Tower of Heaven

Harin was the name of the woman who showed Atlas the meaning of love and compassion.

Telaris was the name of the man who showed him brotherhood and camaraderie.

Those were the very first two people in the life he used to lead who showed him kindness in a world that was otherwise dark.

After he lost the village folk, their faces became a blur in his mind. He could never separate them from the scene of their corpses, so his mind chose such a solution to cope.

These two…

For these two it was the same. For all of those he saw after them, it was the same.

Over the ten thousand years of life he’d led, he’d met countless friends and made countless genuine connections, but there weren’t many times when he was able to repay those people for what they did for him.

And, there was an embarrassing number of times when he’d failed them completely.

Atlas was dragged down by ten thousand years of pain, ten thousand years of memories he chose to forget.

He was confronted with the faces of all of those people he couldn’t save, and they all asked him the same question.

"Why didn’t you come for us?"

Why did he choose to delve into the deepest depths of the underworld for Artemia and Horus when he’d only known them for a few years?

Why did he never have such thoughts for them? Why did he never move for them?

"WHY?!"

Atlas clutched his head and desperately tried to steady himself. At this time, he wanted [Perfect Adaptability] to activate more than he ever did before, but it didn’t move once.

He allowed that stellar blue energy to act. He allowed that stellar blue energy to surpass everything else and connect him to the spirits around him.

What he was experiencing now…

Was it his punishment, or was it his reward?

Whatever the case, Atlas felt like he was dying. His head was being torn apart. Four different scenes were displayed at the same time. His consciousness was split between them as he experienced multiple tragedies together.

He was forced to expand the capability of his mind. If he hadn’t done so, he would’ve been torn apart.

On one hand, he was suffering severely. Every time he was reminded of these past memories, his heart was crushed by the pain he experienced in those moments.

However, he almost started to view it as something he deserved.

He realized that these spirits weren’t just illusions. Perhaps they weren’t truly the people he used to know, but they were undoubtedly wandering souls that had been attracted to his life aura. They were feeding on his memories and trying to ground themselves to gain back a semblance of ego.

Atlas almost felt like it was his duty to endure this torment.

They were not wrong.

No matter what the reason, no matter what the cause, he had failed them in the past. Regardless of whether their souls were present or not, he wanted to answer their cries.

He wanted to remember them once more so they would never again be left in a land of nothingness, forgotten by the world.

It was fine if he was the only one who ever remembered them again, because as long as his own Legend became something inviolable, they would be immortalized as well.

An energy started circulating through Atlas’ soul body. It was the energy of a technique he had only used a single time.

The Spirit-Severing Art activated on its own. The torture of these wandering souls acted as blades to his own. They tore him apart, however, as the threads of the art held his soul together, he was sewn together stronger.

Slowly, he got accustomed to the endless cycle he’d been entrapped in. He started to feel like it was the only way reality should have ever been.

His mind was strong enough to bear the weight of the torture, but the exhaustion and delirium were different stories altogether.

He didn’t even realize that he was still stumbling through Purgatory. He was completely enraptured by the world that had been created in his mind.

However, he was certainly in Purgatory, and he had been wandering for a much longer time than he knew.

In front of his hazy eyes that could not see the world around him, a door of light appeared.

He fell through it and arrived in the presence of yet another afterlife, but…

It was a bit different this time. The space that Anubis inhabited was enclosed by defined borders. This place had nothing of the sort.

He appeared on the banks of a great river. It was wide enough to create an uncrossable natural border and filled with torrents of icy waves that would leave any living soul dead before they reached the other side.

Beyond the river was a bridge thatched with glittering gold, a pathway for the dead to reach the gates that separated them from the afterlife.

It was a journey that the dead made on their way to a new life in this place, but for the living…

The living were completely barred from entry. Only a few had ever seen what lay inside, and all of them were only able to enter through subterfuge and trickery.

Atlas…

If Atlas had been conscious, the journey to those gates would have been a difficult one. He would have been forced to find a way over the river and through the gates without being caught.

His current state was currently very similar to that of a wandering soul. Moreover, as he continued to interact with the spirits he fostered, his own life aura was being naturally suppressed.

In a trance-like state, he found a path over the river and walked across the great bridge along with the other souls of the world. He reached those gates eventually. He would have marveled at their towering form if he was conscious, but his mind had still not entered this realm.

Atlas was currently in limbo. He was halfway in Purgatory as his mind tried to deal with the aftereffects of his prolonged stay there, but he was also halfway in this afterlife.

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Those souls couldn’t enter this place with him if he were the only one summoned.

Now, the only demons he was fighting were his own.

On the outside, he looked enough like a passed soul that no one would bat an eye at him. However, his insides were too filled with vitality for those who guarded the gates of Hel to not notice.

The moment he was close enough to the gates, they locked onto his presence and awaited the moment they’d have to banish him from the realm.

They actually wanted a problem to arise, since nothing interesting ever happened at these gates.

Sadly, they were bound to be disappointed.

[Hahaha…]

A chuckle resounded in the ears of the gatekeepers.

[Let that one in.]

A command came down from an authority they couldn’t ignore.

Atlas had been called into an Underworld that was expecting his presence.

Though, when compared to his experience with Anubis…

The kind of connection he had here was not remotely the same.

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