Chapter 414: Battle of Supreme beings... Part-1.
Chapter 414: Battle of Supreme beings... Part-1.
"You know, by the end of the Orc war, I had already realized that I couldn't beat you with my own power..."
"I knew that; that's why I agreed to sign the treaty and stayed quiet all those years to buy time and make a plan that can get rid of you!"
"I needed overwhelming strength; I needed enough power that can deal with not only you but the entire world alliance too!!"
"And by pure luck, I found it! I found the 'Orb of Wayward Paths' in an ancient ruin during the war!"
During the orc war, Neo used those orcs as his own summoned beasts and made them dig up the ruins to look for rare artifacts for his own entertainment.
On one fateful day, Neo got his hands on the 'Orb of Wayward Paths'; it not only worked as a guide, but it also had hidden information stored inside.
From the orb, Neo found out about the existence of a forbidden magic spell that can help him seize a person's body 'Perfectly' while completely ignoring the restrictions of the 'World'.
"The forbidden spell that I used was capable of ignoring the 'laws' of the world!!"
"The laws of the world favor only a selected few people; I knew from the start that they would never favor me!"
"But then I got an idea: how about I create a kid that has immense talent and will be favored by the 'laws' of the world..."
Neo's plan was vague and unfinished at the start, but it all changed when Liam was born!
Liam had an immense latent mana from birth; although Neo was unaware of this, he could already sense that his youngest son, Liam, was the child he had been waiting for all along.
His perception of an SS-ranker told him that much.
Neo bet it all on Liam.
He raised Liam in a controlled environment; he was quite good at knowing the heart of a human, so he gave Liam a good childhood so that his personality would grow up to be something that the 'Laws' of the world would favor.
Of course this was just one of the many plans Neo had laid out; there were other plans too.
"I had already teamed up with Alverto the moment you started that mission to eliminate the demon general!"
"I was the one who helped Alverto escape from your sight! I was the one who helped Alverto organize that Drift City Massacre incident!!"
"I was the one who pulled all the strings behind the scenes, Ashtel... You know that kid, Fade Crest?"
"Alverto had a way to figure out that he was blessed with heavenly luck... I was the one who supported him all the time... why?"
"I was going to use Fade as a way to get rid of you and your son Link both without needing to do anything myself..."
Neo was showing kindness to Fade on purpose from the very start; it was all to win the favor of the protagonist and then use him like a weapon to first deal with Link and then Ashtel.
Neo had no doubts that Fade can accomplish such a feat; after all, those blessed with heavenly luck can achieve anything and everything!
In fact, Neo would have indeed succeeded in his plan.
In the original timeline, Fade indeed killed off both Link and Ashtel one after another and helped Neo several times throughout the story.
Neo and Fade had a positive relationship.
If not for a certain 'Anomaly,' everything would have gone according to plan.
"That assassination attempt on Riya during the first-year festival, that way my plan! Kehehehe, I was going to tarnish the name of your son with it!"
"But it turned out I underestimated him a bit; he defeated all the assassins and saved Riya... That was surprising, but then again, I had more plans anyway..."
All the events where Fade needed help, Neo came forward to help because it was all for his own benefits.
He even made Liam go against Fade so that Liam could improve and awaken 'Mana Field' for him!
Liam's whole purpose was to awaken 'Mana Field.' If he awakens it, that will be good for Neo, and if he dies fighting Fade and doesn't awaken it, that means the plan was flawed.
At that point, he just needed to start all over again.
In the original story, Liam died to Fade and never awakened the mana field; from the start till the end, he was just a failed experiment from Neo's point of view.
He was never actually considered a son by Neo; he was just a test subject, that's all. Liam never figured it out; he fell for Neo's trick.
"How did I take over Liam's body without him being able to resist?"
"AHAHAHA! I am his father after all! I had already planted a 'fragment' of my own soul in his body from the very moment he was born!!"
"That way, my soul slowly got recognized by his body without him ever even noticing it, and then when my actual soul finally entered his body, I wasn't rejected at all! I was able to seize control in an instant!"
