"How did she tell you?"
Daniel answered while breaking into hiccups and tears.
His words were barely intelligible.
The secretary patted his head and spoke in his place.
"He is telepathically connected to his sister. She is asking him to save her."
"According to her, Typhaon is planning to either extract all information from her or trying to modify her into one of its Four Sovereigns."
There was no need to say how bad it was if Typhaon could extract the information stored inside a Child of Mana's head.
The Children of Mana knew of the future.
Although their knowledge of the future was limited and incomplete, they knew enough to make anyone a supreme powerhouse.
Turning a Child of Mana into one of the Four Sovereigns was worse.
If Typhaon extracted all information from the child of Mana's head, he couldn't gain more information, since the burden of extraction would kill the child.
It was a one-time method.
By turning her into one of the Four Sovereigns, she would be corrupted and become Typhaon's servant willingly.
Typhaon could then ask for information from her without killing her.
The information he could gain at once was limited with this method; however, he could keep asking for the information for years.
Or decades if the Association and Titans failed to slay Typhaon.
The secretary took away Daniel.
Ares, alone in the room, stared at the door.
His mind churned, thinking of possible scenarios.
'Rescuing the Child of Mana is impossible.'
'The world is damned enough while Typhaon is in a pseudo-sleep. If we tried to save her and anger him, he might wake up completely and…'
Ares shook his head to stop the train of thoughts.
The world would end if Typhaon woke up.
'I hate to think , but it should be fine even if we don't save the Child of Mana.'
'Athena is also a Child of Mana, but she can access the Records only through dreams.'
'Her ability can't be activated at will, and she never knows if she saw a simple dream or the Records.'
'What if Daniel's sister is similar?'
The Children of Mana were far from omniscient.
Typhaon gaining information of the future was bad, but the Association had a similar trump card – Athena.
The worst-case scenario was Typhaon waking up if the Association entered its territory to save Daniel's sister. Not Daniel's sister death or corruption.
Ares chewed his lips.
"Daniel's sister told us my information the moment we asked. It's almost like she can access the Records at will."
"Her high talent might be the reason why Typhaon moved to kidnap her."
"Dammit. I can't make a decision of this level myself. I need to call the council."
Essen, Germany, Memory Shadow World.
Neo was practicing his sword techniques.
It had been days since he started their travel towards Turkey, where the Association headquarters was.
They were taking the north route, going through European countries to take care of wild monsters.
Kane was busy meditating.
Days passed since he spoke to Neo, probably because he was ashamed of himself for not being able to complete the technique even now.
Athena spent her time scouring the cities for books.
Neo would often go along with her.
He had been trying to talk about her abilities as a Connector, but had been unsuccessful so far.
If he had to take a honest guess, Athena was purposely avoiding the topic while acting oblivious.
Apollo had stayed behind in Spain to take care of the remaining dark energies.
Jack was spent, using Shadow Jump to carry the group whenever possible and helping Neo take care of statue monsters that attacked at night.
"Where is Emma?" Neo asked Athena, who was sitting on a nearby rooftop.
"Is she still following him to find how he can create multiple phylacteries?"
Jack's wish came true, and Emma became interested in him.
It was good until he found Emma was Nyx, his ancestor.
'Poor guy has been trying to avoid her like a plague.'
Neo was laughing at Jack's misery when a screen appeared before him.
[Quest: Fate Of the World]
[Objective: Protect Child of Mana (future name Sphinx) from Typhaon]
[Quest Hint: You can find the location of Child of Mana if you visit Awakener Association Headquarters.]
[Reward: Location of Interplanetary Waypoint x 1, Level up {Eternal} x 1, Level up {Mind Invasion} x3]
[Failure: Questline {End of the World} will begin.]
[Refusal to accept the Quest will activate the Failure condition.]
"So if I refuse, the Questline {End of the World} will start?"
His eyes moved upwards.
"Interplanetary travel…
"It can be useful, but I don't see how it is possible with 'those guys' waiting outside."
He would think about it when he received the rewards.
His eyes finally turned to the quest objective.
The Child of Mana they had to save would become Sphinx in the future.
And it was going to be targeted by Typhaon, or maybe the Child of Mana was already caught by Typhaon.
"Just when I thought it couldn't get worse than Jack losing control to Darkness, it got much more fucked up."
He decided to explain what he found out to Jack when he had time.
Throughout the day, Neo's mind kept revolving around his new quest.
'The Shadow Supreme trial's is the rescue of the Child of Mana, while the Quest is to protect the Child of Mana.'
'Am I thinking about it too much, or are these two completely different?'
His thoughts stopped when he found a chance to talk with Jack alone.
He dragged Jack away and used Coffin of Darkness to make sure no one could eavesdrop on them.
"What happened?" Jack asked, faking irritation.
He had been trying to feed Neo his body parts, but Neo had been adamant in his refusal.
"I have good news, bad news, and very bad news."
"…start with the bad news."
"I found who the Child of Mana is. It's Sphinx."
"That's good news dude! Our search will become much easier since we know who we aresearching for!"
"Yeah, you are wrong. It's bad news. Sphinx will be or is already caught by Typhaon."
Neo explained about Typhaon.
The reason Typhaon had not been attacked was because of its overwhelming strength.
It was currently estimated Typhaon would wake up in 28 years.
The Awakener Association and Titans' plan was to grow stronger as much as possible in those 28 years before their inevitable battle with Typhaon.
After all, if Typhaon woke up now, they had no chance at victory.
They could only train and hope to defeat Typhaon later.
"Typhaon is currently stronger than all of the Awakeners combined. We have to save the Child of Mana from a monster of that level."
"…okay, that is bad news. What's the good news then?"
"I told you about the Typhaon and how it is sleeping, right?"
"The Awakener Association and anyone else won't risk saving the Child of Mana since it might wake up Typhaon."
"This means we have almost no competition. The only problem is the time limit since we don't know when Typhaon might do in the Child of Mana."
Jack nodded and suddenly stopped.
It was as if a light bulb was switched on inside his head.
A bright smile appeared on his face.
"Neo, I just thought about it, but according to you, only we are planning to save the Sphinx?"
"Secondly, our actions in this Shadow World affect reality?"
"Yes, you are right."
"Third and lastly, the Sphinx exists in our world, which is the future for this world?"