Beatdown!

In the ocean's depths, facing a hopeless situation, Neo had eaten Mr. Philias's corpse in order to survive. This directly resulted in Neo and "Mr. Philias" staging a protracted love-hate struggle within the same body for a long time afterward. This "battle" dragged on until after Dark Moon Island, where it finally reached a resolution—as the giant beast Dorons carried those true believers of the Light on their long journey once more... Neo had returned to himself. Although Karen had always harbored doubts—and he believed Neo himself did too—as to who had truly won or lost that duel, and who was its real victor. Yet on the surface at least, Neo was "alone" now. Still, some bonds could not be severed simply because one wished to. They were not mere ropes that ceased to exist once cast off to the ground; when one first began to struggle against them, they would only bind tighter and dig deeper. A true bond was not the rope, but the welt it left on your flesh. And so, this had little to do with the notion of "you are what you eat." The most direct example was Karen himself: he possessed even more inheritance systems, yet he had never eaten a human—well, he had only eaten an egg once. Karen opened his hand. Qianmei surged forth, sweeping up the Sword of Arius and delivering it into Karen's grasp. At the same time, its skeletal frame was filled by the chains of Order, wrapping around Karen's arm and coiling onto the hilt. In the previous clash, the Sword of Arius hadn't been of much use because Neo's fighting style made Karen deeply uncomfortable, forcing him to abandon the blade time and again. Thus, Karen chose to bind himself to the Sword of Arius this way, while slowly calming his emotions and adjusting his state. In the brutal fight that might erupt next, he could no longer afford to hold back. It was visible to the naked eye that Neo, having obtained the bloodline inheritance of the Mad Pope, would receive an even greater boost in power. Yet for now, Karen could only wait and do nothing. Such an opportunity was rare; if Neo missed this chance, he might never get another. Suffice it to say, if their roles were reversed, he believed the captain would also have chosen to wait for him. Bickering aside, there was no denying that their bond was solid. Karen began readjusting the Sea God's Armor to cover a larger area. While this would naturally decrease its original defense, expanding the protected area would give Karen more breathing room to react calmly. What Neo excelled at most was seizing on a single setback or sign of weakness, continually stretching and amplifying that tiny advantage until victory was sealed—just as he had "bullied" Ophelia back then, battering her until her will broke entirely. Layers of icy mist swirled over the Sea God's Armor, ready to shift forms at any moment to reinforce specific areas. The Eyes of the Dark Moon gleamed in Karen's eyes, and the Sword of Arius turned crimson once more. Having readjusted everything, Karen looked up at Neo once again. The shadowy phantom of the Pope behind Neo was steadily stabilizing and solidifying. The two were remarkably similar in temperament—both thoroughly mad. A faint smile crept onto Karen's lips. Could this be the legendary "two crazies make a right"? Perhaps not even Mr. Philias himself had managed to awaken the bloodline inheritance of his ancestor, the Mad Pope? So it came back to the argument of who was whose true direct descendant. But the captain didn't seem to need to fret over it, as Karen had already provided him with a precedent. Karen wiped the corner of his eye with the back of his hand and took a deep breath. Neo's rigid body regained movement. The shield, greatsword, and armor on his person began to dissipate, while the phantom of the Mad Pope behind him grew ever more solid. Gradually, a tattered greatsword appeared in Neo's hand, his hair drifted wildly, and a battered suit of armor exuding an aura of despair and dread materialized over his body. The gear was broken, but far more powerful. His eyes were no longer filled with pure, overt madness—at least it didn't look as violent. Yet it had merely shifted from crashing tidal waves to bubbling pockets bursting from churning magma; at its core, it had only grown denser. "Roar!" Letting out a roar, Neo charged toward Karen. This meant Karen's wait was over, and the fight was on again. And this time, Karen did not back down; he charged straight forward. As the two drew close, Neo and Karen moved almost in unison—a quick sidestep, sweeping their greatswords outward. Bang! From the clash, Karen's wrist, arm, and every muscle in his body began to tremble, a numb soreness shooting straight into his central nervous system. Yet there was no time to pause for breath. As Neo brought his sword down in another vertical cleave, Karen held the Sword of Arius horizontally, forcibly blocking the blow, before eight chains of Order instantly erupted beneath his feet to bind Neo. However, the chains of Order Karen summoned this time immediately began to burn, dissolving into nothing before they could even touch Neo's body. Neo's speed increased further, another slash coming down, and Karen parried again. Icicles materialized all around, shooting furiously toward Neo. Neo's speed surged yet again, hacking three times in rapid succession. Karen was forced backward as he parried, the distance between them shifting dramatically, and the icicles he had summoned missed entirely. "Roar!" Neo's speed actually notched up another level, his slashing blade blurring into afterimages. Suffocated