Novel Full Chapter 685: Descent Into Madness
Chapter 685: Descent Into Madness
Neo POV
The memories stopped.
Neo’s eyes opened slowly, as if waking from a dream he hadn’t asked to see.
His head felt heavy, his mind even heavier.
In front of him sat the Witch of Time.
She tried to maintain her composure, but the uneven rise and fall of her chest, the faint tremor in her hands, and the thin line of sweat running down her temple betrayed her exhaustion.
“That was the end,” she said, her voice steady but carrying an edge of weariness. “I showed you quite a lot, even after your death, so you shouldn’t complain that we stopped.”
Neo didn’t respond.
His thoughts were tangled and frayed, as if someone had torn apart the foundation of his life and left the pieces scattered in the dark.
’That was how Father treated me?’
The idea sat like a stone in his chest.
His whole life, he had endured betrayal after betrayal from different families of his.
He had survived because he believed one truth.
That his real family, the ones who had brought him into this world, had loved him.
That they had been different from the rest.
But now—
’True family?’
’Gave birth to me?’
’Loved me?’
It was all falling apart.
Neo felt as if he was withering from within.
The memories she had shown him told something entirely different from what he wanted to believe.
What he had believed.
Neo had not seen a single shadow of his mother.
No, was it even right to call her mother?
And Hades….
Hades had treated him worse than an acquaintance, with the cold detachment one might not even give to a stranger in the street.
As if those revelations weren’t enough, there was Moraine.
His Moraine.
The image of her rose unbidden, along with the memory of her pain.
He had left her behind.
He had left her to suffer alone.
He remembered her breaking her own values, killing herself again and again, even though life had always been sacred to her.
The knowledge of what she endured because of him felt like a blade pressed into his ribs.
His family.
Moraine.
Both were storms tearing at him from different sides.
“That was a lie.”
Neo clenched his jaw and glared at the Witch of Time.
“Those memories were a lie.”
“Why do you think so?”
“My mother never appeared. And if I was nothing to Fa—”
He caught himself.
“Hades. If I was nothing to him, the Grim Reapers wouldn’t have treated me so well. And most of those memories were from Moraine’s perspective. They weren’t mine. It doesn’t make sense they were real.”
Vivienne didn’t flinch at his outburst.
She simply raised one finger.
“You don’t have a mother.”
Neo flinched.
She raised a second finger.
“The war Ouroboros started ended in their favor. But they paid heavy price for it.
“There was severe damage to their forces, and the Cosmos itself was fractured.
“The Ninth and Tenth Eons merged.
“Quite a few things from the Ninth Eon carried over into the Tenth Eon.
“Ninth Eon was still dead, but it had merged with the Tenth Eon.
“The laws of Cosmos were completely shattered time and again during the war.
“Then, they rewound time to the beginning of the Tenth Eon.
“When time is forcibly twisted like that…” she stared at him.
“People’s memories are altered to fit the narrative coherence.” He finished for her.
He remembered when the Eternals had erased people from existence.
Everyone’s memories had been altered.
It had become as if the erased people had never existed at all.
…If that was true, then it explained the kindness of the Grim Reapers.
Or at least it fit with what Vivienne claimed.
She raised a third finger.
“I showed you Moraine’s perspective on purpose.”
“….Why?”
“To make you realize how much she loved you.”
Neo’s face tightened.
He couldn’t say why, but he knew it tied back to her so-called ’revenge’, which was the reason she had dragged him into these memories in the first place.
“During the war, Moraine sacrificed more than you can imagine. She broke her own rules again and again, just to see you one more time.
“But when the war ended, and you were reborn… she had grown so strong that she could no longer enter this universe.
“The moment she tries, everything here—this world, you, every living thing—would be devoured.”
Her gaze didn’t waver.
“How does it feel, Nameless,” she asked quietly, “to know that the woman who wept for you, who waited for you for countless years, who fought everyone for you…”
Neo’s stomach sank.
He understood where she was going.
“All she can do now is watch you hold another woman. Even now, she’s watching you. Even now, she must feel like her soul is tearing apart when she sees you making love to someone else. That the words of love you say is not herself.”
“….Shut up.”
He didn’t want to hear it.
But she didn’t stop.
“Even though she feels enough rage to burn the stars, she doesn’t destroy this universe. Do you know why?”
“Shut up.”
“Because it would kill you.” Her voice sharpened. “Neo, who would you choose? The Witch of Gluttony, or your current lover—”
“I said shut up!”
He would have attacked her if Kevin hadn’t moved.
The blade slid between them, blocking his path.
Vivienne’s voice turned cold.
“She might have held hope until now. That if you regained your first life’s memories, you would love only her. That you would return to her.
“How do you think she feels now, seeing that even with those memories, you can’t pick her over the woman you have now?”
Neo bit down hard, tasting blood.
His nails dug into his palms until pain radiated up his arms.
The air felt thin.
Every breath was a battle.
He felt suffocated.
Because it was true.
He had feelings for Moraine. Nothing could erase them.
But Elizabeth… she was his world now.