The Angel understood that if Neo managed to save the world, the present would change.
A lush world filled with life would appear instead of a world filled with maggots and decay.
Vibrant forests, clear skies, and rivers singing with life—the opposite of the rotting, gray husk they stood upon.
What would happen to Professor Daniel, Neo, and the Angel?
Professor Daniel would return to the future, from where he had come.
Since it was a paradox loop, nothing would change for him.
However, Neo and the Angel had nowhere to go.
They existed in the destroyed world, not the world filled with life.
If Neo succeeded in saving the past, the present would change.
The destroyed world would vanish, along with Neo and the Angel, and be replaced by a world filled with life.
'Stop it, you self-sacrificing asshole—'
"You… don't need to worry," Neo suddenly spoke.
His voice was weak, trembling like a dying ember.
"I'm not… dying until I… become the strongest…."
'You can't even talk! Stop faking—'
The Angel swallowed its words when it sensed a change in the air.
The surroundings grew ominous.
The dimly lit battlefield seemed to shiver as if acknowledging the overwhelming force building within Neo.
Dark clouds swirled above, and faint whispers of energy echoed across the empty space.
Neo's presence was swelling.
After giving away all of his techniques, he had become hollow.
He was, however, regaining strength at an unprecedented stage.
"So you know… what this… is?" Neo spoke through his ragged breath.
Until now, Neo's Seed of Existence was filled with techniques he created from the World Energy of Earth and his own World Energy.
His Seed of Existence had been impure.
Giving away everything turned out to a blessing in disguise.
His Seed of Existence became pure.
It was a coincidence.
Neo hadn't known he needed to give up everything he had gained from Earth and keep only what belonged to him would help him become one with World Energy.
'My Primogenitor skill was supposed to tell me all this. But it always gives cryptic answers,' Neo thought bitterly.
Half of the slots of the Primogenitor skill were locked.
To explain why, one slot's answer was: [Defeating an Elder Dragon and absorbing its heart would allow you to increase your Energy generation and recovery rate].
How was Neo supposed to find an Elder Dragon when everyone was dead?
The other slots of the Primogenitor were locked behind similarly impossible-to-complete answers.
'Finally, I can rebuild my body with World Energy and complete my Ascension.'
The air vibrated violently as World Energy poured out from Neo like an endless tide.
It surged and coalesced, painting the broken world in hues of blue and silver light.
The surrounding mountains trembled, and nearby rocks levitated, pulled upward in defiance of gravity by Neo's awakening force.
The World Energy replaced his breaking body piece by piece.
His golden blood turned blue.
The World Energy condensed further, becoming physical and turning into muscles.
His bones regrew, much stronger than before.
Organs, nerves, skin, hair, nails—
His entire body was reforged with pure World Energy.
The ground cracked beneath him as his presence pressed outward.
The once-stale air now pulsed with Death and intensity.
He could feel a power similar yet different from mana and Divine Energy flowing through his veins.
He had become a true Ascender.
Only the Angel understood the importance of Neo's ascension.
Ascenders were called by many names:
These were the beings who defied the Fate given to them and forged their destinies with their own hands.
"Looked enough?" Neo asked.
He had become a Heavenbreaker.
It didn't change his current situation.
His body started to break again.
The erosion of Time, which had slowed after he ascended, was unstoppable.
The pace of erosion was increasing again—slowly, yet surely.
Time wouldn't stop until it had erased Neo entirely.
While his body was breaking, Neo's gaze was fixed on Professor Daniel, who stood amidst the rubbles.
'From his looks, it seems he thinks the past he remembers now was caused by my actions,' Neo thought.
Right now, Neo, the Angel, and Professor Daniel were the center point of a paradox loop that spanned over thousands of years.
As central points, they could recognize the flow of change in time.
The Angel understood Neo was causing the past to change.
It remembered the original timeline.
But was the same true for Professor Daniel?
'Is the timeline he remembers the original one?' Neo pondered.
'Is it really true that my actions right now are what happened in the original timeline too and what saved it in the end?'
Neo wasn't sure of it.
Professor Daniel had grown weak.
He was no longer the powerful force that swept through the Age of Gods.
It was entirely possible he couldn't recognize the change in timeline, and his memories were being overwritten by Time.
It might've lead him to believe his current new memories were the original memories.
Unlike a normal loop that spanned over 1~5 years, the current loop Neo was creating spanned over thousands of years.
To be able to sense the flow of change in time for such a massive loop, they had to be powerful as well as the center point of the loop.
Neo, Professor Daniel, and the Angel were center points in the current loop.
Professor Daniel, however, didn't fulfill the requirement for strength.
'I think his memory are being re-written by Time,' Neo thought.
'He doesn't remember the original timeline and thinks that the timeline I'm creating now is original timeline.'
Of course, Neo could be wrong.
When he met Professor Daniel while awakening time element, he remembered finding out Professor Daniel had gone through countless time loops during the Age of Gods to save the world.
Professor Daniel had said he became weak as he exhausted himself during those time loops.
'Fuck, I don't care anymore what is original timeline and what is not. It's too confusing.'
'The world gets saved. That's all I care about.'
Neo turned his head and looked at the maggot nearest to him.
The Angel's body was the thousand eyed pillars and the countless maggots.
Talking to one of them was the same as talking with the Angel.
'What is it?' The Angel asked when Neo stared at it.
"Tell me how to upgrade the World Time Spell."
"The World Time Spell failed when I used it, but it worked when Daniel used it," Neo said.
The answer was obvious.
After the Angel appeared on Earth, it corrupted not only Earth's World Energy but elementals too.
The World Time Spell was a complex yet delicate Spell.
A small internal error could cause it to fail easily.
The Spell was created to make use of normal time elementals.
The corruption of Time elementals by the Void caused the World Time Spell to fail during Neo's timeline.
Daniel hadn't defeated Typhaon yet.
However, he would do it someday.
It would lead to Angel's descent.
If the Angel descended, the time elementals would get corrupted.
Then, the World Time Spell wouldn't activate.
Daniel would die along with everyone.
Daniel's defeat was Neo's defeat.
Neo wouldn't be able to save anyone.
To stop this from happening, Neo had to upgrade the Spell before Daniel defeated Typhaon and the Angel descended.
Kronos and others couldn't upgrade the Spell.
They didn't have the Void element to know how it worked and make changes to the Spell according to it.
Only Neo could do it.
He needed to use the Angel for it.
'Why should I tell you?'
"So you do know how to upgrade the spell."
The Angel realized it had fallen for Neo's trick.
This wasn't the first world the Angel had wiped out.
It was far older than Neo and had seen a lot more.
The Angel knew how to tweak the World Time Spell so it used corrupted Time elementals to work.
The Angel's words were cut off, struck into its throat, when Neo plunged the sword into the maggot nearest to him.
The maggot let out a shrill, ear-piercing cry as its body writhed and crackled with energy.
Neo crouched and stared the maggot – the Angel – in the eye.
His face, breaking apart yet being held together by red lightning, looked terrifying to say the least.
"Answer me, or die" Neo said.