"It would probably take about fifty to sixty percent of my stockpile..."
'That's an awful lot!'
To others, sixty percent might have seemed like a reasonable amount of power--perhaps not even plenty enough--to wreak this level of havoc, but...
'Neron has the highest pool of Mana I've ever seen! It far exceeds anything in the level of common sense.'
For someone to deal the same level of damage as what would require sixty percent... I was honestly frightened.
"Of course, that's because the process is complicated. If it's just blowing stuff into buts, then it shouldn't take that long. The problem is..." Neron gazed all around him.
"... This place seemed to have been blown to bits, so it's most likely the work of an explosion."
But, an explosion that could get rid of the Souls and Bodies of the target--especially on this scale--had to take a vast amount of energy.
"The device you built, Jared... I checked the specs. It could have been capable of something like this, right?"
"Ah, yes."
I made sure not to use that function, though. It would have been a waste to let all the Demon souls perish, rather than just absorbing them.
"But, that's only because of The Sun Arcana. That's why I think it has to be the work of one."
"Not necessarily. Arcanas didn't come from the gods, you know? They were made by people. If people made them, it also goes without saying that they are capable of performing something to that effect."
Neron's reply shook me, but I had to admit that he was correct.
"We shouldn't make any assumptions. That'll only cause us to arrive at the wrong conclusions. I understand that you're agitated and shaken currently, Jared. I'll be your voice of reason here."
"T-thanks..."
Neron closed his eyes and inhaled, taking in the atmosphere--or probably extending his sensory function.
"There's a survivor."
"What?" His sudden voice shocked me.
"Over there. There's a survivor." Neron pointed in a particular direction.
>VWOOOOOOOSSSSSSHHHHH<
Serah raced there, and in an instant, she returned with someone in her hands.
"Y-you are--?!" I was surprised to see the boy.
It was Asa, the son of Beast King Gerard.
"Y-you guys... you came... you came...?" The boy sobbed, staring at us with his wide blue eyes.
His blue hair fluttered slightly, and his body didn't stop trembling.
'He's the kid I healed of Mana Burst.' I watched as he kept crying.
How could I not have sensed him? No, wait, I couldn't sense him that time in the bath too.
'Becoming one with the elements... that's what he said, right? Is that how he survived?'
"Tell me what happened here, Asa!" I swiftly approached the boy, desperate to know the truth.
"That's enough, Jared." Neron sighed.
"The boy just went through a traumatic experience. Everyone and everything he knows has vanished, and they're probably never coming back. This level of extensive damage--that killed both body and soul--is probably too much for my Time Magic to restore."
I stopped and reasoned with Neron's words.
"Even your Hanged Man requires at least one element--body or soul--so there's no way to revive them now."
I understood what he was saying.
"It's best we leave him be. Maybe have him rest... he looks exhausted." Neron sighed.
"I-I did my best... I hid like you wanted, father... I--I... I did good, right? I did...."
"Yeah, you did well." Serah soothed him with her hands as she carried him.
The boy cried some more as he hugged the Grand Mage. To be honest, my heart bled for him... for his people.
But, that made me all the more determined to know what the heck happened.
'It's the Nether Cult. It has to be! They struck again... I wasn't expecting it to be this fast!'
"... Hic... hic... B-but... even though I hid. Even though I became one with the Elements... he still... he still found me! That man still found me!"
'What man?!'
Asa was dropping clues, and I couldn't let this chance go to waste.
"What man are you talking about, Asa?" I asked, my eyes widened.
I could feel many disapproving stares greeting me, but I didn't care.
Everything was counting on me, so I had to know more to handle the situation. The last time, I lost because of the lack of enough information.
There was no way I could lose again! Not to Legris Damien or anyone!
'I thought that, yet... they got me again.' The frustration I was feeling, added to the need for more knowledge, caused me to ask with ferocity.
"I... I... I couldn't see it clearly. I just... hicc... hicc..."
Asa broke down further, making the situation grow from bad to worse.
"Just go to sleep. Rest now." Serah placed her hand on Asa's head, causing him to cease his cries.
His eyes slowly closed, and before long he had drifted off to sleep.
"...."
There was silence for a whole, and we all stared hard at each other, alone in the vast wasteland and trapped in a mystery that couldn't be solved.
"You realize that even if he wakes, there's a chance that he won't be able to accurately answer your question," Neron said calmly.
I shook my head, refusing to believe that our only hint would be useless.
"She could use her Magic to probe into his head." I looked in Ciara's direction.
"H-hey, it doesn't work that way!" Ciara was most likely making excuses again.
"There's a limit a child of that age can retain in his memory. Besides, the mind naturally rejects pain, so he may unconsciously forget a lot of the details." Neron added.
Everyone around me was making sense. I knew that much. But, why didn't they understand...
'We can't fight what we don't understand. If we do... we'll lose!'
"There's also the possibility he won't be able to help, even though he saw the man. What do you expect him to say? That he saw the man use 'this' or 'that' kind of Magic? He's still a kid. His perception is probably going to differ from what you'd construe as useful." Neron touched my shoulder and gave me a soft smile.
"We should just do what we can do on our end. Don't despair, Jared... I've got this."
"Uh?" I looked at Neron with a dumbfounded expression.
"The energy I'm feeling here is different from what I'm used to, so that's why I was a bit hesitant at first... but I want to try something."
'Try something? What is he talking about?'
"You know about my [Timeless World], right? Well, I've combined that with [Reversal]. I've created a new Spell."
My eye widened slowly, finally grasping what Neron was implying.
"I'll be inserting myself into the stream of time and I'll see what exactly happened here in the past."
"W-what--?!"
When did Neron achieve that level? If he could do something like this, then it was possible to...
"I call it [Time Immersion]"
