"What’s wrong with that? You’ve done the sa. Did you forget that you killed your entire planet when you returned from the Voraka site because you knew you could revive them? Or did you suddenly beco a saint?"
Neo’s body went still.
The words cut straight through him.
It felt like a shape punched into his gut and stayed there.
His expression tightened in a way he couldn’t hide, and his breath slipped out unevenly.
"So it’s okay when you did it, but it’s not okay if soone else does it?" I said, pushing right where he knew the pain was.
He thought he had cornered Neo.
But Neo’s anger settled in an instant.
His shoulders loosened slightly, and a different look passed through his eyes. One that was calr, and clearer.
"I see," Neo said. "So you don’t know everything. You have blind spots in the Fate you read."
"What?" I demanded.
Neo didn’t answer.
He accepted he was emotional.
He accepted he reacted strongly when driven by emotions.
But he wasn’t soone who spiraled into blind rage and forgot how to think. Even the outburst he had shown monts earlier had been controlled.
There had been two reasons for it.
One, he had been genuinely angry.
The second was simple.
’I’ liked to boast when he believed he would win.
He did it often. He did it loudly.
Neo had watched it through the mories.
If ’I’ hadn’t been confident, he wouldn’t have shown off his ability to read Fate to the Alliance and the Ancient Dragons.
Neo knew ’I’ believed the war was already decided.
"What do you an I have blind spots?" ’I’ asked.
Neo still couldn’t see his face.
But he could imagine ’I’ was frowning, because the tone had shifted from confidence to irritation.
He didn’t care.
He’s getting agitated.
He ca here acting helpful only because he knows I’ll co after him.
He’s trying to look friendly, but he’s wary of .
It wasn’t complicated.
Heavenbreakers weren’t bound by normal rules.
Changing the past didn’t affect them.
Even if soone traveled back and killed Neo as a child, the Heavenbreaker form—Naless Death—would remain untouched.
That alone made people like ’I’ extrely cautious around him.
"I asked you sothing. Or are you staying silent because you are just turning a blind eye to the fact you are a hypocrite?" ’I’ said sharply.
Neo still didn’t respond.
He raised one hand and shaped a massive floating platform beneath him, smooth and stable.
He sat down and closed his eyes, sinking into ditation.
’I’ watched him with narrowed eyes.
Neo didn’t explain his reasoning.
He knew exactly why ’I’ had blind spots.
Fate-reading wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t absolute.
And ’I’ assud that because Neo had killed countless people in the past, he would be guilty and hold back right now.
But Neo didn’t see it that way.
He cared about his friends. He cared about his family. He would do anything for them, even if it made him look like a hypocrite.
If destroying a world and then choosing to save his own people later made him inconsistent, he could live with that.
He wasn’t aiming to be a perfect judge of existence.
He hated people who did that.
Hades had been that kind of ruler, absolute in strength and absolute in judgnt.
Neo had suffered under him for too long to ever want to resemble him.
Neo just wanted two things: stay with the people he loved, and beco strong enough that no one could take them away again.
"What are you trying to do?" ’I’ asked, walking slowly around the platform.
"I’m going to save my friends by myself. Then I’m going to kill you," Neo said.
His voice stayed level.
He suppressed his rage, and gave just a simple statent of intent.
Inside his mind, he sifted through Ti elent concepts, pulling them apart and studying them one by one.
He was looking for pieces he had missed, things that could help Beelzebub finish evolving sooner.
He had a strong suspicion that he could manage the regression of the entire universe on his own.
He didn’t actually need Beelzebub for that part.
But defeating I—the man circling him—was different. He would need Beelzebub’s full power for that fight.
"That’s impossible. You don’t have enough energy to regress the entire universe," ’I’ said.
Neo didn’t open his eyes.
"You’ve forgotten the Realm Divinity Gods in the Shattered Horizon. They’ll resist you.
"Their energy reserves make Elental and Divinity Gods look like children.
"You’ll be forced to use [Loan], and you’ll have to push it to the limit.
"Let calculate... with your current reserves, you’ll lose access to [Loan] for ten thousand years," ’I’ said with a sneer.
Neo knew he was right.
He didn’t know the exact number of Realm Divinity Gods, but he had seen glimpses of the Chaotic Energy that spilled into the Golden Domain when he destroyed it.
That energy ca directly from the Shattered Horizon.
The place was full of it.
Chaotic Energy resisted elents. It resisted divinity.
It pushed back against anything and everything.
Trying to regress the universe while that energy fought him—and while those gods resisted—would drain him almost completely.
If he took too much from [Loan], the debt afterward would leave him without energy for a very long ti.
But ’I’ misread the situation.
’I’ thought Neo only intended to save his friends.
Sothing like that wouldn’t overexert the [Loan].
However....
Neo was aiming far beyond that.
So yes, he would overuse [Loan]. And yes, he would pay the price later.
"Why take the hard path?" ’I’ asked. "Work with . You can save your friends easily."
Neo ignored him and kept ditating.
’I’ bit his lip in frustration.
His expression twisted, and he glared at Neo with growing impatience.
"You can’t kill , Heavenbreaker. I have the Authority of Ti. I can move through ti freely. Even if you rewrite the past or kill the of the past, I won’t lose the Authority," he said.
Neo didn’t move.
He didn’t need to respond. Even the Witch of Ti had been defeated before. Authority of Ti didn’t make soone untouchable.
But ’I’ didn’t understand that. Or maybe he refused to.
"Heavenbreaker, just work with !" ’I’ shouted, growing impatient. "If you don’t, I’ll prepare armies in the past to counter you. I’ll give them techniques that drain your energy. Then you won’t have enough power to save anyone, let alone fight ."
Neo remained silent.
The silence frustrated ’I’ more than anything.
"Fine. Ignore . But rember this: your daughter, Vivi Hargraves, is in the Shattered Horizon. If you choose to fight , she will suffer at my hands."
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