Neo and Tartarus stood still.
Silence stretched between them.
Then, suddenly they moved.
Neo used All-Shadow and vanished into a shadow.
Tartarus' spear grew thousands of miles in an instant and drove into the space he'd just left.
Neo reappeared behind him, sword already mid-swing.
Sparks flew. Steel rang.
Tartarus spun, parried, and raised his palm.
A circle of distorted time expanded from him, freezing the cracking earth, and warping the clouds above.
Neo moved anyway. He slid into a nearby shadow.
He emerged on a cliff now shattered by their clash, stepped forward, and twisted space to appear back beside Tartarus.
They exchanged a thousands of blows in a breath. Each strike chipped away at the mountain they stood on. The cliffs crumbled into the ground.
Neither of them slowed.
Tartarus suddenly used the distorted orb of time again.
The spear flew towards Neo.
Neo felt his Blessing drawing power from him, and activate.
Visions of future appeared before him.
In one future, his chest was pierced. In another, his throat slit. In a third, he deflected the strike and grazed Tartarus' side.
He used All-Shadow and vanished into that outcome, returning to the 'new present' in a blink.
His blade struck, and carved a shallow line across Tartarus' ribs.
He thrust his spear down, and from it erupted spears made of shadows, each carrying the echo of fallen souls.
He moved sideways into a shadow on the upturned land and emerged from one behind Tartarus, driving his sword forward, but the false false god had expected it after seeing the same move multiple times.
The spear twisted with unnatural motion, caught the edge of Neo's blade, and redirected it.
In an instant, the spear moved like a snake and aimed at Neo's throat.
Future visions reappeared.
Neo blinked, and time around him shifted again.
He was now seven steps to the left, mid-strike, sword crashing into the ground.
A fault line split open, swallowing a valley of cliffs.
Another fatal attack came, and future visions appeared again.
Now he was in the sky, surrounded by clouds torn apart by their energy.
Tartarus followed with a burst of light and shadow.
Neo used Gravity Concept to slam Tartarus back into the ground. The earth rumbled as Neo crushed a contentinent-sized mass of land.
He crushed it and condensed it before throwing it at Tartarus.
Tartarus hurled a sphere of light, one that was as strong as a condensed star.
It shot through the Neo's attack and pulverized it as it aimed straight for Neo.
Neo didn't dodge. He stepped into a shadow and appeared to Tartarus' side.
But the false god didn't need to see. He turned his shoulder, caught the blade, and countered with a blow that tore through the air.
Neo blocked it barely.
The force sent him crashing into a distant mountain valley. The mountain shattered, sending cliffs tumbling into the thousand-mile fissures that had appeared due to their battle.
Neo emerged from the ruins. His injuries were already healed.
He raised his sword, and slashed downwards, using the Seventh Stance of his Swordsmanship along with Death Sword powered by Death Sword Firmament.
But he didn't stop there.
His blade froze for a second, before it split and came down at Tartarus from three directions.
The first blow came from the front. Tartarus parried. The second from a shadow to the left. Tartarus turned, raising his arm. The third sliced from above a beat later.
It landed. Tartarus stumbled. Blood fell.
Tartarus looked at the falling blood.
For a moment, the sky dimmed.
Tartarus could not move his gaze away.
Neo did not attack him.
He wanted Tartarus to feel the same way he had did.
Powerless. Weak. Helpless.
Tartarus finally moved his gaze. Something about him changed.
He swung his spear, and it pulsed once, then time surged forward, reversing the wound. The cut vanished.
He thrust his hand forward.
The energy – Tyrant Firmament – began to infuse in the space around them.
And slowly, Tartarus felt it.
His River of Time froze.
Neo's influence took hold over it.
Tartarus wouldn't be able to control time again during the duration of the battle.
Neo attacked from multiple directions, using All-Shadow and Pseudo-Gap.
Tartarus caught two strikes, missed three. The fourth pierced his leg. The fifth, his shoulder. But the sixth he caught with both hands, and from it he unleashed an explosion of light and shadow that swallowed Neo whole.
The smoke cleared. Neo stood with one knee on the ground, body cracked, breath shallow.
Just before Tartarus moved, Neo used Eyes of Echo and All-Shadow to regress by ten seconds.
Tartarus, recalling the pre-altered timeline, attacked quickly.
They clashed midair, over land that was already falling apart. Mountains in the distance cracked and fell into themselves. The earth tore. The skies wept stars.
Neo blinked. In one timeline, Tartarus destroyed him. In another, they both fell. But in third, he stood, and Tartarus dropped to one knee.
He chose that one with All-Shadow.
Time stuttered, and the world shifted.
As soon his senses came back to him, Neo moved. His blade struck Tartarus' shoulder, and shattered it.
The next hit sent the false god flying.
Tartarus crashed through the side of a ruined continent. He stood slowly, panting, spear dragging behind him.
He let go of the spear.
Neo didn't move. His remained motionless, as if taunting Tartarus to attack.
The air distorted. In a blink, Tartarus drove both fists forward, shattering the space between them. The force carried the weight of a collapsing star.
Neo was engulfed in the blow.
The impact created a vacuum. Sound vanished.
But Neo was already behind Tartarus.
The Neo infront of him being crushed flickered and disappeared like static from a broken screen.
The true Neo, fists clenched, drove his knuckles into Tartarus' ribs.
Bone cracked. Tartarus twisted mid-air and swung an arm down.
He used a suicide blow. His body erupted with cursed fire, meant to destroy them both.
Then, Neo used Eyes of Echo and All-Shadow.
He appeared five seconds in the past.
Tartarus had yet to pounce on him. His body had yet to be destroyed by his own suicidal attack.
He remembered the 'past'.
His attack should've fatally injured Neo, if not outright kill him.
Neo had simply turned back time.
"Why are you stopping?"
Tartarus face twisted, and he attacked with his spear.
Without drawing his sword, Neo tilted backwards.
He dodged the attack with a margin as wide as hair's breadth, and punched.
Tartarus blocked the first two attacks.
The third slipped through his defenses and shattered his forearm guard. The fourth knocked him into the broken nightmare tree that was once the symbol of Tartarus' Abyss.
Before Tartarus could rise, Neo dropped from above and slammed his heel into his chest.
Earth cratered, space shattered. A shockwave rolled for miles.
His body cracked. Dark roots erupted from his skin and pulled in corrupted matter from around the battlefield. He rose again, burning with suicidal intent.