“How long…?”

These words reverberated in the deep.

“How long have you been waiting here?” As these words escaped Legris’ charred lips, he gazed at the one before him.

“Answer me… Neron.”

Neron stood before Legris, both of them in the dark.

As Legris sat on this gnarled throne, he trembled. His eyes flickered, and his teeth were clenched.

This was perhaps due to his rage… or fear—perhaps both.

“Time doesn’t particularly exist here. It’s a concept foreign to your Limbo…”

Neron wasn’t wrong.

This was precisely why Legris had managed to evade Neron and his seemingly invincible power throughout their conflict with each other.

Neron could not truly kill Legris… at least, not until he finally found this place.

“I’m not afraid of you.” Legris spoke up, but his expression betrayed those words.

Being in the presence of the Singularity, despite being in his domain, made Legris lose any semblance of confidence.

His dropping shoulders and twitching eyes made that perfectly evident.

“I don’t believe you.”

As Neron said those words, he took another step forward.

“After going through all we have—lying, betraying, and killing so many times—here we are once again.” As he said this, Neron had a genuinely sad expression on his face.

The way he gazed upon Legris almost seemed distant—as if he was looking at something long gone.

“In the end, you couldn’t do it. You couldn’t obtain the ultimate power and knowledge that you sought. You couldn’t fulfill your dream.”

These words echoed in the void, and Legris clenched his teeth even tighter.

“So what? What now? Is that why you’re here? To mock me all day long?”

“No. I suppose I just wanted to have one final conversation with you… before it’s all over.”

Neron’s tone was calm, but embers of emotion could be seen from within it.

“We go a long way back, don’t we? From the forgotten wo—”

“Don’t talk to me about that! You won back then! Is that what you want to hear? You denied me my right! And even now… now you come back to haunt me!”

Legris was shouting now, but Neron kept up his calm gaze.

“You’re wrong, Legris. Back then… I lost too. I lost everything.” As Neron fell into melancholy, he stared at his old friend, turned enemy.

So much had changed between them.

“That’s why I had to start all over.”

“Hehe… so that’s what this is? The fruits of your labor are finally manifesting, huh?” Legris muttered in bitterness.

“All of this… Jared, my defeat… it was all part of your master plan, huh?”

As Legris said this, he chuckled even more—his bitterness oozing through every sound he made.

He had always wondered where Neron was throughout the entire conflict, but he now understood everything perfectly.

While everyone was moving according to his grand plan, Neron was busy locating his Limbo.

And now… the jig was up.

“You played me, just like you played everyone. It was your plan all alo—”

“No, you’re wrong.” Neron interrupted Legris, causing the wretched one to recoil in surprise.

“I indeed reset the timeline and made some alterations that made your defeat optimal. However… I wasn’t in control of most of the events that happened.”

Legris’ eyes slowly began to widen further, almost causing his eyeballs to leave their sockets.

“Ciara’s placement… Aloe’s identity… all of those things… I set them in motion.”

“T-then—!”

“But there’s only so much I can do. There’s only so far I can go…” A tinge of sadness echoed through Neron’s words as he let them out.

“In the end, I had to trust others. I had to rely on my allies… my friends… to win.”

Legris could not believe his ears.

“I trusted Jared… and he delivered. That is why you lost.”

“Liar!” Legris yelled in denial.

“I’m not lying. It’s all true.”

“I don’t believe you!” Once again shouting at the top of his lungs, Legris finally jumped from his throne.

He stood upright, his gaze filled with unparalleled rage and immense bitterness.

“Don’t look at me like that, Legris. You’re the villain here. You’re the one who threw everyone and everything aside for your ambitions.”

Neron stepped forward, and before long, the both of them were opposite each other—mere inches apart.

“You deserve this.”

Compared to the tall and perfect persona that Neron exuded, Legris had the opposite build.

His scrawny form seemed pathetic compared to Neron, and he recognized it full well.

He was short, weak, lean beyond measure; and most of all…

… He was weak.

“Goodbye.”

Legris felt something pierce through his pathetic form, and it was none other than Neron’s hand.

He could do nothing more than gasp, and then, right as he was about to breathe his last, he smiled.

A small, crooked smile that did not connote sadness for the first time.

“Serah was right…” Legris whispered.

Neron’s expression did not change, though his blue eyes shone a bit brighter once he heard the name of his wife.

“I guess I could never win against you.”

As he said those words, Legris collapsed upon his crooked throne, his smile fading as his lips fell and his eyes shut.

He uttered his last words, as the final thing he saw was the blurred image of his old friend.

“Goodbye…”

**********

“Huu… it’s finally done.”

As Neron said this, he sat beside the gnarled throne of his old friend, Legris nowhere to be seen at all.

He was gone now—forever.

“With this, I can fulfill my end of the deal with that Old Man.” Neron chuckled, remembering a certain variant of his.

The task of extracting the Essence of Limbo and providing it to Crazy Neron as the final component he desired for his own goals…

“And now, my mission can also be achieved.”

Neron’s smile grew wider as he began to collect every aspect of the Limbo he currently occupied.

Bit by bit, the domain shrunk in size, becoming a tiny sphere that formed above Neron’s palm.

“I have successfully assimilated myself with Aether, Nether, and now… I have the component of Limbo.”

Existence and Nonexistence now hovered at his command.

“I can finally fulfill my destiny and conclude my story.” Once he was done, even the gnarled throne of his old friend was gone.

Neron simply stood in a blank vacuum.

… Just as he desired from the start.

“I will fix this world.”

lightsnοvεl *

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ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

I will be releasing a Spellcraft prequel that centers around Neron’s story.

It’ll contain details of the forgotten world and show Neron as the protagonist, concluding everything you know and don’t know about him.

Please check the book out when it comes out!

For now, let’s move on to the final parts of Jared’s story.