Was Ouroboros correct about Hades?
Perhaps.
Were Ouroboros’ intentions good?
Perhaps.
But none of that mattered in the end.
What mattered was the result of Ouroboros actions, and the result had been disastrous.
That was why Apollyon, for all his anger and contradictions, respected Hades even though Hades had once stood as an enemy.
Hades had wanted to destroy the Cosmos, but he was kinder than anyone else.
His was a kindness that a person could only develop after watching too much suffering for far too long.
Destruction, for him, had been a rcy.
He wanted to destroy everything because he was kind.
Yet until he found the thod to accomplish that destruction, he had worked harder than anyone else to bring peace and stability to the Cosmos.
He had strength, yet he never misused it.
Hades hoped for destruction but brought peace.
Ouroboros hoped for peace but brought destruction.
"Now tell , Heavenbreaker. Was I wrong about killing him?"
"Instead of killing him, you could’ve helped him fix his mistakes. Daniel would’ve never wanted to destroy the Cosmos. Yes, everything ended up in ruins, but that was a mistake. You had strength. You could’ve helped him correct his mistakes," Neo said.
The word mistake hit Apollyon harder than Neo expected.
His jaw tightened, and for the first ti, he looked like he wanted to stop talking altogether.
"Mistake?" Apollyon repeated quietly.
The word tasted bitter on his tongue.
"So what if it was a mistake? Do you think calling it a mistake is enough for the people who now die painfully in decaying universes? Do you have any idea how much despair was born from that ’mistake’?"
Neo wanted to respond, but Apollyon wasn’t finished.
"You said I should’ve used my strength to help him fix things," Apollyon said. "That’s exactly what I did. I killed him. And I used his blood to nourish the newborn universes.
"Those universes would have died before reaching adolescence because of his actions.
"Now, they can grow. They can live longer.
"I corrected the mistake."
Neo’s hands curled into fists.
The darkness around him pulsed, reacting to his emotions.
"Then what about Ultris?" he asked.
Apollyon shook his head. "I’m not the one who killed Ultris. And he was the one who—"
Reality tore apart before he finished.
The World of Darkness appeared, pushing its way through existence like a wound opening in the fabric of reality.
It wasn’t a universe. It wasn’t even a coherent world.
It was an abomination made of countless consciousnesses fused together, all screaming, all desperate, none sane.
The mont it appeared, the battlefield lurched.
Everything felt heavier.
Breathing beca harder.
Even thoughts slowed.
Apollyon’s expression hardened instantly.
Whatever patience he’d had disappeared.
He moved.
He had tried to talk, but ti was up.
If the Mad Supre arrived fully, nothing nearby would survive the attempt she would make to save Neo.
Apollyon couldn’t allow the destruction.
Golden Threads appeared around him, trembling with excitent.
His power rose, and a Technique Spirit began to manifest at his back, its form blinding and sharp.
Just as the clash was about to begin, a voice touched Neo’s ears.
"Neo."
His eyes widened.
The voice was soft, familiar, and soothing.
"Moraine? You can—"
"I cannot maintain sanity for long," she interrupted. Her
tone carried urgency despite its gentleness.
"So listen to while I can speak. If you keep using my power, you’ll be devoured completely. Even the Curse of Apollyon won’t save you. You need to leave."
"What about you? Are you going to fight—"
"He’s still injured. He’s not strong enough to kill . And the one you should worry about is the bastard who killed Ultris."
Neo froze.
Sothing felt wrong. Deeply wrong.
Apollyon had been hiding in Forbidden Lands to heal.
Who was he hiding from?
Probably Ultris.
When Apollyon sensed Neo, he swiftly ca out from Forbidden Lands.
Why?
Because if one Heavenbreaker—Ultris—could give him trouble, then two Heavenbreakers might defeat him.
This was why Apollyon had to co out before he could even heal properly.
He couldn’t allow Neo to get stronger.
Clearly, a Heavenbreaker was a formidable enemy for Apollyon.
So, how could he kill Ultris so quickly and co after Neo?
Unless.... It wasn’t him who killed Ultris.
The thought ford in less than a heartbeat.
Neo opened his mouth to ask Moraine who it had been—
—but the darkness reached him first.
Elentals of Darkness slipped into him, sliding through the imperceptible cracks of his Cosmos as if they belonged there.
For the second ti today, Neo’s Cosmos was breached effortlessly.
In an instant they were inside his Cosmos, moving too fast to track.
They dove toward Morrigan, wrapped themselves around her, and tore sothing out.
Neo’s entire body jerked.
"Wait—!" he shouted, choking on the pressure inside him.
The Darkness elentals retreated imdiately after pulling the ’thing’ free off Morrigan.
They rushed out of his Cosmos like shadows fleeing the sun.
Everything happened too quickly.
Neo couldn’t stop them. He couldn’t even understand the movent.
All he could do was see the look on Morrigan’s face as she realized what had been taken.
Her expression went pale, then twisted with rage.
’You bitch! Give it back!’ she scread, cursing Moraine and her nine generations.
Neo blinked in confusion. Did he really hear that?
The Darkness elentals focused on the ’thing’ they brought out of Neo’s Cosmos.
A black knight.
Neo knew that figure.
He had seen the sa black knight when Morrigan fought Zeus during the ambush.
The armor, the posture, the weight of its presence. There was no mistaking it.
"This bitch, hogging all good things for herself."
Neo’s expression turned strange when he heard the whisper.
Despite the chaos surrounding him, despite Apollyon raising his power, despite the World of Darkness breaking into reality, he found himself montarily stunned.
Morrigan and Moraine were both cursing each other because of this black knight.
Now, if they saw each other as different entities, this would be alright.
But they thought of themselves as one.
They were essentially cursing themselves.
Moraine suppressed the greed trying to burst out of her, and take the black knight for herself.
She forced herself to focus.
Then she reached out and began fusing the black knight into Neo’s being.
At the sa ti, her main body — the World of Darkness — fought Apollyon, using every thod she had to stall him.
Neo gasped as the fusion began.
His existence twisted painfully, bending in ways a living thing shouldn’t bend.
Because the black knight wasn’t just a weapon.
It wasn’t armor.
It was a body.
His body.
His body from the ninth Eon.
It was damaged, cracked, incomplete, excavated from the Forbidden Lands and never fully healed.
But as it rged with him, he felt his existence strengthen.
The broken pieces of himself found new structure.
His power adjusted, aligning with the deeper layers of what he used to be.
It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t painless. It was far from stable.
But the strength inside it...
Stage 8.
Neo was stunned.
The sensation running through his new body settled into sothing sharp and steady, like a truth he hadn’t expected to face.
’My physical body was never this strong.’
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