by the crushing pressure, Karen had no spare energy left to alter the tide with spells—the slightest lapse in concentration would breach his guard. Every parry brought excruciating agony to Karen's body, but he could only grit his teeth and endure blow after blow. However, after Neo accelerated once more, Karen couldn't bring his blade up in time, and Neo's sword struck Karen squarely in the chest. The Sea God's Armor froze solid across that area in an instant. Bang! Karen was sent flying by the brutal impact. This was no longer a contest of combat experience, depth of power, or spellcraft. Once again, the captain had forcibly reduced the battle to pure brute simplicity. All along, the Sea God's Armor and Dark Moon Blade had been Karen's pride, but once their advantages in high defense and high offense were negated, their limitations were laid bare. For Neo's assault was palpably fiercer than his own, and as for defense... possessing the bloodline of a bloodthirsty aberrant demon, Neo's damage tolerance was leagues above Karen's. After all, Karen's own physical constitution was merely that of an ordinary mortal. But how did the captain manage to increase his speed again and again? Crashing heavily to the ground, a Gate of Samsara appeared before Karen—a life-saving measure, as he feared the captain might seize this opening to finish him off. Yet the anticipated shatter of the gate never came. When Karen clutched his chest and got back to his feet, what he saw was the captain standing there, panting heavily. Damn it, he's finally exhausted! This was no bluff, for Neo had had every opportunity to end the fight earlier. Forcing down the intense numbness wracking his body, Karen raised the Sword of Arius once more and charged proactively! Neo watched Karen charge in and raised his greatsword again. As Karen brought down his blade, Neo parried. Karen pushed the power of the Eyes of the Dark Moon to its limit, even channeling the strength within his body to reinforce them. One benefit of ordering his energy was that all other elemental powers within his body had assumed the form of Order; conversely, his inner power of Order could reinforce other elemental powers without any friction. Previously, Karen converted through Light magic, which could only be called a "translation" between equal levels of power. Now, by compressing his interior, he could elevate his external release. After a series of violent clashes between their greatswords, Karen's speed increased! After several more collisions, Karen's speed accelerated yet again! Neo began to lose ground, his body retreating continuously. Against Karen's increasingly ferocious onslaught, Neo's parries grew strained. Buzz! Karen's muscles trembled violently, and his speed notched up yet another level. This exchange was practically a mirror of the previous round, with their roles reversed. Real combat was forever the finest path to growth. Coupled with the defining trait of the Inmeles family's faith system... learning. Karen hadn't understood earlier where Neo's repeated bursts of speed came from. Now, he figured it out: relentlessly wringing out a single type of power within one's body—he could do that too! The reinforcement on the Dark Moon Blade had reached an exaggerated extreme; Karen's slashing sword also blurred into afterimages. Finally, Neo could parry no longer, but as he retreated, a blazing ring of holy fire appeared behind him. Karen ignored the ring of fire entirely, crashing straight through it and letting the flames of Light scorch his flesh and soul while remaining wholly focused on close-quarters combat. Bang! The greatsword in Neo's hand shattered and vanished. Karen's sword slashed across Neo's chest, tearing open a massive wound and sending him hurtling backward. Without a moment's hesitation, Karen pushed his body to its absolute limit for one final burst of speed. Neo had not even hit the ground before Karen was already waiting for him at the spot where he would land. At that moment, long black claws sprouted from the ten fingers of Neo's hands, imbued with terrifying corruption. As their bodies crossed, Neo raked his claws down Karen's arms, leaving ten black wounds. Karen paid them no heed at all. He raised the Sword of Arius and drove it down! Squelch! Neo's chest was skewered clean through by the Sword of Arius, pinning him to the ground. Karen yanked out the Sword of Arius and stabbed it into Neo's chest once more! Yanked it out, stabbed down again! Yanked out, stabbed down! Wisps of colorful mist drifted out from Neo's body. Being battered into the dirt, beaten senseless, was just like a bucket of ice water dumped over his head—time to wake up. Just as Karen raised his sword to strike again, Neo abruptly blurted out, "Stop!" Karen's sword still plunged down, but buried itself to the right of Neo's head. Karen dropped to one knee, pressing a palm against his chest. Using the power of Light, he drew out the flames of Light burning within his body and tossed them aside; the patch of ground instantly flared into flames. "Cough, cough..." Karen began to cough, black blood oozing from the corner of his mouth as the corruption of the bloodthirsty aberrant demon began to seep through his body. Spitting mouthful after mouthful of blood, the blackness on his arm wounds began to recede, yet his face steadily paled. True, his body possessed an extraordinary resistance to corruption, but expelling toxins came at a cost; it didn't mean he could eat corruption like candy. The Sword of Arius toppled over. Karen propped himself up with both hands