"Moreover, the forbidden magic lets the user carry their memories, skills, summoned beast contracts, and their 'World Authority' along with the soul!"
"In other words, despite me being in this body, I am still able to use all of my summons and all of my powers!! This is pure art! This is what we call achieving true transcendence!!"
Neo floated in the air and looked right in Ashtel's eyes before speaking.
"Are you still confused about why I went that far and why I did all this?"
A grin appeared on Liam's face at that moment as he continued speaking.
"Well, I had already lost all hope when Fade had disappeared suddenly, but then Alverto contacted me and told me that it was him who had kidnapped Fade, and the time for his plan to succeed was near..."
"Right at that moment, the dragon kind invited these little rascals in the dragon valley... I wasn't powerful enough to barge inside before, but after copying that invitation, I was finally
able to get inside..."
"At that moment, I risked my own life to go against the dragon king and make my plan succeed; I found the prototype version of the spire of ascension and finally got my hands on
the forbidden magic!"
"Right around that time, Liam awakened 'Mana Field'!"
"All the things that I was waiting for! All came in place all by themselves!! It was as if the 'heavens' were assisting me themselves!!"
"It was the heavenly will helping me itself!! With all the pieces in place, the puzzle was finally completed, and I finally seized the extremely talented body.
"The forbidden magic ignored the 'law' of mana and directly gave me the ability to use 'Mana
Field'..."
Usually the mana field and the world authority wouldn't have merged, but due to the forbidden magic and the forced soul suppression of Neo.
The mana field merged with world authority and produced the 'Supreme Legendary
technique'.
"It was all for 'Divinity'!! Ashtel Rex! When a legendary technique is merged with a world authority, it creates 'Divinity'!!! Usually it shouldn't be possible! But I made it possible!"
"In this entire world, now I am the only person who has the immense power of 'Divinity'!!"
Neo raised his finger towards the ceiling.
An immense pressure rushed out of his body; that pressure was so strong that it pushed away even Ashtel from this place.
Mana started to condense around Neo at an extremely high speed.
[Perfect Divinity: Ascended Mana's enlightenment!]
Immense amount of mana gathered in the surrounding area; the mana in the area became so
dense that it literally started to turn into liquid!
Ashtel was forcefully pushed back into the upper floor through the hole, and the immense amount of mana started to enter Liam's body at an extremely fast speed.
[Ding! You have reached Rank S!
[Ding! You have reached Rank SS!]
In just a few seconds, Neo forcefully raced the Liam's rank and made his new body that of a
genuine SS ranker's.
Looking at that scene, Ashtel was powerless to do anything; the immense amount of mana forcefully pushed him away, and his mana stopped working in his favor.
He couldn't attack Neo even if he wanted to.
'Insanity... pure insanity...'
Even the weakest SS-rankers know that offending the 'laws' of the world is a very dangerous
thing, and Neo has now done it three times!
First, he used some kind of forbidden magic to make a small fragment of his own soul and
transplanted it in Liam's body.
Second, he seized control over Mana Field despite the fact that the 'Law' of Mana only favors the real Liam, not him who's seized the body of Liam.
And now he's forcefully ascending the body to the next rank by using the 'Divinity' that he has just awakened; by now, Neo has already offended the 'Laws' of the world many times over and
over.
'The moment he goes out of the 'Spire of Ascension', the 'laws' of the world will immediately
curse him.'
Ashtel can already see that Neo will die a horrible death; he's offended things that he shouldn't have.
'But still, I would have preferred it if Liam could have lived a better life, though...'
By forcefully ascending his body to higher levels, Neo has already sealed this body's fate; even if Neo leaves the body now, Liam's body will blast like a balloon filled with too much
mana.
In other words, there's no way to save Liam anymore; either he will die by the curse of the world with Neo, or Neo will escape the body and Liam will die from mana overdose. 'Just to deal with me... you went as far as destroying the life of your own kid... Just how much lower will you fall, Neo Aldif...'