Chapter 558: Crazy Neo

Chapter 558: Crazy Neo

Karen did not know which blend of madman's cigarette Neo was smoking, but one thing was certain: it had really gone to his head.

Initially, he was on the verge of establishing a master-servant covenant with Tolisa, a success that would have completely dissolved Tolisa's threat and granted Karen total control over the situation.

Then, Neo had to burst in just like that, shattering the entire rhythm of the moment.

Tolisa, who had been kneeling on the ground, slowly rose to his feet; Neo’s words were not what struck him deepest, but rather the casual gesture of Neo throwing his arm around Karen's shoulder, which truly made him realize he had been deceived.

His eyes began to flush crimson as his grip tightened around the Sword of Diamans.

"What exactly are you doing?" Karen asked.

Neo patted Karen’s shoulder nonchalantly, brushing it off. "Alright, alright, the objective of this mission has been achieved. Your manservant should be crying out 'so fulfilling' right about now, caught between agony and ecstasy."

"You are hiding something from me."

Neo countered, "Is it a crime to keep a secret just to help prepare your birthday party?"

"You are deflecting the issue."

"Tsk, you'll understand later."

While the two were speaking, Tolisa charged forward.

Neo shifted his stance and sprang forward to meet him.

The Sword of Diamans came down in a fierce cleave; Neo raised his ten long fingernails to intercept it, blocking the blade's edge as both figures locked into a rigid stalemate.

"Hiss..."

After a brief deadlock, Neo was the first to retreat, shaking his hands vigorously as he backed away.

"That sword is magnificent!"

Karen immediately shot back, "I already claimed it."

"Heh."

Tolisa's silhouette materialized right behind Neo, bringing the sword down in another sweeping cleave; Neo’s form dissolved into a cloud of black mist to evade the strike, but a strange glint flashed in Tolisa's eyes, as if he had anticipated Neo's movement long ago, and he swung the blade diagonally in mid-air.

"Bang!"

Having just coalesced back into solid form, Neo took the blow squarely in the face, sent flying through the air to roll repeatedly across the sand.

Karen sensed that Tolisa was still keeping a portion of his attention fixed on him; even though Tolisa knew he had been tricked, he clearly remained deeply wary of Karen.

However, Karen made no move to intervene.

Upon hitting the ground, Neo slammed a single hand onto the sandy surface; as Tolisa lunged toward him, Neo violently threw his hand up, unleashing a ripple laced with the aura of Light that rippled outward, instantly spreading beneath Tolisa's feet.

Immediately following that, the spire of the Tower of Light emerged from the glowing circle, enveloping Neo in its protection.

Tolisa plunged the Sword of Diamans into the ground and twisted it; behind him, a roaring, colossal black ape manifested, its body covered in scars and bound by heavy chains.

In the next instant, as Tolisa began his charge, the giant ape behind him also broke into a frenzied dash.

This display of might caused Karen’s gaze to narrow as he watched from the sidelines.

Tolisa had mentioned that he once grew two branches of differing faiths, and though they eventually tangled and withered together, his realm of power was, by conservative estimates, far beyond that of a typical Bishop.

Karen had personally experienced the pressure Dolf brought upon him, and it was safe to say that Dolf was far inferior to Tolisa; more importantly, Tolisa was by no means lacking in precious combat experience.

Therefore, Neo's choice to engage in this kind of head-on brawl seemed somewhat foolish.

"Bang!"

The greatsword hacked into the structure of the Tower of Light, and the black giant ape behind him slammed a massive fist down upon it; in an instant, the Tower of Light began to fracture, dissolving into a shower of pristine, glittering crystal.

Left exposed by the shattering tower, Neo lifted his head, his eyes burning crimson as blood-red shadows swirled across his body, resembling a scarlet bat as he shot upward, colliding violently against Tolisa.

Without a trace of panic, Tolisa raised his greatsword high, a protective barrier forming around his body, and with a shake of his blade, lances of punishment symbolizing Order materialized all around him.

"Buzz!"

In a split second, all the lances of punishment rained down directly upon Tolisa himself.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A succession of explosions rang out, and Neo was sent flying backward to crash onto the ground once more; Tolisa remained suspended in mid-air, a thin trickle of blood escaping the corner of his mouth, but this minor injury amounted to nothing—it hardly even classified as a wound, merely a slight discomfort from the shockwave of the blast.

In stark contrast, Neo lay on the ground with black smoke billowing from every inch of his body, looking like a bat that had just been roasted over charcoal.

"Damn! Are you really this powerful?!"

Neo began to curse loudly as he scrambled back to his feet.

In terms of realm, the man outranked him;

In terms of weaponry, the man outperformed him;

In terms of experience, the man was easily his equal;

In terms of bloodline, the giant black ape appearing behind the man clearly carried a familial heritage, much like Muri's Benda family;

Even in terms of rebellion, Neo still stubbornly claimed to be a loyal minister of Order, whereas Tolisa had long since betrayed the Church of Order for his own selfish desires, meaning Neo could not even match him in rebellious spirit.

In basically every critical metric required for comparison in battle, Neo was at a total disadvantage, leaving Karen completely bewildered as to why Neo had provoked him in the first place—was it simply because his skin was itching for a fight?