against the ground, every muscle and bone twitching violently. The sensation where the slightest movement felt like needles piercing his entire body would have made an ordinary person pass out long ago. But passing out right now would have been a luxury, and sadly, Karen had no such luck. "Hehehe..." A string of low chuckles came from Neo's throat. Only after quite a while did he manage coherent words: "You're ruthless... My chest is shredded. Seriously, you should be gentler." Gritting his teeth, Karen replied, "Not driving it through your skull was already my greatest gentleness." Neo turned his head to look at Karen kneeling beside him. Seeing him in such a miserable state, Neo grinned: "Even against me in that state, you got trashed this badly? You're utterly useless." "Don't worry. Based on those words alone, if this ever happens again, I won't have the slightest qualm about killing you outright." "I was only making a good-natured joke to lighten the mood." "Next time, I'll say the exact same thing in front of your grave." "Still, how did it end up like this? Seriously, I thought you'd pummel me right from the start. You should have easily beaten me down, seeing as I intentionally depleted most of my spiritual energy before I lost control." "You underestimated your own potential, Neo. You're a very gifted child." "Hehehe... cough, cough..." Neo laughed. "You really went out of your way, phrasing it like that on purpose just so I wouldn't turn on the light." "Congratulations." "Congratulations for what?" "You don't remember at all?" "If I were lucid back then, why would I fight you?" "Really?" "Would I do something so pointless? Faking madness while lucid?" "You did exactly that on Snake Island." Neo: "..." "So I strongly suspect you were already lucid just now." "Back then, I was trying to set you up with Ophelia! I was helping you! And why is your memory so damn good?" Karen raised his palm, feigning doubt. "Could you be faking your current state under the guise of madness?" Neo replied, "You're being too obvious." "Heh." Karen lowered his hand. He had seen the colorful mist drift out of Neo earlier, which proved that this time Neo hadn't been faking. "Congratulations for what? You still haven't told me." "You just awakened the Mad Pope's bloodline." "I awakened... the Mad Pope's bloodline? What does that mean?" "You can think of it as a family faith system." "Ha... I follow the religion's faith system. How could a family faith system emerge?" "I have one." Neo opened his mouth, momentarily at a loss for words. After a long while, he asked, "Even if I admit eating Philias caused some physical changes, my soul is still my own. Can a bloodline awaken like that too?" "It can." "I don't believe it." "I'm living proof." Neo: "..." "I suspect the last Mad Pope stripped his faith from the church's system and turned it into a family faith system. He wanted his will to be passed down." "In Philias's memories, I never found any record of his kin awakening a family faith system." "This sort of family faith system is exceedingly hard to inherit. Unlike families whose faith systems activate purely through bloodline, it's quite normal for it to stay dormant across many generations, only to suddenly awaken in someone after several eras." "Yours too?" "Yes, mine too. The prerequisite for an awakener in my family's faith system is likely... that he must be a genius." "Then won't it be nearly impossible to pass down?" "Yeah. My grandfather originally designed it for me alone." "How nice. Your grandfather really loved you." "He did." "Then what about me?" Neo asked, puzzled. "How did I awaken it?" "My grandfather and I are very alike—both geniuses. As for you and that Mad Pope..." Neo blinked. "Because we're both batshit crazy?" "Presumably, yes." "Good grief. You can't inherit his bloodline unless you're a lunatic?" "Inhaling that gas probably catalyzed a certain reaction, ultimately bringing about the fusion. In short, you made a profit." "Fine, that makes me feel a lot better about being bedridden while nursing my wounds." Karen slowly stood up and began helping Neo to his feet. "Ow, ow, ow! Be careful, don't shake me to pieces." "You're fine. This part is still held together by bone and sinew. Very resilient." Karen helped Neo into his secondhand black Ponce, watching as Neo dirtied the back seat. "What are you staring at? I'll pay for the car wash, alright?" Neo said, exasperated. "Squad Leader, how about you send my car in for modifications? You can front the point coupons for now since I don't have any on hand. I'll pay you back once I return from my mission." "Heh," Neo scoffed. "You sure are pragmatic." Karen slid into the driver's seat and pulled the seatbelt over himself. "So why did they strip their faith systems away from the church?" Neo asked curiously. "It's like disagreeing with the mainstream view; they chose to reserve their own opinion." "A profound answer." As Karen started the car, he asked, "Captain, what was your first method?" "It's all over. Why ask about that now?" "Everything hurts. Just looking for conversation to distract myself." "The first method was for you to take the initiative to channel it. I would transfer the mist to you, and then I'd beat the crap out of you." Karen froze. Neo continued, "You were right—you definitely would have refused the first method. So whether I mentioned it or not made no difference." Karen let out a sigh. "Captain." "Address me as Squad Leader." "Alright, Neo." "What do you want to say?" "Next time, stick to your guns and say whatever you have to say."