Spending days with Neo's family, watching the two brothers interact, made him compare his family to them and caused him to explode.
"I'll show everyone that martial arts aren't weaker than Spells or Incantations," Mars said in the end.
The man's aura changed.
He gripped the stone throne so tightly that the armrest cracked.
He closed his eyes, and when he reopened them, Mars could see the calculative intent hidden behind them.
"Is there nothing that can be done to change your choice?"
"There is something, actually."
The man suddenly realized he had fallen into Mars' trap.
It was easy to see Mars had been waiting for this moment all along.
"Did you learn this from your 'friends'?" the man questioned, the sarcasm obvious.
Mars gave an innocent smile.
In the end, he didn't care that Mars had a hidden intention.
"What is it that you wish for?"
"Give me the weapon."
"Even if I fail to bond with the weapon, the weapon will belong to me. Not the Clan."
The man's brows creased.
Mars hated using weapons.
Still, he wanted the ownership.
His intentions were obvious.
Silence reigned in the room.
The man neither denied nor affirmed anything.
Just when Mars thought he was going to be rejected, the man spoke,
"Your wish shall be fulfilled.
"But remember well your part of the bargain, for it must not be forgotten."
A sigh escaped from Mars' lips.
He approached the giant doors and was about to leave when suddenly the man spoke,
"Neo Hargraves, can he use the Blessing?"
"Forget it." The man waved his hand. "You are dismissed."
Elizabeth appeared within a corridor.
The paths were lit with the help of the Divine Energy-fueled flames burning on top of wood torches.
She closed her eyes and spread her senses.
"This place is as big as a small city."
It looked like a gigantic bunker or an underground base.
Given the low number of personnel within, it was not the main base.
She cast Water Reflect Spell along with extra chants.
The memories of the water played in her mind.
She found the girl she had been searching for.
In the memory, the girl canceled her disguise after arriving at the base.
She transformed into a man.
Elizabeth had seen him before.
She tried to recall the man's name and failed.
"He is the owner of the mystical fauna sanctuary.
"He posted the A-rank mission that Neo's team took and failed after the phoenix died at Lucas' hand."
More memories surfaced in her mind as the words rolled off her tongue.
"The principal tried to catch him after the academy realized something was wrong with mystical flora sanctuary, but he escaped before that."
There had been no lead on the man for months.
Elizabeth understood Neo purposely sent her here to catch him.
Her displeasure increased.
"He can ask me directly if he wants something. Why be roundabout?"
Despite her words, she stepped toward the man's location.
She inspected the base on her way.
A patrol's path intersected with hers.
He stared at her wide-eyed.
Water flowed into his mouth and left him unable to say anything.
He tried to move and attack, but the ball of water trapping him erased all of his Spells.
More patrols found Elizabeth as she kept walking.
She disposed of them, making sure not to kill them in case she needed to extract information from them.
It took her a bit of time to reach the man's location.
She could hear his voice through the wall.
"Finally! We can finally move our plan forward! The failure at the academy almost cost us our plan, but now we have a chance!"
The wall exploded, revealing the room.
Elizabeth entered the place through the hole.
The man sat on the chair at the head of the table.
"Wouldn't you say so?"
Elizabeth frowned when she realized the man was calm.
Almost as if he had expected her to arrive.
"Indeed that's true."
"The coffee shop was meant to lure powerful demigods like you who came after me.
"Since we can't use the academy to collect sacrifices anymore, demigods like you will have to do."
Elizabeth shifted her gaze to the roof of the room.
A purple giant circle with one eye at it's center was painted on it.
"Temple of Void," Elizabeth muttered.
She lowered her gaze and met the man's eyes.
"What were you planning at the academy?"
"Nothing complex. Grow tainted monsters, create upheaval in the academy, collect corpses of the most talented demigods of the generation, and use them as sacrifices."
Excited, the man's breath grew ragged.
It was as if he could envision the future where they had succeeded.
"We will tear apart the fake sky and welcome the True Gods! The Gods of Void!"
Elizabeth stared at the man as if she was looking at an insect.
He clearly had a few screws loose.
She was about to take a step to capture him when suddenly a force yanked her from behind.
A blink, and she appeared in a strange world.
A chessboard-like roof that seemed to stretch into infinity.
The ground was the same.
There was no wall. Only a chessboard-like sky and floor.
Elizabeth turned her gaze to the source of uncontrolled laughter.
She caught sight of a man, dressed in white, laughing his heart out.
'The man in the base was too weak to dispose of demigods that were lured,' she thought. 'This person must be the one who deals with intruders.'
The man dressed in white raised his head and stared at her.
Elizabeth flinched when she saw the worms eating half of his face.
The worms entered his nose and mouth, eating his flesh, yet the man acted as if he couldn't feel them.
"So you recognize this appearance," the man, a Void-tainted, smiled. "Of course you do. An Exalted Demigod would have knowledge about these matters, no doubt."
He laughed and spread his arms.
"To be honest, I was quite shocked when both of us were teleported to the [Dream Dimension].
"The Will of the World opens this place only when Exalted Demigods are about to fight."
"Think about how I felt when I was about to attack the woman who entered our base and suddenly the Will of the World pulled me into the Dream Dimension."
The corner of his lips rose.
"Thanks to you, we can complete the ritual today itself."
The man shot towards Elizabeth with a swift pace.
"I can't believe an Exalted Demigod delivered herself to our doorsteps!
"Die and become the foundation of our great ritual!"