had stood moments ago.
The eerie, shimmering portal had dissolved into nothingness, leaving behind only faint ripples in the air.
Even though it would’ve been a huge help if Jack had stayed behind, he couldn’t ask Jack to do it—not when they would have no way to return to their world again.
He stared at the night sky.
Fuck my life.
Why does thing always go from bad to worse even though I try to do better?
The cold, oppressive silence around him seemed to press against his ears.
He looked down at his body.
His limbs flickered faintly.
The red lightning that made his being was beginning to fade away.
I’ll think about saving the world later
First, I need to do something about my body, or I’ll die and be pulled into the Underworld.
He still had no idea what would happen if he died in Shadow World.