Zone 6, Floor 2, Abyss of Nightmares
Tyr and Celestia waited for the teleporter to be set up. They had moved from Zone 8 directly to Zone 6, which was on a floor above.
From there, they would go to Zone 5, then Zone 4, both of which were on the same floor.
Then, they would climb to Zone 1 of Floor 1, the location of Neo's signal.
The dimensional barrier between Zones on the same floor was weaker than the dimensional barrier between floors, which led them to choose such a complicated path for the most efficient travel time.
"You can stop hiding now," Tyr muttered.
Tyr clicked his tongue and looked at the empty space behind him.
"Don't make me repeat myself twice."
The air distorted, and a floating eye revealed itself.
"Hello?" Velkaria spoke, trying to sound casual.
"Why are you following us? I remember my orders were for you to stay with 'Neo' and the others from your planet."
"I'm not from Earth like them, and…" Velkaria hesitated. "The guy I've been with for the past year is not Neo."
"The Neo with us on the Grand Expedition is fake?"
Velkaria did not answer immediately due to her embarrassment. However, she had to speak eventually.
"The fake Neo was following orders."
"He listened to all orders normally and never acted out. If he was that assshole— the real Neo, he would have already sneaked out to fight one of the chained Protectors or done some other batshit crazy thing."
Tyr looked at Velkaria as if he had heard something absurd.
"I thought you had a special perception Spell that let you sense things even the Dragon Clan Leaders could not sense, but the reason you think Neo is fake is because he's acting normally?"
"Absolutely," the eye flew up and down as if to nod. "That bastard can't sit on his ass and follow orders, for Pete's sake."
"Pfft—!" Celestia's expressionless mask broke.
She quickly returned to her previous demeanor and stood like a statue with a serious expression.
Tyr looked at her. His eyes seemed to be asking if this was really the time for laughing.
He clicked his tongue and focused back on Velkaria.
"I saw two Dragon Clan Leaders sneaking away. A force like that would leave only when a major problem occurs.
"A problem means Neo is involved."
Tyr gave Velkaria a deadpan stare, and Celestia laughed again.
She hid her face when Tyr shot her a glare, but her laughter showed no sign of stopping.
"I'm sorry. Th-this is just too funny," Celestia said between gasps.
Tyr massaged his brows as he spoke to Velkaria,
"For the absolute mess of reasoning you had, you somehow actually reached the correct conclusion."
"Well," Velkaria's confidence grew at the praise. "There's a reason everyone calls me the smartest—"
Her words stopped abruptly, and she looked above, feeling the tremors.
The sky was cracking.
Tyr frowned, and Celestia became serious.
"The dimensional barrier between Zone 1 and Zone 2 broke just now," Celestia revealed after scouting the situation above.
"What?" Tyr questioned.
"It looks like someone forced Nyxtharion to fight seriously."
"It's Neo. I'm sure of it," Velkaria spoke up. "In fact, if anything bad suddenly happens, just know that Neo had a 95% contribution to it."
"Stop joking and move!" Tyr shouted as he hurried to help set up the teleporter. "We can't let Neo die before we get the answers from him!"
Zone 1, Floor 1, Abyss of Nightmare
The large Nyxtharion stared at Neo silently.
The Nyxtharion were created from the pieces of the original Nyxtharion.
Nyxtharion created from small pieces, numbered from #101 to #537, patrolled Zone 1, Zone 2, and Zone 3.
They fought the intruders and ate the monsters they found.
These had roughly 0.01% of the strength of the original Nyxtharion.
The other Nyxtharion, namely the ones born out of large pieces, retained a good amount of the original Nyxtharion's strength.
They stopped anyone from crossing the dimensional barriers, be it downward to the lower floor or sideways to the other Zones.
They were wall guardians.
The Nyxtharion before Neo, Nyxtharion #56, was one of them.
"Hey," Neo interrupted. "Which numbered Nyxtharion was born from the original Nyxtharion's heart?"
"Why are you asking such a question?"
"I want to eat it. It will give me a good boost in strength."
Nyxtharion #56's serious expression turned into one of pure rage.
The Space Lock tightened, crushing Neo's bones. Lacerations appeared on his skin as his muscles were torn apart.
"You dare say those words after devouring thirteen pieces of I?"
"And?" Neo replied, trying to suppress the tremors in his voice. "Stop acting like a gentle and lawful dragon who is forgiving an intruder.
"It's clear as day you are trying to buy time until my mind explodes from the combined mental attacks of you Nyxtharion."
Neo was running Happiness at full power, and it allowed him to be sane enough to converse.
As for the mental attacks of hundreds of Nyxtharion, he withstood them with sheer willpower.
But there was a limit to it.
The dragon was simply waiting for Neo to reach that limit.
[Quest: Undefeatable Emperor]
[Objective 1: Eliminate or subdue all pieces of Nyxtharion singlehandedly.]
[Reward: Information about Pillars.]
[Objective 2: Eliminate or subdue all Protectors inside Layer 4 of the Abyss of Nightmares singlehandedly.]
[Reward: Level up all subskills of Blessing Haden Light x1.]
[Objective 3: Defeat or subdue all Great Disasters singlehandedly.]
[Reward: Madness Meditation Technique.]
The dragon noticed Neo was not focusing on it.
"Where are you looking?" asked Nyxtharion #56 in anger, feeling insulted at being ignored.
"Your death warrant just came. I was reading that."
The dragon snapped at Neo's repeated insults.
It increased the power behind Space Lock, slowly decreasing the lock's size while keeping the force constant.
Neo's body was being crushed.