Or perhaps Neo’s psychological issues had suddenly taken a sharp turn for the worse, and he was actively seeking death?

Karen could not fathom it, so he raised his left hand, palm up, as the Key of the Rubik's Cube materialized once again; the previously interrupted deduction resumed at this moment, with Neo's erratic behavior now being factored in to supplement the data.

The battle between the two continued.

Once the initial, tentative exchanges concluded, the ensuing clash devolved into a one-sided thrashing of Neo.

Whether it was a clash of spells or close-quarters combat, Tolisa held an absolute advantage, repeatedly repelling, launching, and knocking Neo down; Neo was only keeping himself going by forcing his high-tier Bloodline of the Bloodthirsty Aberration to its limits.

However, Neo's endurance was not entirely fruitless; though he looked wretched, wounds were beginning to manifest on Tolisa's body as well.

Yet such minor injuries... Karen felt that even if left to him, they wouldn't grant him much of an advantage.

No, the truth was that Neo had never requested his entry into the fray; if Neo had wanted any cooperation, he wouldn't even need to speak—he only had to hint at it slightly during the fight to provide an opening for Karen to intervene, and Karen would have stepped in. Yet Neo seemed entirely intent on fighting this alone.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

His body clad in armor of light, Neo was struck in such rapid succession during his clash with Tolisa that he could only manage a miserable defense, unable to muster any spare strength for a counterattack.

The scene gave Karen a sense of deja vu; back on Snake Island, Neo had used this exact brand of relentless, overpowering pressure to nearly shatter Ophelia's confidence, and now it was Neo's turn to experience that very sensation.

"Damn! Why am I so weak?!"

Neo began to bark out curses.

To actually shout catchphrases while fighting; sure enough, the moment the words left his mouth, his armor of light was smashed to pieces by a sweep of Tolisa's sword, and with a vicious follow-up kick from Tolisa, Neo was once again sent flying a great distance away.

Out of habit, Tolisa paused his movements slightly, a precaution against Karen making a move.

He had been anticipating Karen's intervention all along, which was why he had diverted a significant portion of his focus to remain on guard while fighting Neo; this was also one of the primary reasons Neo, despite being thoroughly outmatched, had managed to last this long without falling into a fatal trap.

The cautious Tolisa did not want to expose any vulnerabilities to Karen, opting instead for the most conservative method—akin to taming a hawk through exhaustion—to deal with Neo.

As such, Karen realized that even though he had not joined the battle, he was exerting a containing force far more effective than actually participating.

"Ptui!"

Neo spat out the sand from his mouth and slapped the side of his ear.

“Karen, I am still far too weak. This fellow has been lying stiff here for three hundred years, yet I actually still cannot defeat him!”

With that, Neo clashed with Torissa once more. After the earlier attrition, Torissa finally found an opening this time, his sword piercing straight through the left side of Neo’s chest. But he gave Neo no chance to trade wound for wound; possessing rich combat experience, he instantly conjured a terrifying fire of order, forcing back Neo who had intended to press close with the momentum, while he himself proactively retreated a short distance to reset his stance.

Neo looked down at the wound on his chest, unable to help but laugh:

“A losing bargain, Karen, do you see that? A losing bargain. In the past, I loved to play at trading wounds with others; I loved to see that look of sheer disbelief when the opponent thought they were about to kill me, only to be slain by me instead.

Now, I proactively want to trade a bit of flesh, yet after paying such a heavy price, I cannot even collect the interest. How did I become such useless trash!”

Karen seemed to understand somewhat and said, “You are just a piece of trash, didn't you know that?”

“Is that so? Why didn't you tell me sooner?”

“For fear of hurting your self-esteem.”

“Haha, are you always this considerate?”

“Indeed. Look at you—birth, conditions, talent, opportunity—which of these can you compare with me? The only thing you have over me is that you are slightly older.”

“You are ruthless, damn it!”

The next round of confrontation began again, and this time, Neo’s injuries were even more wretched

Neo smiled.

Karen spoke up:

"Let me offer you an explanation. From the very moment you first told me about your shortcut, I was certain that your path was entirely wrong, that it could never yield any results.

So I have always been deeply curious: though your upward momentum through the realms of cultivation ground to a halt, why did your realm and actual strength indeed improve so significantly?

This sand pool is, in fact, nothing more than a vessel for an illusion.

You killed Compaccini, but you also fell victim to the dying illusion he cast. He wove a beautiful dream for you.

All your insights and the rapid elevation of your realm did not occur because your method was working. Rather, Compaccini was merely playing with you inside the illusion, granting you rapid advancement, then severing your progress, making you rejoice, making you grieve, driving you to depression, and plunging you into distress.

Now, look back once more and think: why did you suddenly come up with such an absurd method to quickly elevate yourself right after killing Compaccini?

Did you truly think of it yourself, or did 'someone' plant the suggestion in your mind?

All of this is its retribution. This is the vengeance of Compaccini."

Horror and despair flooded Torisa's eyes, his body trembling violently.

"In the midst of its retribution,

Torisa, you imprisoned and slaughtered the companions who had always trusted and followed you, the very ones who journeyed with you to kill Compaccini and the Desert Priests. You trapped yourself and them here, enduring three hundred years in a bitter prison, weathering three hundred years of torment and suffering.

All for the sake of this one, ridiculous dream."